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Bay give Wellington a shake |
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Written by Craig Tiriana
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Monday, 01 October 2007 |
PERHAPS during another season Bay of Plenty would have tipped over Wellington last night.
Unfortunately for the Steamers this is 2007 and it hasn't been a season when much has gone their way - although much of it is their own doing.
And as much as they fought for the majority of the 80 minutes at Rotorua International Stadium last night they still lost 16-13.
It left them with an Air New Zealand Cup season record of 10 games played for nine losses and a solitary win.
When the rest of this weekend's games are tallied up the Bay will finish 13th in the 14-team competition, light years from their preseason target of the quarterfinals, which is what they achieved last season.
In hindsight, it was definitely a goal too far but during their final outing there were signs that some of the systems and players were finally starting to click.
There was still too much inaccurate play, many passes went astray with holes appearing in the Wellington defence, but there was more stiffness to the Bay effort and the forwards were combative.
Wellington were on a hiding-to-nothing with a quarter final guaranteed but they didn't exactly fill anyone in the stadium with confidence that they'll threaten for the competition silverware.
They spoiled all night, giving up 15 penalties to three, and lost replacement forward Jeremy Thrush to the sinbin for the final minutes of the game. It was a negative display, drawn out of them by a battling Bay side who harassed and played with old fashioned purpose.
It wasn't pretty but it was a good way to farewell long-serving winger Anthony Tahana, who led the Steamers on to the park before heading to the bench.
Bay grew as the match went on with both captain Ben Castle and coach Kevin Schuler believing it was an effort to take positively into the off-season.
``After a performance like that you wish you had another few weeks in the competition,'' Castle said.
``We know were capable of games like that, that's probably a positive we can bank away.
``It's been a tough road this year and guys have learnt some pretty big lessons, after a performance like that we've got something to build on.''
Castle summed it up best when he labelled many of the Bay's previous performances as efforts where individuals shined. Last night was more of a team effort.
Colin Bourke landed two penalties for the Bay during the final 10 minutes which they dominated without finding the killer blow.
Wellington 16 (Faifili Levave, Hosea Gear tries; Miah Nikorah pen, Daniel Kirkpatrick pen) Bay of Plenty 13 (Ngarimu Simpkins try; Colin Bourke 2 pen, con). Halftime: 8-7.
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