The Bay of Plenty Lakers' quest for a place in next year's New Zealand Rugby League Premiership has come to an end after a 64-4 loss to Counties Manukau.
Having beaten Wellington and Otago to win the Championship, the Lakers played a promotion/relegation game against Counties Manukau, who finished bottom of the Premiership, at Mt Smart in Auckland yesterday.While Bay of Plenty's effort could not be faulted, they were up against a powerful side fighting for their lives in the Premiership. Counties' class and experience showed as they ran in a whopping 14 tries to retain their Premiership spot.
Counties dominated the early stages and were on the scoreboard after just two minutes when centre David Toetu crashed over for a try.
They kept the pressure on Bay of Plenty, forcing repeat sets, and were rewarded with a second try, this time to back-rower John Vuetibau. Counties led 12-0 after seven minutes.
Bay of Plenty had a decent spell of possession but could not break through the Counties defence. After 16 minutes, having absorbed the pressure, Counties went down the other end and scored another try through winger Buchanan Rawhiti.