League: Ngongotaha pay penalty

Ngongotaha's ill-discipline and shoddy defence cost them as they went down 30-16 to a well-drilled Pacific side in the latest round of the Bay of Plenty District Rugby League premier division.

Despite near-perfect playing conditions at Puketawhero Park it took both teams time to get started. Ngongotaha looked the more aggressive of the two with their forward pack looking to put a bit of sting into their defence.

However, their enthusiasm got the better of them and Ngongotaha soon found themselves back-pedalling thanks to the referee's whistle. Too often prop Joe Nuku would test the referee's patience lying too long on the tackled player or putting in a little too much niggle. Eventually Nuku would sit out the last 10 minutes of the match because of his indiscretions.

Although the penalty count went against Ngongotaha, they were the first to score with dummy half Josh Albert finding a hole in the ninth minute to score in the left corner.

But Pacific are a side who look to wear a team down and in the 20th minute their plan to just run it up hard at the defence and wait for a mistake paid off.

They were given a penalty 10m from the Ngongotaha line and it was a simple tap and run, dummy and step then fall over the line and score.

For the next 10 minutes the same action was repeated.

Ngongotaha would kick off, Pacific would hit it up for two or three tackles, Ngongotaha would get penalised, Pacific would kick to the corner, then hit it up again, Ngongotaha would be penalised near their line and Pacific would score an easy try from the tap penalty.

By the 30-minute mark Pacific were up 18-4. Just before halftime Pacific put what looked like the final nail in Ngongotaha's coffin when Ngari Hawkins kicked an easy penalty to extend the lead to 20-4 at the break.

Whatever Ngongotaha coach Dominic James said at halftime certainly picked his team up because they were the first to score in the second half and almost looked like a different team. They tackled hard and maintained their composure until the 60th minute when discipline went out the window and so did the match for Ngongotaha with Pacific grabbing two quick tries.

Although Ngongotaha scored a consolation try near the end, they will have to take a long look at getting the simple things right if they want to be on the right side of the ledger in the future.

Scorers: Pacific 30 (D Takiri, C Te Rau, P Russell, V Karora-Reau, E Takiri tries; N Kawkins 4 cons, 1 pen) Ngongotaha 16 (J Albert 2, C Nahu tries; L Taylor 2 cons) Halftime 20-4.