Halfback Turango Karena clears the ball as Aotea attacks close to the line.
Halfback Turango Karena clears the ball as Aotea attacks close to the line.
After a tough win against Waipawa at Waipawa and a nearly 90-point romp against Takapau at Takapau, Aotea Senior Rugby returned on Saturday, July 4 to the scene of its pre-season Hunter Shield defence at Rugby Park to face also-unbeaten Otane.
Playing fast, expansive rugby, Aotea outgunned Otane for theentire first half, only penalties and a dysfunctional lineout holding back the score line. The large crowd was treated to a feast of rugby.
A try to centre Samaya Lilo, who was a constant threat the whole match, set the tone and this was followed by three more tries in the first half to Jordan Todd, Logan Whaitiri and Tama Petera, which took the score to 26-0 at half-time.
Otane showed patches of skill and determination in the first half but this increased as another try to Aotea at the start of the second seemed to strengthen their resolve as they looked down the barrel of a potential rout.
This resulted in a two quick tries to Otane forcing Aotea to refocus both on defence and attack. it took a kick and chase to get first Samaya Lilo in under the posts, then the combination of Tama Petera and Gene Ropoama scored out wide for the score to reach 47-10.
By then, Otane under defensive pressure had a player sinbinned and the game soured somewhat as Otane's efforts to add some respectability to their result had Aotea players infringing and two were also sinbinned.
With 10 minutes to go it was 13 players versus 14 and Otane capitalised scoring two tries to narrow the final score to 47-24.
• Aotea play Porongahau at Dannevirke and then Waipukurau in the next two weeks to end the first round of Hawke's Bay Division Two Bowman Cup competition.
