Rugby: Bay of Plenty upset Hawke's Bay

Bay of Plenty's Toby Arnold on the attack. Photo / Getty Images

Bay of Plenty made a mockery of pre-match predictions when they trounced last year's semifinalsts Hawke's Bay 30-11 in the ITM Cup second round match at Napier.

Bay of Plenty showed they had learned their lessons well from last week's 10-13 loss to Waikato last week, taking a no-nonsense approach into tonight's game.

Hawke's Bay, who drew their opening round match with Canterbury, had the home ground advantage but threw that away with a disjointed display in which the forwards and backs appeared to be strangers to one another.

Bay of Plenty halfback Taniela Moa had a powerful game from behind his forwards and deservedly scored the only try of the first half.

The sides exchanged penalty goals in the first 11 minutes with Andrew Horrell landing the first for Hawke's Bay and Daniel Waenga replying for Bay of Plenty.

Moa's try came when he finished off a sustained period of pressure by his forwards in the 24th minute. Waenga

Bay of Plenty scored early in the second half after fullback Toby Arnold and wing Lance MacDonald combined in a searing counter-attack to carry the ball deep into Hawke's Bay's 22m before MacDonald transferred the ball to Lelia Masaga who was unopposed as he dotted down.

Hawke's Bay, answering coach Peter Russell's halftime call to keep play tight and not kick possession away as they had in the first half, dominated the next 20 minutes of the game but little errors and use of poor options proved costly.

Hooker Hika Elliot was prominent in this phase of the game, one of his bursts almost producing a try. But halfback Kahn Kahn Fotuali'i dropped the pass with the tryline at his mercy.

Elliot showed another touch of class when he chipped and chased while on the right wing but was stopped by a quickly covering Moa.

Hawke's Bay's spell over their opponents was finally lifted when centre Brett Mather and Waenga combined in a snap counter after Jason Shoemark spilled the ball.

Hawke's Bay had hardly worked out what went wrong before Bay of Plenty hammed another two tries home in quick succession, the first to valiant skipper Colin Bourke with the second by substitute back Chad Tuoro.

Hawke's Bay scored a consolation try on the final hooter through wing Richard Buckman after fellow winger Zac Guildford finaally broke his shackles with an enterprising run.

Bay of Plenty 30 (Taniela Moa, Lelia Masaga, Dan Waenga, Colin Bourke, Chad Tuoro tries; Waenga pen, Phil Burleigh con) Hawke's Bay 11 (Richard Buckman try; Andrew Horrell 2 pen). Halftime: 8-6.

- NZPA