League: Bay of Plenty ends losing streak

Bay of Plenty centre Daniel Hunuhunu gets lifted by the Waikato defence. Photo / Stephen Parker

The Bay of Plenty rugby league team have broken an 11-year losing streak to their Waikato counterparts - winning 30-28 at Puketawhero Park.

It was a match which "could have gone either way" said first-time Bay of Plenty coach Doug Unuwai.

"I'm proud, you know, we've been having our ups and downs with our team the last few days," he said. "But we've come through, we picked a team who put their hands up and did the job for us."

Both teams were hit with the lack of player availability with a number of players on Waicoa Bay Stallion duty.

The small but vocal crowd may have thought history was doomed to repeat itself when Waikato jumped out to a 12-point lead in as many minutes.

Bay of Plenty looked like a team who hadn't had too many training sessions together with passes being dropped early in the tackle count.

Waikato's two firsthalf tries came from strong hit-ups from the forwards and clever running from dummy half.

But the momentum turned when some of the 50/50 calls started to go against Waikato. The visitors became frustrated and started to back-chat the match officials.

Bay of Plenty's big men Gray Rangi, Jason Pihema and Jason Kameta started to offload the ball, presenting their teammates with plenty of opportunities to run their bigger opponents around the field.

The gaps soon started to appear in the Waikato defence and Rangi was rewarded for his hard work with his side's first of six tries.

At the 30 minute mark fullback Seta Nalewakalou scored the first of his hat-trick of tries when he ran around a winger to score under the post for Carson to convert.

Second-row forward Jeremy Siulepa scored just before halftime to take the lead out to 22-12.

Waikato would narrow the gap straight after the break but it was the speed of Nalewakalou which would be the deciding factor first when he was put through a gap by Reggie Pearce then a 60m dash when he latched on to a loose Waikato ball.

Waikato scored two more tries to narrow the gap to 30-28 but could not add another.

Bay of Plenty's next match is against Coastline in Tauranga on Saturday.