North Otago turned underwhelming into unbelievable in the space of a week and got its Heartland Championship campaign back on track with a stunning 32-20 win over Mid Canterbury in Ashburton on Saturday.
All the talk before the game was that Mid Canterbury, stacked full of attacking talent, was odds-on to make it three from the three to start the season.
But the Old Golds — so erratic in a loss to Horowhenua-Kapiti the previous week — produced a sparkling performance to put the rest of the competition on notice.
They found the magic formula, in the space of a week, to reverse nearly all of the issues and concerns from their loss in Levin.
Smashed off the ball against Horowhenua-Kapiti, they shocked the Hammers with a relentless ferocity at the breakdown, pilfering ball and recycling possession with intensity and efficiency.
A backline that looked like a bunch of strangers — because, well, that is effectively what they are — the previous week turned into a vibrant and fluent attacking machine in Ashburton.
Handling mistakes were down, and defensive accuracy was up.
Small wonder North Otago coach Jason Forrest was a happy man after the game.
‘‘That was outstanding. I’m stoked with that,’’ Forrest said.
‘‘We don’t beat Mid Canterbury up there like that very often, so obviously we will take a massive amount of confidence from that performance.
‘‘All our young guys will now know they are capable of doing it at this level. They’ve done the hard yards and they deserved that.’’
Forrest was particularly pleased with the attitude his players showed on defence to shut down Mid Canterbury’s biggest attacking weapons.
The best player in gold was openside flanker Toni Taufa, who produced an immense effort over the ball.
North Otago’s lineout was dominant, and props Kelepi Funaki and Tristan Fuli both worked hard around the field.
Centre Hayden Todd stepped up mightily, Josh Phipps showed off his influential boot, and fullback Levi Emery relished a couple of golden opportunities to weave his magic.
Todd showed his strength to score the opening try, and the second was sheer magic as Emery led a counter-attack and a centred kick popped up for halfback Jake Matthews to score his third try of the season.
Captain Seta Koroitamana got Mid Canterbury back into the game with a try from a sharp lineout move.
But North Otago took a 24-8 lead into the break thanks to
an Alipate Tuipolotu try and some committed defence in the dying minutes.
A Phipps penalty and a Fuli try off a lineout drive made it 32-8 and the points were secure, a couple of Mid Canterbury tries merely making it seem the game was tighter than it actually was.
North Otago is back at home this Saturday to play Poverty Bay.
The only grain of concern at the weekend was the sight of fierce rival South Canterbury atop the Heartland Championship with the maximum 15 points and an extraordinary points difference of plus-151.
South Canterbury thumped King Country 72-0, while Thames Valley (30-15 over Buller) and Horowhenua-Kapiti (38-31 over East Coast) also remained unbeaten.
Poverty Bay beat West Coast 34-20, and Whanganui pipped Wairarapa-Bush 22-18.
