League: Pikiao pack more punch

Pikiao Warriors have shored up their place at the top of the Bay of Plenty district rugby league table with a 36-22 win over Tauranga Whalers at Puketawhero Park.

The Rotorua team share the lead with Otumoetai Eels, who grabbed their winner's points from their bye at the weekend.

Although the scoreline would suggest the Warriors had a relatively easy win, the Whalers will be ruing the fact they didn't bring an extra match ball. The game was played with only one ball, which helped a tired Warriors side from succumbing to a rejuvenated Whalers side late in the second spell.

From the start, Pikiao appeared to pack more punch up front, constantly using the likes of Ivor Thomas and captain Jason Kameta to draw in the defence and make room for young Connor Hohepa to set his backline on fire.

Pikiao's first of six converted tries came from one such move with left wing Manaaki O'Brien being given enough space out wide to sprint 50m and score between the posts.

However, Pikiao were guilty at times of not moving up on defence and giving Tauranga the opportunity to make it past the gain line and eventually gave Whalers' half Floy Te Kani the opportunity to burrow over in front of the post for an easy converted try.

Pikiao's response was quick, with Hohepa scoring the first of his two tries when he busted through the Whalers defence after some sustained pressure. Stand-off Pirikawana Taiatini had the ball on a string, nailing all six conversions for Pikiao.

The home side backed up Hohepa's try up with one from Andrew Gardiner before Tauranga responded with an intercept try from player-coach Paul Pou, who sprinted 40m to score the first of his two tries. Pou was unsuccessful with the conversion.

Hohepa scored his second just before the break to take his side's lead to 24-10.

Both sides were guilty of not retaining the ball or completing their sets of six in the first half. Things improved slightly after the break although it took almost 13 minutes for the first points of the second half to be scored.

It came from hard-running forward Daniel Biddle-Hunuhunu, who was also demonic on defence.

After putting a tiring Pikiao side under pressure for several minutes, the Whalers responded with Pou's second try when he crashed over, injuring himself in the process.

It was only sheer determination on defence by Kameta which stopped Tauranga from scoring again when he held up a Whalers player over the line.

Kameta's action seemed to lift his side - they went on attack and he was rewarded for his effort with his side's final try.

The Whalers hit back with their final try to hooker Ricky Quinlan but it was too little too late.

Pikiao coach Selwyn Rikiti said he was happy to take the two points but the team had plenty to work on.

"I just think we deteriorated a little bit in the second half. We went away from our structure and started one-out sort of stuff. We will take that win but I think, if [we] had kept that form up from the first half we could have been a lot more convincing."

Pou said his side would need to step up to be competitive against Otumoetai next week.

"The only thing that really let us down was our fundamentals of the game and not sticking to the game plan."

"We'll take a lot from this game and address what we did [wrong] ... It doesn't get any easier when we have Otumoetai."

In the other games in the competition Pacific were too strong for Taupo, winning 48-26, and Central lost 28-10 to Forestland.