"The breeze was behind us, plus we've got the bench that can come in with impact players who can make a difference."
Among those players on Saturday was Chiefs prop Siegfried Fisiihoi and young hooker Raniera Whakataka, both of whom were influential in the second half.
While all the points in the first half came from the Mount, it was the Rotoiti defensive performance that kept the visitors within touching distance.
"The Mount are a good team - they played solid in the first half. They kept pinning us down and kicking their goals," said Francis.
What they couldn't do, though, until the final minute of the half, was break the Rotoiti line.
At least three times desperate tryline defence prevented Mount players from scoring when tries seemed almost inevitable. Lock Stevie Coffin put in some huge hits and the collective defence held on to prevent lock Logan Gies, openside flanker Josh Tye and second five-eighth Marnus Hanley from scoring.
After all the goal line effort it seemed a cruel twist of fate that saw Carroll pounce to intercept and run half the length of the pitch right on halftime.
Siegfried Fisiihoi and Whakataka were brought on at the break.
"We could see in the first half they were starting to tire in the set-piece, especially the scrum. Our scrum was really huge in the second half. At the set-piece, when your scrum is pushing like that, it's psychological. It just gives you that little bit more belief that you can finish the game off," said Francis.
The comeback started when halfback Te Ra Whata scored on the blindside after a scrum.
Rotoiti used the breeze to good effect to keep the visitors in their own half and field position and scrum domination was capitalised on when Whata fed Whakataki Cunningham who gave a neat inside pass to fullback Sam Nathan who scored Rotoiti's second try, which was converted. Simmering tensions boiled over after the score with a scuffle that brought just a talking to for both captains from referee Sam Fellows.
Rotoiti's scrum superiority kept them camped close to the Mount's line, with the visitors' rarely able to clear their lines and even when they did, they found it difficult to repel the irrepressible home side.
Something had to give and after Whata had made a break in midfield to once again set up good field position, it was Whakataka who crashed over on the left in what proved to be the final play of the game.
"When you are four points adrift with 10 minutes to go - the boys dug deep," said Francis.
"It's the Rotoiti spirit - we're undefeated at home and the ground, with all the whanau here, is fantastic. It was a 1 to 22 performance. We've been working on a team game for a long time and they all worked as a team."
Rotoiti are now on a four-game winning streak, having beaten Paroa in a midweek game then accounting for Whakarewarewa and, in the first game of the Baywide Premier 1 competition, Tauranga Sports in Tauranga.
"The belief has come since [playing] Paroa. We've scored 22 unanswered points three games in a row - and today we scored 17, so that's four games in a row [the opposition] haven't scored in the second half. We are definitely a second-half team - they've just got to work on their first half."
While happy with the final result, Francis would have preferred for the game not to go down to the wire.
"We made a few errors. We could have been way more clinical and we could have sealed it a bit earlier, but that's all good. We don't want to peak too early."
Whakarewarewa didn't have such a good day, going down heavily away to Te Puke, and are now two losses from two games in the Baywide Premier 1 division.
Results
Baywide Premier 1: Te Puke Sports 53 v Whakarewarewa 17, Te Puna 43 v Tauranga Sports 37, Rotoiti 17 v Mount Maunganui 16, Rangataua 24 v Greerton Marist 24.
Baywide Premier 1 Development: Te Puke 87 v Whakarewarewa 5, Te Puna 19 v Tauranga Sports 12, Rotoiti 38 v Mount Maunganui 14, Rangataua 38 v Greerton Marist 19.
Baywide Premier 2: Paroa 43 v Marist St Michael's 15, Arataki 39 v Ngongotaha 19, Poroporo 24 v Waikite 19, Whakatane Marist 33 v Opotiki 25.
Baywide Premier 2 Development: Paroa 36 v Marist St Michael's 5, Arataki v Ngongotaha - no result received, Poroporo 32 v Waikite 32, Whakatane Marist 30 v Opotiki 29.
Baywide Division 1: Kahukura 28 v Judea 17, Papamoa 36 v Katikati 13, Waimana 41 v Rangiuru 5, Te Teko 23 v Ruatoki 22.
