Bay of Plenty captain Kaisa Matautia proved an unstoppable force.
The forward had an armchair ride down the left flank and cashed in.
He bulldozed his way to the line for a brace of tries and set up another couple for his team-mates during their 38-30 win over the Otago Whalers in Rotorua yesterday.
Matautia picked out Whalers halfback Jordan McEntee-Walters as an easier target and ran hard at him whenever he got the opportunity.
The visitors were unable to find a solution but they did score some nice tries themselves and threatened to stage a late comeback.
They trailed 22-14 at the break.
Experienced midfielder Tama Apineru opened the scoring for Otago.
Half Keenan Masina threw a lovely skip pass to Mavae Manuika, who got an offload away under pressure to Apineru.
But a poor play of ball down the other end gave the Bay an opportunity to strike back straight away.
Matautia skipped through an ineffective tackle and scored the first of his two tries.
Vincent Morunga added a second moments later.
Morunga put up a kick which went nowhere but bounced nicely for the home team and they broke down the right
wing.
A chip ahead created all sort of troubles for the Whalers and eventually Morunga dived over to complete a messy try.
Otago responded. They swung it left and back to the right and winger Opeti Tuimana dived over in the corner.
They were in again moments later.
Masina made another nice pass to Manuika, who got in space down the left wing, drew the last defender and passed to fullback Max Brown to score.
But their defence was not on the same level as their attack. Matautia skipped through the line and got pass to midfielder James Leavai, who was too fast and scored in the corner.
The game was a battle on the edges.
Tuimana fumbled a poor pass from Siua Fonua. Had he gathered that, Otago may have gone into the break with a useful lead.
But Dylan Clark pounced from a quick play of the ball and dodged some soft defence to give the home team a 22-14 halftime lead.
Masina went close to cutting the gap early in the second half, but was denied thanks to a double movement when trying to ground the ball.
Morunga, instead, strolled over following a patient build up.
Siua Fonua finished off a wonderful 60m team try to help Otago stay in touch.
He handled the ball three times in the move.
But Otago could not break the trend of taking one step forward and two back.
Ethan Tetevano scored after Matautia got him an offload despite being wrapped up by several tacklers.
Brown fumbled a kick shortly after and Matautia brushed aside another defender to score his second.
Otago kept battling, though. Oscar Anderson scored from a grubber into the in-goal area and Manuika scored an 80m try when he picked up a fumble and there was no-one back to defend.
National premiership
The scores
Bay of Plenty 38
Vincent Morunga 2, Kaisa Matautia 2, James Leavai, Dylan Clark, Ethan Tetevano tries; Caelys Putoko 5 con.
Otago 30
Tama Apineru, Opeti Tuimana, Max Brown, Siua Fonua, Oscar Anderson, Mavae Mahuika tries; Jordan McEntee-Walters 3 con.
Halftime: BOP 22-14.
