Bay of Plenty edged by Otago in 'tough, physical game'

Otago wing Josh Whaanga is at full stretch to steal the high ball from Bay of Plenty fullback Cole Forbes during their NPC match at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin today. PHOTOS: GERARD O'BRIEN

Pull it, twist it, bop it.

Otago were not playing around this afternoon.

They pulled most of the right levers to edge Bay of Plenty 31-26 at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Oliver Haig scored two second-half tries in a commanding performance.

The Highlanders flanker featured strongly throughout the fixture. He kept popping up in support and made some telling carries.

Coach Tom Donnelly thought his side did tremendously well to fight back from a nine-point deficit midway through the second spell.

"It was a pretty tough, physical game. To be down by nine with those back-to-back tries and to claw our way back was a good effort," he said.

"[Haig] is playing really well. He runs really hard, he’s running our lineout and he just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t he?"

Yes. Yes, he does.

Otago’s upset victory was witnessed by a small crowd of 1642 souls who made plenty of noise.

The visitors dominated the early exchanges.

They probed down the left and swung it back to the right. Fullback Coles Forbes slipped through a hole and got the ball wide.

Loosie Jacob Norris stayed in support, got the inside ball and stretched out to score.

But Otago struck back pretty much straight away.

The Steamers messed up the restart and Otago pounced.

Cameron Millar got a wonderfully delayed pass to Finn Hurley and the fullback slipped over.

The delay created just enough hesitation in the defence for Hurley to take advantage.

Bay of Plenty hooker Taine Kolose, a late replacement for Kurt Eklund, barged over in an almost immediate response.

But Otago hit back with some magic and a little luck. Haig burst through and his pass got swatted on by Sam Gilbert to Hurley, who cut in, drew defenders and flipped a cracking offload to Hudson Creighton to score.

The Steamers had a try ruled out for a forward pass and the teams went into the break at 14-14.

Otago co-captain Christian Lio-Willie came on early in the second half and made a strong hit-up from his first touch.

But fellow co-captain Gilbert left the field for an HIA and Otago lost some structure during his absence.

The home team edged ahead briefly through a penalty to Millar.

Otago halfback James Arscott looks on during a scrum.

But Bay of Plenty rumbled over through lock Justin Sangster and extended the lead when Kolose bagged his second. This one was out wide and the front-rower ran like a winger, flicked off the pass and collected the inside ball to score.

It was a damaging five-minute stretch but Thomas Umaga-Jensen nabbed an intercept to get Otago into the right part of the field.

With Otago threatening to score, Norris picked up a yellow for slowing down the ruck.

The home side elected to kick for touch rather than kick the penalty and Haig barged over to set up a tense final quarter of the game.

He muscled his way over again for the winner after Otago had held on to the ball for 31 — yes, 31 — phases.

There was some excellent defence from the visitors to hang on that long.

"Be nice if we didn’t have to go through 31 phases. But that was unreal by our forwards," Donnelly said.