Counties-Manukau first five Riley Hohepa slipped into the pocket and slotted a drop goal to seal a dramatic 23-22 win in Pukekohe on Saturday.
He was lucky to get the chance.
Otago’s game management was found desperately wanting in the final moments of its opening NPC game.
With 90 seconds remaining, Otago led 22-20 and was battering away in Counties’ 22m.
The visitors just needed to hold the ball a little longer, but went wide, and first five Josh Ioane popped a pass to no-one.
It dropped into space and was scooped up by Tevita Ofa. Counties worked the ball up field and Hohepa got to be the hero.
The loss may prove to be quite damaging in the context of the season for Otago.
It needs to finish in the top four of its pool to make the quarterfinals, and it would have been counting on a win against Counties to help it get there.
Otago captain James Lentjes’ assessment left no doubt about his view. He told Sky Sport that Otago had played some dumb rugby.
"I’m pretty disappointed," he said.
"We didn’t start well at all and were under the pump for most of the first half.
"We hung in there and got some parity for 20 minutes but started playing dumb footy."
Lentjes said his side had made some "schoolboy errors" it had to cut out of its game "or we will be under pressure all season".
"We’ve got to take a good look in the mirror because now we are chasing the pack."
Powerful Otago second five Thomas Umaga-Jensen limped off with 20 minutes remaining.
An Otago spokesman said his injury would be assessed today, but there were no major concerns in the camp.
That will come as a huge relief, because Umaga-Jensen was the best of the Otago players.
He poached an intercept to score late in the first half and also made several crucial turnovers.
Winger Jona Nareki was another to shine. He grabbed a brace of tries.
Otago nabbed some good lineout ball as well, but was not able to match the physicality of Counties in the opening exchanges.
The home team opened the scoring through hooker Zuriel Togiatama, who drove over from a lineout.
Umaga-Jensen came up with a desperate play to prevent his side slipping behind further.
Counties halfback Cameron Roigard had darted through a gap — he did that a lot. But Umaga-Jensen played loose forward and got himself over the ruck to secure a turnover a few metres from the chalk.
And with five minutes left in the first half he picked off a pass from Hohepa and scampered in to score under the posts.
The extra 5kg Nareki packed on during his injury break came in mightily handy when he muscled his way over midway through the second spell.
He had Umaga-Jensen to thank. The second five had snaffled another turnover in the play leading up to Nareki’s powerful effort.
Nareki was in again moments later. Big prop Saula Ma’u got a nice pass to Ioane, who ghosted through a gap and dished the ball wide to Nareki to finish in the same corner.
Otago had a commanding 22-13 lead but, well, capitulated.
In other Saturday games, Waikato and Hawke’s Bay battled to a 32-32 draw in Hamilton, and Auckland beat North Harbour 36-26. Canterbury had beaten Manawatu 62-15 on Friday night.
Yesterday, Northland upset Taranaki 13-11, Wellington pipped Bay of Plenty 37-35 in an exciting contest, and Tasman held off a much improved second half from Southland to get a 27-20 win.
NPC
The scores
Counties-Manukau 23
Zuriel Togiatama, Esau Filimoehala tries; Riley Hohepa 2 con, 2 pen, drop goal
Otago 22
Jona Nareki 2, Thomas Umaga-Jensen tries; Josh Ioane con, pen, Sam Gilbert con
Halftime: Counties 10-7
