Out at Paddy's Park, Patutahi, on a windless day, Ngatapa captain fullback Matt Raleigh won the toss, chose an end, and rake Skudder opted to kick off.
Two minutes into the game, referee Damien Macpherson awarded YMP a penalty 10m from Ngatapa's goal-line. No.8 Jesse Kapene chose to tap-kick and made it within a metre of the stripe.
Next man up second-five Taine Aupouri-Kaiwai then drove in to score.
In the seventh minute, fullback Andrew Tauatevalu stunned the 400-strong crowd. Skudder found lock Willis Tamatea in a lineout at halfway and the ball went to the hands of Tauatevalu, who raced 50 metres between the home team's ranks to score under the crossbar. His conversion made it 12-0.
This brought a typically courageous response from Ngatapa.
They worked their way upfield and from a lineout five metres out, hooker Nick Cave threw the ball deep and tighthead prop Taylor Howatson came around from the back to score.
Right-wing Peter Livingston converted.
Back came YMP with tries to loosehead prop Nehe Papuni, openside flanker Stuart Leach, Aupouri-Kaiwai and Tauatevalu — three of the five-pointers converted.
Cave scored on halftime and Livingston converted for a 38-14 scoreline.
Damage done, Ngatapa were playing for pride and could take some satisfaction from winning the second half 17-12.
Halfback Karl Hutchins-Mackie scored two tries for Ngatapa in the second spell, Papuni completed a double for YMP, Ngatapa reserve tighthead prop Ihaia Kerr scored Ngatapa's fifth try and Skudder completed YMP's tryscoring list.
Despite the admirable second-half effort by Ngatapa, YMP had done what they needed to do in the first half.
“I'm proud of our boys but Ngatapa didn't make it easy for us,” said Skudder.
“We had to fight for it.”
