Te Puke Sports take Baywide Rugby development title

Te Puke Sports' title winning development team celebrate their 10-8 win over Tauranga Sports.

Te Puke Sports' development side won the Baywide Rugby development final on Saturday after a Covid-19 enforced four-week wait to host the game.

In the end it came down to second half goal kicks - Te Puke Sports had one chance and Steve Whyte took it, Tauranga Sports had two, and didn't.

To be fair, Tauranga's second attempt at a potentially game-winning penalty was far from easy, but the first will go down as a chance that went begging.

If Te Puke's preparation for the game had been hampered by lockdown, they were dealt another blow at the last minute when prop Ethan Carter pulled a hamstring during the warm up.

It wasn't enough to stop him taking the field.

''We knew straight away that was going to impact on our scrum and it did, but it took them about half a game to figure out that we had a weak scrum,'' said Te Puke coach Jason Kahika.

The injury hampered Carter's technique and Te Puke lost some of the scrum dominance they had enjoyed during the season.

''So we had to rely on taking more of their lineout ball and our defence.''

Tauranga dominated possession for large parts of the game, but Te Puke took the few chances they were offered.

The visitors opened the scoring with a Paul Morris penalty after starting strongly.

In what proved to be a rare attack, Te Puke Sports made their first visit into the Tauranga 22 a rewarding one when Brad Nimmo exploited a hole in the Tauranga defence and strode over under the posts. Whyte converted to make it 7-3.

Neither team managing to make telling breaks, with Whyte producing a superb cover tackle on one of the rare occasions either team managed to create space out wide.

Tauranga were edging things in the forwards as the first half came to a close, with pressure finally telling right on the final whistle, an unconverted try making the halftime score 8-7 to the visitors.

The second half produced few try scoring chances, but a break down the left wing that ended when Matt Cooney was tackled high saw Te Puke camped on the Tauranga Sports' line. While several drives were repelled, the visitors conceded a penalty, kicked successfully by Whyte, to nudge Te Puke back in front.

It was the last of the scoring as Te Puke again weathered the storm. A kickable penalty was missed by Tauranga's Morris and a more difficult attempt from wide out on the left fell short with less than a minute to go.

Kahika said he was a little bit surprised Tauranga didn't opt for a scrum at the death.

''Their kicker had lost confidence and I think if they had struck to their strengths, it might have had a different ending.''

The game finished 10-8 in Te Puke's favour.

''It wasn't one of our prettiest games, but to me it was typical finals footy. It was about applying pressure and then whatever opportunity we did have, we just had to take it.

''It was just about having belief and the boys did that and they played for each other, you could see that on the field. They weren't going to give up.

Te Puke finished the season with a 17 win, one draw, two loss record.