Dedicated defence and a magical four minutes of rugby late in the first half was counterbalanced by an inability to string together three or more phases in the second half which meant North Otago had to struggle to a bonus-point 29-20 victory over Wairarapa-Bush on Saturday.
North Otago won the toss and elected to play into the gusty southwesterly and had to absorb territorial and possession pressure.
The pressure resulted in North Otago conceding penalties in the eighth and 16th minutes and former North Otago first five-eighth Jamie Te Huia gave the home side a 6-0 lead.
It retained that lead until the 29th minute when North Otago second five-eighth and captain Luke Herden broke the defensive line on halfway and then beat four more tackles as he raced 40m to score and Ben Patston converted.
Two minutes later, North Otago drove to the opposition line and outstanding No 8 Tevita Fifita was driven across in a rolling maul to take North Otago out to a 12-6 lead.
From the kick-off, North Otago halfback Hamish Mckenzie, who went to first five-eighth in the second half, broke the defence and fullback Billy Guyton was on hand to feed right winger Greg Zampach who outpaced the cover defence and brushed off the fullback's tackle to score the first of his two tries.
Guyton converted.
But North Otago undid some of this fine work when Herden, again on the burst outside the Wairarapa-Bush 22, tried to pop an overhead pass to Zampach.
However, the pass was intercepted by the home side's left winger, Junior Togia, who raced 76m to score for Te Huia to convert leaving North Otago with a 19-13 halftime lead.
Guyton added a penalty early in the second half and, midway through the spell, North Otago extended the lead when Kilifi Fangupo and McKenzie used the blindside astutely and McKenzie, with the defence drawn, lobbed a pass to the flying Zampach who touched down for Guyton to convert.
A late drive by Wairarapa-Bush resulted in blindside flanker Joss Tua Davidson being driven over for Te Huia to convert.
North Otago coach Barry Matthews was far from happy after the game.
When asked about the positives from the match he replied rather bluntly "five points".
"You know, we created a lot of scoring chances but didn't finish them off.
"We talked a lot at halftime about the 50-50 balls but it was a very poor display.
"I think that after being 19-6 up we should have finished them off.
"And when we had the ball for three or more phases we proved that we could score tries but we didn't retain the ball often enough.
"Those 50-50 passes, players being too greedy and silly individual mistakes highlighted the game for us."
North Otago, which has finished in third place in pool play behind Wanganui and Mid Canterbury, will meet South Canterbury next Saturday, in Oamaru and the following Saturday will play Wanganui, also in Oamaru, before travelling north to face Thames Valley before the semifinals and finals.
"The boys must realise now that we've got to win every game if we're going to get through to the semifinals.
"That means we've got to play well every week but at the moment we're playing well one week and poorly the next. We can't carry on doing that."
Fangupo, who came on at halftime, and McKenzie were the best of the backs with fullback Guyton getting too few opportunities with the ball in hand.
Up front No 8 Tevita Fifita was again in bruising form along with Ryan Long who was too often committed to the tight.
Although Eric Duff and Aisake Fonua won lineouts it was not the dominant display of last week and North Otago's inability to get quick ball off the top at lineouts effectively reduced the backline's attacking potential.
Wairarapa-Bush had its heroes in No 8 Duncan Law, until he was forced off the field late in the game, Tomasi Kendrabuka (35), who was playing his 50th game for his union, and fellow lock Andrew McLean who ruled the front of the lineout, won good ball and contested solidly on the North Otago throw.
- Terry O'Neill
