Rugby: Poor discipline costs Whaka dearly

Tauranga Sports player Pingi Tala'apitaga (with ball) slips through. Photo/George Novak

Tauranga Sports have ridden a truckload of penalties home to beat Whakarewarewa 24-17 in a stop-start affair at Tauranga Domain yesterday.

One sideline scribe listed the penalty count as 15-2 in favour of Tauranga Sports which, when combined with the visitors receiving two yellow cards, destroyed any possibility of what threatened to be a boil-over.

Whakarewarewa conceded penalties early and often, but looked well up for the contest and sprang out to a 12-3 lead after 30 minutes.

Siegfried Fisiihoi scored a classic forward's try in the shadow of the posts after successive phases to give his side the lead before a piece of individual brilliance from a newcomer split Sports open.

Whakarewarewa fullback Whaimotu Craft-Chemis caught a misjudged clearing kick, jammed off his left foot between two defenders before goose-stepping another and delivering a perfect skip ball to handy first-five Te Rangi Fraser to score.

That is when everything changed for Whakarewarewa.

The next kick-off was re-gathered by Sports as visiting halfback Akira Mako stood behind his opponent's posts in the bin. A penalty goal to Lewis Hancock came next, followed by more penalties and the further sin-binning of Whakarewarewa's John Ririnui upon Mako's return.

A late converted Hancock sideline try after a slick Sports backline move gave the hosts a 13-12 halftime lead.

A leg injury to Craft-Chemis - who had been in everything up until that point - took some of the steam out of the visitors as the wind picked up behind Sports in the second stanza.

A pair of penalties to the accurate Hancock made it 19-12 before a George Honey try looked to ice it after 72 minutes.

Whakarewarewa burst back into the match a minute later when the dangerous Chanse Perham barged over, but they ultimately ran out of time and patience with the officiating.

Hancock, who collected 19 points in a composed performance at the back, said the side had placed great importance on the home match against the former competition leaders after being tipped over by Te Puke Sports earlier in the weekend.

"That would have managed to put us way down the chain if we had managed to lose today," Hancock said. "I think there were a few sore bodies but we tried not to think about it. "

Tauranga Sports 24 (Lewis Hancock, George Honey tries; Hancock 4 pens, con) Whakarewarewa 17 (Siegfried Fisiihoi, Te Rangi Fraser, Chanse Perham tries; John Ririnui con).