Taranaki, BOP claim upsets in ugly opening round

New Zealand rugby fans will be hoping things only get better after a drab opening to the All Blacks-less NPC first division at the weekend.

The feature match of round one saw Otago prevail 6-3 over defending champions Auckland in a dour slog in Dunedin on Friday, while big scalps went to Taranaki and Bay of Plenty.

Taranaki won the battle of the bovines 26-20 over last year's beaten finalists Waikato in Hamilton, while last year's wooden spooners Bay of Plenty toppled North Harbour 22-16 today.

The absence of All Blacks at least set the tone for upsets, with Northland frightening Canterbury before losing 26-30 and Southland scoring more tries than Wellington but succumbing 28-34.

Northland and Canterbury produced some scintillating running rugby but the other matches were marred by errors as the early season blues took hold.

The wisdom of playing night matches at Carisbrook in winter was shown up for a second straight week as Otago's tough defence was enough in the cold, wet conditions which ruined the match as a spectacle.

It was only Otago's second win over Auckland in their last 14 games, although the home side failed to capitalise on their 70 per cent territorial advantage.

There was drama right until the end when Otago's Tony Brown, believing time was up, kicked the ball into touch.

Auckland mounted an attack from the lineout inside their 22, steamrolled downfield and, when a ruck broke up about 35m from the Otago line, referee Kelvin Deaker's arm again went in the air.

It seemed a penalty could have gone either way, but Deaker ruled in favour of Otago and, this time, Willie Walker did end the game when he kicked the ball out. Walker kicked two of his five penalty attempts.

Bay of Plenty christened New Zealand first-class rugby's newest venue at Mt Maunganui's Baypark in style today.

North Harbour's solid forward pack led by a rampaging Troy Flavell and a speedy young backline looked as if they would be too good for the home side early on.

But the rain came at the right time for BOP who doused North Harbour's second half raids with a solid defence.

First five-eighth Glen Jackson put in a controlled display of goalkicking to seal the win with 17 points including five penalties.

In Hamilton, Taranaki turned on a fine defensive effort to upset Waikato yesterday.

It was a decisive victory for Taranaki, who scored four tries to one despite surviving off minimal possession in a poor game marred by excessive and inaccurate kicking plus a host of turnovers.

Waikato snatched a consolation bonus point three minutes into injury time and with the final siren having sounded when teenage replacement wing Dwayne Sweeney kicked a penalty.

The scores were level 14-14 10 minutes into the second half before a fine try to second five-eighth Bryce Robins to make it 21-14.

Taranaki scored their bonus-point try in the 34th minute, which was just reward for the scorer, blindside flanker Brent Thompson, whose bone-jarring tackles led Taranaki's defence.

In W hangarei, fullback Ben Blair kicked Canterbury to a hard- earned win with 20 points as Canterbury struggled home.

Northland scored four tries to Canterbury's two, led 14-0 after 20 minutes, 14-13 at halftime then traded blows in the second half during which the lead changed three times.

Canterbury finally prevailed with three late Blair penalty kicks giving them the lead in the last minutes of the game although Northland claimed two invaluable bonus points.

In Wellington, poor goalkicking cost Southland dearly.

Southland outscored Wellington four tries to three, including two to impressive centre Gavin Williams, but Richard Apanui and Seremaia Bai managed just one penalty and one conversion from seven shots at goal.

Accurate kicking from David Holwell saw Wellington lead 19-8 just after halftime but two quick tries to Southland loan centre Williams saw the Stags lead 25-24 with 10 minutes left.

Wellington though finished stronger, with impressive No 8 Rodney So'oialo providing the spark to put wing Lome Fa'atau over the tryline five minutes from fulltime.

Holwell added a penalty and a conversion for a personal tally of 19 points.

- NZPA