Barely two weeks into the season and a split has emerged in pool B of rugby's Heartland Championship.
Wanganui, Mid Canterbury and King Country have quickly stamped themselves as favourites to qualify from the pool for the Meads Cup competition.
All three have cleared out from their poolrivals, with their second successive victories yesterday leading to a huge gap on the bottom three.
Cameron Crowley scored two of Wanganui's six tries when they dismantled Thames Valley 43-0 at Paeroa, while Mid Canterbury also secured a bonus point in seeing off Poverty Bay 26-13 in Gisborne.
Mid Canterbury were superbly served by first five-eighth Kieran Lindsay, who scored one try himself and engineered two others.
King Country are tucked right in behind Wanganui and Mid Canterbury on nine points after overcoming a sluggish start to beat East Coast 32-3 in Taupo.
East Coast, Thames Valley and Poverty Bay have some hard work ahead of them as they have yet to register even one point after two rounds.
North Otago lead pool A on nine points after being forced to work hard for their 15-9 win over West Coast in Greymouth.
They scored three tries to nil but made heavy work of the win against a West Coast side who rose to the challenge in front of home support a week after clipping Wairarapa Bush's wings in a high-scoring affair in Masterton.
North Otago remain the only unbeaten team in pool A, with second-placed Wairarapa Bush two back of them after taking their chances to score four tries in a 27-19 win over South Canterbury in Timaru.
The remaining fixture saw Buller snatch a 16-16 draw with Horowhenua Kapiti in Westport after trailing 0-16 at halftime.
Buller tightened their game up to score a try by Marcus Taylor and two penalties, a dropped goal and a conversion by Nathan Thompson after the interval.
Buller missed the chance to steal an unlikely victory when No 8 Jo Yalayala dropped the ball over the tryline.
