A much better second half but still some work to do.
After trailing 17-0 at halftime, North Otago were beaten 24-15 by Thames Valley in Te Aroha on Saturday.
It took less than 45sec for the Swamp Foxes to score through Todd Doolan, and Fletcher Morgan followed with another inside three minutes.
It was a blistering start but that heat was extinguished in some truly dreadful conditions.
Pelting rain led to handling errors galore and made it extremely difficult to create any real pressure.
Tini Feke used silky footwork to break up the field and put North Otago in the right area.
Thames Valley coughed up consecutive penalties which the Old Golds looked to take advantage of from the ensuing scrums.
Thames Valley were penalised again, but were strong defensively to deny North Otago in a long period of play.
The Swamp Foxes put in some bonecrushing hits on defence and Morgan banged over a penalty on halftime to give the Swamp Foxes a 17-0 lead.
Feke finally got the Old Golds on the board when he scored.
The Swamp Foxes swung the ball wide, but it missed their intended target.
Old Golds halfback Jake Matthews scooped it up and scored a 60m runaway try to reduce the lead to two.
Morgan scored again for Thames Valley to seal the game.
That made it two straight losses for North Otago. They will need to be better when they head north again to play Wairarapa-Bush this Saturday.
In other games at the weekend, South Canterbury thumped Wairarapa-Bush 62-32, Whanganui overcame Poverty Bay 46-36, King Country beat Buller 54-27, Mid Canterbury had a 49-21 win over West Coast, and Horowhenua-Kapiti v East Coast settled for a 27-27 draw.
Heartland Championship
The scores
Thames Valley 24
Fletcher Morgan 2, Todd Doolan tries; Morgan 3 con, Morgan pen.
North Otago 15
Tini Feke, Jake Matthews tries; Greg Dyer con, pen.
Hafltime: Thames Valley 17-0.
