Tauranga overpower Mount in semi

KEY PLAYER: Tauranga Sports centre Nick Evemy crashes into the Mount Maunganui Sports defence in Saturday's semifinal played at the Tauranga Domain. PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER

Tauranga Sports had too many big guns for an injury-depleted Mount Maunganui Sports side in Saturday's Bayfair Baywide Premier semifinal played at Tauranga Domain on Saturday.

The 37-13 win was rich reward for a solid effort from their improving set-piece platform.

Sports' four tries were spread around three of their very best players this season - Carl Axtens (two), Jesse Acton and Nick Evemy.

Tauranga led 17-8 at halftime and never looked like losing the game. Both Mount Maunganui tries were opportunistic efforts, from an intercept by Mason Walker and a smart charge-down by Manus Hanley.

The defending champs were struck by injuries in key areas which did not help their cause, but Tauranga were just too strong right across the park.

After losing last year's semifinal at home they were not going to let that happen again.

Apart from one loss to Te Puke Sports a fortnight ago, Tauranga have not looked under any pressure all season but have plenty of that to come next Saturday against Te Puke at Murray Salt Stadium.

Despite the loss, Mount Maunganui coach Rodney Voullaire says he was proud of his team's effort.

"We have some good depth at our club at the moment, both development and premiers," he said. "We are proud of our rugby and how we play it.

"Tauranga are a top side with five or six Steamers in there; we've got one in Solomona [Sakalia]. But right to the final whistle they weren't going to give up and that is what we want to breed in our players."

Tauranga Sports coach Mike Rogers rated his team's performance highly: "The forward effort today was great. That is an area we have worked really hard on over the last two weeks after Te Puke handed it to us up there."

"We definitely looked like the better side out there today and came away with a good solid win. It was really funny trying to prepare a side against the same team two weeks in a row. I have never experienced that before but we came up with some different stuff this week that I think worked really well for us."

Rogers says there is no secret to what they have to do to win next week's grand final away at Te Puke Sports: "To beat Te Puke you have to win your set piece and we weren't able to do that last time. I would back ourselves that if we win enough ball then we are going to give them a fright.

"We are really excited about going up there and hopefully being able to walk off the field with a performance where at least we can hold our heads up high afterwards.

"We have worked hard on our scrum but Te Puke are the benchmark in that area."

Tauranga Sports 37 (Carl Axtens 2, Jesse Acton, Nick Evemy tries; John Dodd 4 cons, 3 pens) Mount Maunganui Sports 13 (Mason Walker, Manus Hanley tries; Pera Gibbs pen) HT 17-8