Bay of Plenty v Wellington: Close battles see top Bay squads lose Mitre 10, Farah Palmer cup clashes

Bay of Plenty Steamers' Kaleb Trask offloads in a tackle during the Round 5 Mitre 10 Cup match against Wellington at Rotorua International Stadium. Photo / Getty Images

Bay of Plenty's top rugby sides have suffered narrow losses to Wellington.

Bay of Plenty's men's and women's sides both faced Wellington in their competition clashes, with the Steamers losing by one point, 15-16, on home turf at Rotorua International Stadium on Saturday night and the Volcanix suffering a 32-29 loss in Wellington on Saturday afternoon.

For the Steamers, their fifth round clash against Wellington was their second loss of their Mitre 10 Cup season, also going down to Auckland in week three but taking wins against Otago, Waikato and North Harbour. Despite the loss they have secured the equal 16 points that Wellington has in the competition.

For the Volcanix, after two rounds of their Farah Palmer Cup campaign they are yet to secure a win, which they'll wanting to do when they play at Rugby Park in Whakatāne in round three next weekend.

Bay of Plenty's Tynealle Fitzgerald attempts to evade Montana Heslop of Wellington. Photo / Getty Images

Volcanix coach Rodney Gibbs says his side conceded a couple of penalties in those final minutes, which allowed Wellington to score the winning try with four minutes remaining.

"You can see the hurt in the girls after the game. The girls looked good, they are trying really hard, and it is not the end of the world. We will have to go back to the drawing board and have a look at it. But talk can only go so far, we have to action a few things," Gibbs said.

"We have a couple of big games ahead that we can get excited about."

The Volcanix play Auckland in Whakatāne on Saturday and then Waikato in Hamilton the following week before taking the bye. One of the things Gibbs is hoping to see improvement in is after the tackle.

"We did alright carrying the ball but got isolated. We got killed at the breakdown and gave away too much ball. We have to chip away at it and be more energetic in that area. We have to be, we need to show a bit more desire and willingness."

Autumn-Rain Stephens Daly of Bay of Plenty attempts to evade Fa'asua Makisi of Wellington during the Farah Palmer Cup match. Photo / Getty Images

Volcanix captain Christie Yule said her side could have been better but would take learnings from the defeat and work hard for their next clash.

"It is a tough loss. We had focused on the breakdown all week and we were not aggressive enough.

"We will touch on this game for 20 minutes at training and then we will move on. We need to identify what we can change and how we can change it.

"One of the big things is being more ruthless and smashing those rucks. We have to secure our ball first so we can play it. We have to earn the fight the earn to do that. Everyone learns from those games, it is how we react now. We don't want to feel this feeling again."

Bay of Plenty Steamers:
September 7: Bay of Plenty 15, Wellington 16 at Rotorua International Stadium.
September 14: Bay of Plenty vs Taranaki at Yarrow Stadium, Taranaki. Kick off at 2.35pm.

Bay of Plenty Volcanix:
September 7: Bay of Plenty 29, Wellington 32 at Wellington.
September 14: Bay of Plenty vs Auckland at Rugby Park, Whakatāne. Kick off at 2:30pm.