Bay upset champions on return to first division

Bay of Plenty 14 Wellington 11

Bay of Plenty had just three Super 12 players to Wellington's 12, but it made little difference as they won their NPC first division opener in Wellington yesterday.

There was some dreadful rugby at WestpacTrust Stadium as reigning champions Wellington played a team promoted to the first division for the first time in 10 years.

Both sides were unimpressive, but Wellington were worse.

They were disorganised for most of the match and seemed to have little idea of what they were supposed to be doing.

Wellington turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, and the only thing keeping them in the game was Bay of Plenty's turning it over 16 times.

After a superb start, with a nifty move from a scrum in the second minute nearly leading to a try to wing Brad Fleming, it was all downhill for Wellington as Bay of Plenty scored when unwanted Wellington club player Sam Hala beat his opposite, Lome Fa'atau, on the outside.

The converted try gave Bay of Plenty a 7-3 lead at the break. Wellington started with vigour in the second spell, with loose forwards Filo Tiatia and Jerry Collins leading the charge.

However, a steady stream of mistakes, desperate Bay of Plenty defence and an apparent inability to run a team-mate into space, meant Wellington seldom looked a champion team.

They scored one try, by centre Jason O'Halloran, giving them an 11-7 lead, but then the mistakes returned and Bay of Plenty snatched the lead with a try to centre Alan Bunting.

Wellington could have drawn, through a last-minute penalty, but first five-eighths David Holwell missed a sitter. He finished with four missed penalties and a missed conversion.

Bay of Plenty coach Gordon Tietjens said the win was a long time coming and was special because it was the Bay's first against Wellington.

For Wellington, heads are certain to roll, but they also need to recover from an embarrassing performance and get their patterns in place so the players know what they are doing.

There is little time to do it as they play Taranaki in New Plymouth on Friday night.

- NZPA