Demon-like defence has secured Rotoiti a place in this year's Baywide premier final.
In a nailbiter against Tauranga Sports, Rotoiti smashed and bashed any player carrying a rugby ball who wore a white and blue jersey and carried a rugby ball. On a damp and windy Tauranga Domain, Rotoiti beat the home side 13-10, booking a finals berth against Te Puke Sports back at the Domain this Saturday.
Almost like a repeat of last year's semifinal between Tauranga Sports and Whakarewarewa, the home side started slowly and never fired.
The normally reliable boot of Tauranga's first-five Nic Evemy was noticeably off target, landing only one from three.
Rotoiti took every chance on offer, with first-five Whakataki Cunningham, opening the scoring with a penalty at the six-minute mark and kicking three from three for the match.
If Tauranga had a game plan it was either forgotten or lacked imagination, with the side continuously running it one out from the ruck and meeting a wall of Rotoiti defenders who were more than happy to grind each player into the muddy pitch. The only Tauranga forward who looked threatening was prop Pingi Talaapitaga, who busted through a tackle to offload to Evemy who ran 20m to score - Tauranga's one and only try.
One of the biggest match up was between to the two No8s - Rotoiti captain Jesse Acton and Carl Axtens. Acton probably won the tussle showing his class off the back of the Rotoiti scrum, which often found itself going backwards.
Up 7-6 at halftime, Tauranga were caught napping after the break. Winger Willie Seywell grubbered, Tauranga fullback Jeremy Cave picked the ball up 5m from his tryline, but instead of kicking for touch he held his ground and was driven back over his line for a 5m scrum feed to the visitors.
From the scrum the ball squirted out the back, halfback Curtis Van Der Hayden scrambled for it, ducked under the tackle of Lewis Hancock and found open space on the blindside to score in the corner. Cunningham converted to take the score to 13-7.
A Hancock penalty 10 minutes later took the score to 13-10 and despite several forays by both sides into each others halves neither side could add any extra points. Tauranga had a chance to level the score at the 20 minute mark when Rotoiti were penalised for offside but Hancock couldn't convert.
Rotoiti coach Wayne Ormond was proud of his side's efforts.
"It was pretty physical and the boys knew they would have to work hard. I think we set the level in that first 20 [minutes] but it was whether we could do it for 80 minutes and [they] showed they could. Our fitness levels were behind [Tauranga] but character pulled through."
Ormond said his captain's performance to get over the advantage line from the back of the scrum was the catalyst for the team's win.
"That's been his quality all year and one of the reasons he has made the Bay squad."
Acton said the team were determined to exact revenge for their last performance against Tauranga Sports a few weeks ago, when they were thrashed 78-5.
"Words can't describe how I feel about the win. It's wicked, from the hiding they gave us to beat them this time is pretty special."
To fall at the penultimate hurdle a second year in a row was gut wrenching for Tauranga captain Adam Robinson, who had to watch 45 minutes from the sideline injured.
"Rotoiti played a really outstanding game. We made mistakes at crucial times and Rotoiti's defence is unreal. Our only blunder was after the break which let them get that try, which ultimately let them win the game"
In this year's division one final, Rangiuru and Paroa will do battle for the chance to move up to the premier division after beating Te Teko (25-10) and Kahukura (31-10) respectively. In the Colts championship semis Tauranga Sports beat Te Puke Sports 22-17 and Te Puna thrashed Mt Maunganui 42-27. In the colts section two final Rangataua were the victors over Waikite 39-38.