Takahiwai's Joel Freeman confronts the Hora Hora defensive line. Photo/ John Stone
Takahiwai's Joel Freeman confronts the Hora Hora defensive line. Photo/ John Stone
The heat is on for the Takahiwai Warriors after downing the Portland Panthers 28-14.
With two rounds left in the Rugby League Northland Scott Electrical Premiership, Saturday's win has kept Takahiwai in contention for a playoff berth as well as showing they have the skills, mentality and drive to finishstrong in the coming weeks.
Takahiwai coach Mark Freeman acknowledged his team have a good dose of form at present after a niggly patch of mid-season results.
"It continues our momentum rolling into Otangarei now for next week," Freeman said. "We shot out to a bit of a lead and they fought back. It was good conditions, a beautiful day and it played to our strengths, basically."
Leading at halftime, Takahiwai didn't let their defence falter as Portland struck back. Despite this, Takahiwai had a good handle on the game and offered a relentless finish to deny the Panthers any option of clawing their way in for an upset win.
"We controlled the game pretty well. It was a pretty fast-tempo game and [with] our structure and our quick play-the-ball we got on a bit of roll."
With the playoffs looming, Takahiwai move up into third after their round 16 win and Portland slip outside of the top four.
Facing the Otangarei Knights this weekend in the penultimate round before travelling to play the Northern Wairoa Bulls the following week, Takahiwai will be hoping they can peak once semifinals roll around.
"Not long to go, two weeks then we'll see where we're at. We're happy where we're at so we'll just keep the momentum and keep playing how we are," Freeman said.
In other matches of the round, the Hikurangi Stags pranced over the Hora Hora Broncos, 64-10, to remain on top of the premiership ladder.
Two tough games lie ahead for the Stags in the coming weeks but their recent win sees them slowly edge away from the other top four teams.
The Otangarei Knights also recorded a good win at the weekend after taking down the dominant Moerewa Tigers, 34-20.
Lingering on the ropes of the top six, Otangarei showed good form to beat the Tigers while in the remaining game of the round, Muriwhenua beat Northern Wairoa, 40-30, in a tough contest.
