Although the Bay defence was strong, an extended period of attacking play culminated in West Coast scoring two quick tries and forcing a yellow card — shown to flanker George Whakatope — after repeated infractions.
The early pressure seemed to take its toll on West Coast, who weren’t able to maintain the pace into the business end of the game. Their attacks started to slow down and were quickly repelled by Poverty Bay, who started to take control of the game.
Poverty Bay co-coach Miah Nikora said it was a “real gutsy” effort to repel West Coast for as long as they did, while a man down.
“The unity in the defence was really good. We were under the pump.”
An unconverted try to Toru Noanoa evened the scoreboard at 12-all going into halftime.
It was an opening 40-minute period of two halves, with both teams making mistakes and having their moments of brilliance.
Going into the second 40, it looked as if the game would be decided on fitness.
West Coast were consistent with ball in hand, maintaining possession for long periods, but they were unable to find holes in the defence.
On the other hand, Poverty Bay were dangerous on attack but were flashy with the ball and often made handling errors or pushed passes that resulted in mistakes.
Nikora said they had talked at halftime about trying to keep up the tempo while maintaining the accuracy.
The message to the team was to “sort out the breakdown and get our tempo game going”.
The second half was all Poverty Bay.
They controlled the game, starving West Coast of the ball and scoring with ease.
After shoring up a shaky scrum with the introduction of big prop Jarryd Broughton, Poverty Bay brought a physicality that caught their opponents off guard.
The way they hit the rucks for cleanouts and attacked the advantage line with their ball-running was intense.
Poverty Bay’s centre, Tongan international Penikolo Latu, used all of his experience — which includes a game against the All Blacks this year — to pose a strong threat on the flanks.
He caused problems for West Coast with his direct ball running and support play,
After their slow start, Poverty Bay had recovered well, posting a convincing victory and conceding only eight points in the second half.
Nikora said that while Poverty Bay’s impact players brought a lot off the bench, it was a team performance that earned them the win.
“It’s the way the team have been playing together over the past couple of weeks,” he said.
“We were tested by West Coast and to come out like we did in the second half was a testament to the boys.”
