Bye no excuse, says Counties Manukau coach

Sekope Kepu of Counties Manukau gets away from Hawkes Bay's Clint Newland (left) yesterday at Napier. Picture / Marty Melville

Hawkes Bay 51 Counties Manukau 29

Try suggesting to Counties Manukau coach Kevin Putt that coming off a bye was an excuse for a sloppy effort in Napier yesterday, then stand back and wait for a sizzling riposte.

First it was Manawatu getting a pasting from Tasman after having a bye a week ago, then yesterday it was Counties Manukau's turn as Hawkes Bay put a gloomy opening fortnight behind them in the third round of the Air New Zealand Cup.

But Putt won't wear the break as having any sort of relevance to yesterday's effort.

"It has been spoken about by teams for so long and I believe it's more mental than physical," Putt said last night.

"I fail to accept that as an excuse for our performance today. We need to go away and have a bloody hard look at ourselves and fix the things that went wrong - and they are fixable."

Considering the Bay had yet to register a point after their first two games, putting 50 points on Counties was like a club A grader turning into Roger Federer overnight.

Their win contained seven tries, some of them fine, smartly constructed efforts, backed by a strong goalkicking performance by replacement first five-eighth Aayden Clarke.

Counties bagged four of their own, so no complaints on the entertainment front. And Counties, who'd picked up a bonus point in their opening round loss to Otago, should take some consolation from plugging away to the death.

Two of their tries, from prop Simon Lemalu and a sizzling individual effort from Lelia Masaga, came in the last five minutes, to nab a second extra point.

But in a match that contained several niggling incidents, the Bay were well worth maximum points.

They eased out to a 27-10 halftime advantage, although halfback Danny Lee's try looked dodgy with some off-the-ball interference from a Hawkes Bay forward in the leadup, and the opener by second five-eighth Joe Wright came when fullback Koiatu Koiatu had a kick ahead charged down. Staggeringly, the Bay grabbed three more tries in a dreadful 11-minute burst for Counties just after halftime.

That was the ball game, but when Putt searches for positives, he'll latch onto those closing minutes when his team made sure they got something out of the contest.

* Otago were in charge of Northland by halftime and ran out comfortable winners on a rainy afternoon at Carisbrook, 37-6.

The bonus point came 15 minutes from the end when replacement back Greg Zampach linked adroitly with Nick Evans to score between the Northland posts.

And, on the back of earlier tries by prop Chris King, Evans and stand-in captain Neil Brew, after a Hayden Taylor clearing kick was charged down, made sure of maximum points.

That put Otago on top of pool B.

Northland had two Daniel Bowden penalties to show for their efforts.

* Manawatu plunged to fresh depths with their 43-0 towelling at the hands of Tasman in Blenheim.

Fullback Robbie Malneek grabbed three smart tries, first five-eighth Ben Gollings bagged 18 points and there was much to admire in Tasman's diligence and desire to keep pressing forward for points, even with the result long decided.

But Manawatu, down 24-0 after facing the wind, were dreadful.

If New Zealand Rugby Union nerves aren't getting twitchy about the wisdom of keeping all 14 cup applicants in, they should be. They have Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and North Harbour to come. Stand by for more shellackings.