The Yarrows Taranaki Bulls have continued their impressive opening to the 2019 Mitre 10 Cup with a compendious 52-19 victory over Northland at Yarrow Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
For the win, Taranaki's third from as many matches, the hosts ran in eight tries which delighted the crowd of just over 3000, many of whom enjoyed the new temporary seating close to the sideline.
Home fans' enjoyment was further enhanced with the growing belief and performance of the Taranaki team and a number of the side's non-Super XV players, like Jayson Potroz, Daniel Waite and Jackson Ormond. Ormond especially had a dream game and scored a double after he replaced Kini Naholo after just 11 minutes.
But after 10 minutes of the clash, and Northland's victory in last season's clash still fresh in the mind, Taranaki looked like doing anything but winning.
The visitors started impressively, good continuity leading to a try to Ross Wright. When Taranaki did get the ball it experienced a excess of handling errors, with a Tupou Vaa'i try being ruled out.