IF Nili Latu had any hair atop his gleaming skull, he'd have probably torn it all out by the time his Steamers side arrived home late on Saturday night.
The pugnacious Bay of Plenty flanker was a frustrated figure after Saturday's 40-13 Ranfurly Shield humbling by Canterbury in Christchurch.

Midway through the second half and with Bay trailing 19-6, Latu nicked a loose ball from a Canterbury ruck and galloped 30m to score - only to be called back and penalised by referee Lyndon Bray.
It proved a crucial moment and a deeply frustrated Latu could only watch helplessly as the home side cantered away from that point with three quick tries.

``That would probably have got us back into the game and we definitely dropped after that,'' Latu said of his disallowed try. ``We needed something to get us going, get us on the front foot and I think that was it.''
Whether or no Latu was in an offside position in the ruck, as Bray contended, is a moot point.
It was only the tip of a whole iceberg of discontent for the Steamers, however, who were furious Bray didn't give them a chance to compete on level terms for ruck ball and were angered by several crucial calls that went against them.

Latu's main gripe was with Bray's ruling around the rucks. The flanker was consistently quick to the breakdown and was lifting the ball clear of the ground, but he felt Bray was calling rucks too early then penalising him for using his hands.
Those sentiments were backed by Steamers skipper Wayne Ormond.
``It's the second week in a row we've got pinged around the rucks,''Ormond said. ``Maybe we need to push it a bit harder with the refs or maybe we need to have a look at ourselves. We're really trying to compete a lot more on the ground, to get in there and attack it. We're really competing in that area but unfortunately we're not getting the result and we're getting penalised.''

It was an ugly game, no doubt about that. The only attractive elements were the kicking of Canterbury fullback Ben Blair, who contributed 18 faultless points and the glorious Christchurch weather.
But it got infinitely uglier when Ormond was penalised for a late tackle on Blair at the start of the second half. Blair's acting skills matched his kicking prowess and he duly nailed the kick to take the score out to 13-3.
Ormond poached a Canterbury scrum feed near their line and was tackled just short - though a cynical Leon MacDonald foul limited the damage to just a penalty.
Bray missed a crooked Canterbury lineout throw minutes later and Kevin Senio was penalised for a high tackle - again Blair nailed the kick.

Then came Latu's `transgression' and Canterbury wing Scott Hamilton scored in the space of four minutes - all of a sudden Bay were 26-6 down and dead and buried.
Eventually the frustration boiled over.
Ormond slapped a ball out of the hands of Canterbury halfback Jamie Nutbrown while he was clearing from a ruck at Bray binned him for a professional foul. Canterbury raced in for two further tries and the scoreline blew out completely.
Undoubtedly in games like this you have to make your own luck, and Canterbury's class and skill created a veritable fortune factory.
But a much-improved Bay - showing far more energy than in their drab opener against Otago - had nothing but bruises to show for it.
``The boys are hurting because it didn't feel like they got that many points on us but we've just got to stay positive - it was a much better effort this week.'' Ormond said. ``We had opportunities but we've got to look after the ball a lot better and be more accurate.''