Bay of Plenty Development team missed a royal chance to knock over their biggest challenge of the season at the Tauranga Domain on Saturday afternoon.
Auckland B is the scalp the second-tier Bay of Plenty team aspire to claim every year but after a topsy-turvy battle in blustery winds, theAucklanders scored a last gasp try to take the match 29-24.
They scored four tries to two, with both Bay tries coming from fortuitous intercepts, and probably deserved the win on the balance of play.
The Bay started strongly, taking the game to the lethargic Aucklanders. An early penalty to efficient halfback Daiyu Ishimori was followed by a 50-metre sprint down the touchline for a try to winger Patuana Beil after he intercepted a loose pass from Auckland halfback Kurt Davies.
Steamers squad member Elijah Nicholas had a strong opening 20 minutes and was at the heart of some strong midfield runs, supported well by the loose forwards Jeff Thwaite, Matt Clutterbuck and Sami Paulsson. Ishimori kicked two more penalties to put the Bay 14-0 in front and seemingly totally in charge but a lack of concentration on defence in the last 15 minutes of the first spell cost them the match.
Halfback Davies brushed aside some weak tackling to score and a simple penalty reduced the Bay's lead to 14-8.
Worse was to come just on halftime when the Bay dropped off more tackles to let first-five Mike Stanley cross for a try he immediately converted.
Up 15-14, Auckland started the second spell as they finished the first, putting pressure on the Bay defence which cracked again to allow winger Otulea Katoa to score.
Trailing 22-14, the Bay had second-five Malakai Kisna to thank for not going further behind. Davies sprinted 50 metres to beat the cover defence but as he crossed the line to get closer to the posts, Kisna blindsided him and knocked the ball out of his hands. The reprieve galvanised the Bay into action and they were right back in the game when Kisna swooped on an Auckland pass and ran away to score. Ishimori converted, then added a penalty to put the Bay in front 24-22 with 10 minutes to play. Auckland finished stronger and after a concerted wave of attacks at the Bay's line, a gap finally opened and Teddy Stanaway dived over to win the game for the visitors.
