North Otago’s season hit its first major obstacle on Saturday.
It will soon strike its most imposing roadblock.
The Old Golds were decent in patches but sloppy in others, and their defence was badly exposed in a 38-29 loss to East Coast in Ruatoria that was rather deflating after opening the campaign with two convincing wins.
If that was a handy gauge of where they were, the real test will be this weekend when they face rampant defending champions South Canterbury in Oamaru.
There will certainly need to be a massive improvement in both ball-handling and first-up tackling.
The Old Golds had plenty of ball, once they got a badly misfiring lineout into shape, but too often tried to get too cute with possession or saw promising attacking movements snuffed out by handling errors.
And, while East Coast looked a handy side, the ease with which they were able to score tries on the counter-attack suggested North Otago have some serious defensive work to do in that area.
"That was extremely tough," North Otago captain Rory Bartle told Ngati Porou Radio after the game.
"They were very physical opposition who brought a huge amount of enthusiasm to the game and ultimately were quicker to react to everything than we were.
"They were quite disruptive, especially at the breakdown. They’d obviously targeted that.
"Everything was a battle for us today. We just have to recognise where we fell short and continue to build on that."
At least, in Junior Fakatoufifita, North Otago have arguably the form player in the competition.
The rampaging No 8 continued his magnificent start to the season with another all-action display that included bullocking runs and some lovely touches of skill.
Midfielder Aleki Morris-Lome bounced back from a poor defensive read to charge hard and score a superb individual try, and prop Kelepi Funaki was hungry for work.
East Coast made a cracking start when a grubber kick and subsequent game of pinball led to a try in the third minute to impressive winger Kris Palmer.
The Old Golds struck back quickly through the power and pace of Fakatoufifita, but poor tackling allowed halfback Sam Parkes then Palmer, from a hashed chase back by fullback Lucas Ollion, to give the home side a handy buffer.
Morris-Lome beat four tacklers to make it 21-14 at halftime.
After East Coast nudged ahead 28-14, they lost two players to the sin bin, and the Old Golds capitalised with simple tries to make it 28-26 with 19 minutes to play.
The door was open for a comeback but East Coast slammed it shut.
South Canterbury thumped Buller 56-0 in Geraldine and will start as heavy favourites in Oamaru this Saturday.
Thames Valley are the only other unbeaten team in Heartland rugby following their 30-22 win over West Coast in Greymouth.
Whanganui continued their slump with a 23-17 loss to King Country, Wairarapa-Bush pipped Poverty Bay 30-24 and Mid Canterbury beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 43-14.
Heartland Championship
The scores
East Coast 38
Kris Palmer 2, Sam Parkes, Josh Dearden, Joe Royal tries; Te Rangi Fraser 5 con, pen.
North Otago 29
Junior Fakatoufifita, Aleki Morris-Lome, Mone Samate, Osea Qamasea tries; Lucas Ollion 3 con, pen.
Halftime: East Coast 21-14.
