The Bay beat Northland 19-14 in Rotorua tonight after being 14-3 down at half-time. It was a catalogue of errors in the first half as a swirling wind meant a lot of kicking and we dropped a lot and gave away a stack of penalties. The only bright spot was the domination of the line-out which continued through the whole game.

The Northland try came when they kicked under pressure on their own line only for Smith (I think) to drop the ball. From the scrum, the next kick was dropped by Lawrence and Woodman was over in the corner.

The second half was a different story as the Bay finally started running hard and straight and Delany pinned Northland back with well judged kicks. After hammering the line for a few minutes, we eventually kicked a penalty. Soon after Braid sent a pass wide, it was kicked through and after some confusion, Braid kicked and touched down for the try. 2 more penalties to Delany, a yellow card apiece and it was 19-14 in the end.

BOP Steamers 19 (Luke Braid try; Mike Delany 4 pens con) Northland 14 (Troy Woodman try; Lachlan Munro 3 pens)