Bay of Plenty regain bragging rights

Bay of Plenty are lining up for a crack at Upper Central Zone powerhouse Waikato after wrestling bragging rights back off neighbours Coastline at Welcome Bay's Waipuna Park, on Saturday.
Bay of Plenty - made up of players from four clubs, three of them in Rotorua - gave Tauranga-based Coastline a lesson in how to play wet-weather football, holding on 20-14 with a mixture of big one-off running and aggressive defence.
They host Waikato at Puketawhero Park on July 2 in a winner-takes-all regional showdown after Waikato swept Coastline 30-0 in the season's opening rep clash back in April.
Bay of Plenty fullback Yeprus Williams, a star in the making after Saturday's accomplished effort on attack and in defence, said they'd need a bigger effort again to get on top of Waikato.
"Every team's beatable but it'll need a big step up from today.'
Williams was into everything at the back, attacking from long range on the back of big yards gathered in the middle by captain Richie Sobels, Witana Wharerau and Cody Kingi.
Halfback Bill Raroa scored first for Bay, pouncing on loose ball after Coastline fumbled a grubber, with Sonny Rakie extending the gap to 10-0 almost from the kick-off after a 70m run from Mikehere Te Pania saw the ball shovelled left to Rakie, who beat four tacklers close to the line.
Sefo Alasana nabbed one back for Coastline before Williams exploited the home side's flimsy left-side defence to give Bay a 14-4 lead at halftime.
Former Canberra Raider Josh Weedon, who alternated between loose forward and standoff but didn't get his hands on the ball anywhere near enough to be effective, went over soon after the break, reviving hopes of a comeback, but woeful handling in the wet handed the win to the Bay, with Raroa and Te Pania combining in a 70m counter-attack to seal it for Bay, despite Alasana's second try four minutes from fulltime giving the home side some hope.
Coastline played too expansively, dropping a power of possession while they were at it, to ever exert enough sustained pressure, with Sam Graham and Daryl Thomas the best of a beaten bunch.
Sobels, Bay's captain and a damaging prop for Pikiao in the WaiCoa Bays club premiership, said they learned their lesson about ball preservation in the wet last winter.
"Last time in the rain we went right away from how we should have played so today we learned our lesson and played tighter, putting emphasis on the forwards actually holding on to the ball and showing strength in our D [defensive] line by having faith in the brothers."
Sobels was rapt Williams still got a chance to strut his stuff in front of new WaiCoa Bays Stallions coaches Morgan Kutia (Hamilton City Tigers) and Brett Rodger (Otumoetai Eels), who are shaping a squad for the national zonal competition that kicks off with the Stallions taking on Counties-Manukau in Tauranga on September 3.
"He's the man and I was looking forward to playing alongside him today [Williams plays his club league for Central]. He showed out there what he's capable of and, hopefully, that's a game that's pushed him closer to the Stallions."
Saturday's scorers:
Bay of Plenty 20 (Bill Raroa, Sonny Rakie, Yeprus Williams, Mikehere Te Pania tries; Raroa goal, Mahi Parata goal) Coastline 14 (Sefo Alasana 2, Josh Weedon tries; Weedon goal) Halftime: 14-4 BOP.