Otago is into the big dance. The blue and golds have made it to the final of the Mitre 10 Cup Championship after a hard-fought 27-20 win over Bay of Plenty at Forsyth Barr Stadium last night.
It was a game where Otago was almost always ahead but could never put a pesky opponent away in a semifinal which had plenty of endeavour and both sides emptied the tank.
Otago pulled away to 21-6 just after halftime through a James Lentjes try but Bay of Plenty refused to throw in the towel and hung around.It got back to 27-20 with five minutes to go but some strong defence from Otago kept it out.
"I thought out there we controlled the scoreboard pretty well and kept ahead of them, so that applied a bit of pressure to them. But there was some awesome contact and awesome defence. We played some pretty good footy, too, and scored some nice tries.
"It was just semifinals footy, really. A little bit of nerves and a few errors. But in that second half we played in the right parts of the field."
Otago’s defence stood tall at key moments and flanker Lentjes got through a power of work in the tackle.
"He was phenomenal in his contact, there was plenty of them and they were big and powerful. Sio Tomkinson came on and also made some good hits."
Lentjes was a tiger in the tackle and lock Tom Franklin had a massive game, in his 50th appearance for Otago, though he blotted his copybook by being yellow-carded for a shoulder charge in the second half.
Out the back, second five-eighth Tei Walden looked lively and defended well, while centre Matt Faddes was elusive with ball in hand.
Brown said he had no preference on which team Otago played in the final. It has beaten both Wellington and North Harbour at Forsyth Barr Stadium this year.
Hooker Sam Anderson-Heather left the field in the second half with a sore calf, Adam Knight also left the field with a suspected concussion, while Walden bruised a shin but should be all right.Brown said the side just needed to recover over the weekend and mirror last week in the lead-up to the final.
Otago created a bucketload of chances in the first half but had only two tries to show for it.
It looked lively on attack and if the final pass had stuck a couple more times, Otago would have been much further ahead than the 14-6 halftime score.
Otago’s two tries actually came straight from kick-offs after it had conceded the two penalty goals.
Fa’asiu Fuata’i caught the kick-off after Bay of Plenty had scored after three minutes.
Once he was lowered, the ball went through a few phases.
Otago rolled to the tryline - as any team can under these new laws - and Franklin scored.
The second try started when Michael Collins quickly threw the ball back in from a quick lineout as Bay of Plenty kicked it out off the kick-off.
Faddes cut through and linked with halfback Jonathan Ruru.
He set the ball up and when it went wide, blindside flanker Naulia Dawai went over untouched out wide.
Otago v Bay of Plenty
Otago 27
Tom Franklin, Naulia Dawai, James Lentjes tries; Fletcher Smith 3 con, pen; Scott Eade pen
Bay of Plenty 20
Lalakai Foketi, Terrence Hepetema tries; Dan Hollinshead 2 pen, con; Te Aihe Toma con
Halftime: 14-6 Otago
Crowd: 6400