North Otago enter semifinals unbeaten

5.00pm

NORTH OTAGO 27 KING COUNTRY 16

First five-eighth Simon Porter contributed 17 points as North Otago beat King Country in their NPC third division rugby match today to go through the round robin unbeaten.

Porter was successful with six of eight attempts and punished King Country with some accurate kicking in general play to keep his team on the front foot.

In a scrappy game playing in blustery wind, both teams were unable to get consistent phase ball on which to launch attacks.

The match saw frequent handling mistakes and King Country were heavily penalised in the tackled ball area.

Despite this, they did managed to score two opportunistic tries to first five-eighth Roger Warren and wing Ronnie Patea.

North Otago wing Toetu Palamo proved a dangerous runner and was rewarded with two tries.

North Otago 27 (Toetu Palamo 2 tries; Simon Porter 5 pen, con)

King Country 16 (Roger Warren, Ronnie Patea tries; Warren 2 pen)

Halftime: 14-11