A woeful - and at times frankly embarrassing - first half by Otago led to the side falling to defeat against a gallant and gutsy Bay of Plenty side in Mt Maunganui last night.
Bay of Plenty won 31-20 after leading 24-0 at half-time, and fully deserved its win against an Otago side which took over half the game to wake up.
The visiting side came back into the game in the second half, getting to within four points of its opponent.
But just as it needed to go for the kill, the sloppy errors, which are sadly becoming all too frequent, came back to haunt the side, and it never fired a shot in the final 15min of the match.
It would have been rough justice for the home side if it had lost, for it showed great urgency in the first 40min and had enough composure when under pressure in the second half.
Otago just made too many errors, especially in the opening stanza, when it was facing a strong wind.
The passing was ordinary and the backs did not seem to have any pace about them.
A lack of depth in the backline did not help.
The side needed to take it up around the ruck and maul and then keep plugging the blindside in the first half, but its game plan book looked empty.
Halfback Toby Morland and first five-eighth Chris Noakes were just not on the same page. In the first half, they were reading completely different scripts, and Morland's passing was inaccurate throughout the match.
The key men for Bay of Plenty, No 8 Colin Bourke, halfback Jamie Nutbrown - who was playing his last game for his side before leaving for Wales - and first five-eighth Mike Delany, all brought their full array of tricks to the party, and won the game for their side.
Up front the Otago scrum got shakier the further the match went on, while Bay of Plenty captain and flanker Tanerau Latimer had a free reign at the breakdown.
Bringing on Eben Joubert helped Otago at the breakdown no end in the second half.
Turning 24-0 down, Otago got back into the game quickly in the second half, with lock Tom Donnelly going over after 3min and that was followed shortly after by skipper Craig Newby, taking advantage of some poor blindside defence to canter over.
Noakes converted the two tries, and then hoofed over a 53m penalty kick, landing it right on the cross bar for it to bounce over.
He then knocked over a simple penalty kick halfway through the second half, to get the Otago side back within four points.
Why Bourke was not yellow carded for the offence which gave Noakes his second penalty remains a mystery.
How can running back into the Otago backline when the defence is hopelessly outnumbered be anything but a professional foul?
Otago had to take the lead then, but it mucked up the kick-off, which was a trait all night, and shortly afterwards Delany burrowed over after his forwards had attacked through drives close to the line.
In the first half, there was only one side in it and the half-time hooter could not come quickly enough for Otago.
Latimer scored after 6min, taking advantage of soft defence on the blindside, after a couple of passes among the home team forwards.
Bay of Plenty increased its lead after 26min when, after a spell of pressure on the Otago line, Nutbrown took a quick tap and passed to big lock Culum Retallick, who spied a gap and carried three Otago defenders over the goal line.
His effort was quickly followed by Delany, who ran through a couple of weak Otago tackles in his own half, off-loaded to Bourke, who linked to Nutbrown, who went in under the posts.
It would be hard to name anyone who could hold their head high for the Otago side after this performance, although winger Ben Smith tried hard.
The Otago lineout was solid, but at crucial times made errors.
That was the story of the night.
• Bay of Plenty 31 (Tanerau Latimer, Culum Retallick, Jamie Nutbrown, Mike Delany tries, Delany penalty goal, 4 conversions), Otago 20 (Tom Donnelly, Craig Newby tries, Chris Noakes 2 penalty goals, 2 conversions). Half-time: 24-0. Crowd: About 13,000.
In last night's other game, high-flyer Wellington roared home to finally shake off Manawatu 36-13 in Palmerston North, NZPA reported.
It was a flattering scoreline for the competition leader, which nevertheless was slick enough to pick up its sixth bonus-point win from six outings against an opponent which tired in the closing quarter.
That was when Wellington scored four of its six tries, breaking down a Manawatu defence that had been dogged in the face of a massive territorial deficit.
• Wellington 36 (Thomas Waldrom, Hosea Gear, Tu Umaga-Marshall, Ross Filipo, Cory Jane, Jeremy Thrush tries; Fa'atonu Fili 3 conversions), Manawatu 13 (Kurt Baker try; Matty James 2 penalty goals, Isaac Thompson conversion). Half-time: 5-6.
