Wanganui found large holes in the defence through the midfield and ran in four tries, including a double to centre Josiah Bogileka.
Poverty Bay head coach Tom Cairns said the team had four centres out of action through unavailability or injury, leading to Jacob Leaf and Matt Raleigh playing out of position to plug the holes.
“It was tough going. . . we were found out a little bit in terms of defensive connection.
“We were pretty disappointed to let in three soft tries in the first half where Wanganui put some really good set-piece plays together, but we should’ve been better than that.”
Bay winger Te Peehi Fairlie powered his way over for a try on the stroke of halftime and they went into the break 31-12 down.
Early in the second half it looked like Wanganui had dealt a death blow with the definition of a 14-point try.
Poverty Bay were hard on attack, battering the tryline but as they spread the ball for what would have almost certainly been a try, a wayward pass was snatched up by Wanganui and returned 95 metres for a try at the other end of the park — winger Vereniki Tikoisolomone turning the Bay defence inside out as he coasted to the line to put his side 36-12 ahead.
Wanganui extended their lead to 29 points through a rolling maul that drove back the Poverty Bay defence 15 metres before rumbling over the line for a try and 41-12 advantage.
Whatever was said under the posts as they waited for the conversion inspired a change of mindset in the Bay side.
A 49th minute try to fullback Andrew Tauatevalu — following up-the-guts running from prop Atonio Walker-Leawere and halfback Ra Broughton and No.8 Tamanui Hill seemingly going over but the try not being given — started a remarkable Bay fightback.
Flanker Adrian Wyrill went over from a pick-and-go in the 58th minute and the conversion made it 41-26.
Momentum had clearly changed and from the kick-off the Bay attacked and a kick through from Raleigh bounced awkwardly for Tauatevalu to toe on and win the race to the tryline.
Wanganui were crumbling —making mistakes and missing tackles as Poverty Bay took control.
With 11½ minutes left on the clock, the Bay struck yet again and fittingly it was first five-eighth Kelvin Smith, in his 50th game for his province, beating two tacklers to reach over and score — the conversion making it 41-38.
A late yellow card, however, saw the Bay finish the game with 14 men. Raleigh was ruled to have intentionally knocked the ball on while attempting an intercept.
It seemed to take a bit of the wind out of their sails as they went on the defensive although they still had their chances to win it.
The Bay received a late penalty with fulltime up on the clock only to fail to find touch with the kick that would have put them on attack.
Cairns was proud of his side’s second-half resurgence.
When the team “got it together,” they were strong — particularly in the forwards, where they dominated.
“It was a little bit disappointing in the end. We thought we’d just about done enough.
“I’m really pleased with the courage the boys showed to fight back in that game. The entire team were outstanding.”
