Dave Rennie isn't a great believer in moral victories. Which is probably just as well after the Bay of Plenty Steamers' insipid second-half display saw them stutter to a forgettable 33-15 Air New Zealand Cup win over Pool A wooden-spooners Manawatu at International Stadium on Saturday.

Bay of Plenty scored 33 points in the first half - enough to put the game as a contest well out of Manawatu's reach - and held on for their maiden win in the Air NZ Cup. But the promised massacre in the second half never came as Bay bumbled their way through 40min of mind-numbing nonsense. The closest they came to scoring a fourth try was when Lance MacDonald got on the end of a Murray Williams break. With the line looming he passed to a Manawatu defender.

Rennie, who took over as Manawatu coach just two weeks before the competition began, managed a wry smile at his side's second-half effort, although outscoring the Bay in the second 40 gave him no satisfaction. "Just look at the scoreboard, mate. It was nice to keep them scoreless in the second half but they'd just got away on us too quick.''

Bay and Manawatu looked like the two worst teams in Pool A, save for a three-try burst when Bay went score-crazy in a scintillating eight minutes of running rugby late in the first half.
Fullback Charles Baxter dotted twice and halfback Jamie Nutbrown - Bay's best with a darting, sniping game around the ruck - nabbed the other to give the Steamers a handy 33-8 halftime lead. But that's where it unravelled for the home team as they spent the second half fighting a stiff breeze, improved Manawatu defence and the whistle of referee Gary Wise, who dished out a staggering 16 penalties against Bay as they played most of the stanza off their feet. Wise's patience ran out with 10 minutes to go and flanker Warren Smith paid the price, yellow-carded for the second successive week after ill-discipline - which didn't amuse coach Andre Bell.
"Again, that's not acceptable and we'll be addressing it with Warren during the week.''

Bell was perplexed with the scoreless second half. Going into the game with a solitary bonus point, you'd think they'd grab every available point. "We asked for an 80-minute performance and got 40 again and although we managed a win it's a pretty sombre room in there right now. We vowed at halftime we'd re-focus again for the second half but our ill-discipline let us down.''
Baxter's second try was his last touch of the game as he limped down the tunnel at halftime, returning after the break to sit on the reserves bench nursing an injured leg.

First-five Mike Delany, growing in confidence with every start, kicked four first-half penalties and added the extras for all three tries. Nutbrown, in a robust display, was constantly threatening, asking questions of Manawatu's frail close-in defence with his probing runs. Bay led 12-3 late in the first half, all the points coming from penalties, before Nutbrown shrugged off four tacklers on a 30m run to the tryline. A couple of minutes later Baxter burst through out of nowhere to score, Delany's kick making it 26-3.

Baxter's second came just a few phases after the restart when, with Manawatu first-five Ryan Bambry sinbinned for a cynical foul on Nutbrown, he scythed through out wide. Delany banged over the conversion and Bay's scoring was complete. Manawatu scored before halftime through flanker Nick Crosswell, with the only scoring in the second half coming when Wise awarded Manawatu a penalty try.

With thanks to the Bay of Plenty Times