A small pre-season NPC match presence from the BoP Mafia saw three members and several affiliates travel to the debut of Bay of Plenty – oops, sorry – the Western Bay Finance Bay of Plenty Steamers (WBFBOPS for short) vs Dirty Scumbag Waikato (DSW for short) on Saturday 9^th August at Baypark in Mount Maunganui – to be known during the rugby season as the Western Bay Finance Stadium.

In a stunning debut for the Stadium and the Mafia in NPC level activities, the Bay triumphed 46-31 over a Waikato side that was outmuscled at scrum time & around the fringes at ruck and maul time, pathetic at lineout time, devoid of ideas on attack, and outflanked with surprising regularity. That they only kept in touch thanks to three intercept tries summed up their entire game.

The game began with an early Loki Crichton penalty goal as a reasonable crowd of around 3,000 to 3,500 settled into the Stadium, many using the new $2 (profits to Yellow Ribbon) “Cheer Stix” which when banged together made a reasonable noise. While some of the pre-recorded crowd-rev up chants prior to the game were interested, the Mafia were highly unimpressed with “Steamers Steamers Steamers Oi Oi Oi!” (bloody Aussies) but amused at being the latest team to have a chant using “Ole”. No Waikato, you weren’t the first and you won’t be the last...

Bay of Plenty began to show their dominance around the fringes of the ruck and maul against the surprisingly feeble and old-woman like efforts of a Waikato pack consisting of five Super 12 players (the Bay only have 2 S12 players in total) and a traitorous ex-Bay squad member and current NZ sevens rep in the form of Liam Messam, and tries quickly followed when they were outflanked, especially to outstanding attacking weapon Anthony Tahana.

Unfortunately the Bay allowed Waikato to keep a semblance of respectability by conceding two intercept tries. The first saw Chresten Davis run 50m from the middle of the field with only Wayne Ormond in the vicinity – it seems all of our outside backs must have been at the pie cart at that point hence explaining to their lack of pursuit and the resulting heckles from Waikato fans – anyway, where is Caleb Ralph when you need him? The second saw a lazily executed chip kick from Glen Jackson go straight into the arms of one of the Waikato outside backs with 60m to run. Tahana came across in cover defence, but with Jackson in pursuit covering one side and Tahana coming from the other, Tahana made the basic mistake of over-committing from his angle and allowing the Waikato player to chop back inside him and score under the posts, eliminating the left hand pursuit of Jackson in the process.

The biggest surprise of the game was the effect two new-to-NPC-level locks in the form of Sorenson and Upton had on the Waikato “lineout”. By my count we had pinched 6 off their throw by halftime, and the inability of Jamie “younger brother of Deon” Muir to get the ball past the front of the Bay lineout had most sections of the crowd convinced it was only family connections that had him anywhere near the squad (let alone team) in the first place. Combined with Derek Maisey’s regular performance as “custard boot” aka the worst kicking first-five in rugby when clearing for touch, the Waikato team were hamstrung by poor field position and low intensity. The Bay scrum looked the better of the two most of the time but did have a couple of shaky moments. 

Neither coach made changes at half-time even though the Waikato tight-five was screaming out for help. The Bay continued the assault with another sweeping movement down the left flank resulting in a third try to Anthony Tahana, along with a typical Aleki Lutui try from wading through a lacklustre Waikato forward pack, a pack with Wayne Ormond also was able to breach with impunity. The Bay of Plenty backline continually made more half breaks than their one-dimensional opposition. Waikato scored a try eventually three or four phases after a five metre attacking scrum when the Bay ran out of numbers on their left – shame the touch judge missed a foot in touch from the Waikato player on the way up-field to the 5m scrum – much to the derision of the crowd, a crowd which was well worked by HoriBop in particular. 

Both coaches emptied the benches from the 60^th minute onward, and while the lineout improved for Waikato even the likes of Manu and Robinson couldn’t stop Ormond, Lutui, and the highly impressive openside Nili Latu in the forward exchanges. Keith Robinson contributed further to the Waikato cause by mistaking a Bay player for a camping ground owner. Unfortunately for him the touch judge for once made no mistake, spotted the punch, and Waikato played the last 8 minutes with 14 players. Unfortunately for the Bay the player was no camping ground owner and fought back, also joining Robinson in the bin so the Bay likewise finished the game with 14...

Waikato’s final try came from their third intercept – a slow looping cross-field pass from Grant McQuoid who had just switched back to fullback, a pass the crowd was groaning about even as he started to throw it, allowing a Waikato player a 50m run to the line.

The game saw a superb display of goalkicking with Loki Crichton kicking all his attempts at goal and Glen Jackson’s sole miss hitting the upright from a sideline conversion attempt. All in all a display that the Bay will take heart from as the Waikato forward pack they dominated wasn’t the weakest they will face all year and our scrum and lineout functioned efficiently. For Waikato, while they were missing players in their backline it was in the forwards that they struggled for intensity and accuracy and where they ultimately lost the game. Their preparation for the game was also a double edged sword, while spending a week in the Gold Coast training against a Japanese based side, their early morning arrival back in New Zealand was less than ideal. Still, it cannot be used to excuse many of the basic mistakes made.

Fingers crossed for the Bay, we’ve seen promising pre-seasons before only for the NPC to resemble a large vat of custard. Lets hope 2003 is a return to 1976 like days...

The scorers:

Bay of Plenty:

Anthony Tahana 3 tries, Wayne Ormond 2 tries, Aleki Lutui 1 try. Glen Jackson 5 cons 2 penalties

Waikato:

David Johnston 2 tries, Chresten Davis try, Matt Priscott try, Loki Crichton 4 cons, 1 pen

Half time 24-17 to Bay of Plenty

Full time 46-31 to Bay of Plenty

Notable occurrences:

-          A hattrick of tries to Anthony Tahana

-          John Moore played his 15^th and blazer game for the Steamers from the bench

-          Nili Latu and Ray MacDonald made their full Bay of Plenty debuts

-          Jamie Muir made his run-on debut for Waikato

-          Jonno Gibbes played his first game of rugby since NZ Maori vs Tonga in June

-          Hori and Honki BoP – well done those men!

Teams:

Bay of Plenty

1. Simms Davison 2. Aleki Lutui 3. Ben Castle 4. Mark Sorenson 5. Bernie Upton 6. Wayne Ormond 7. Nili Latu 8. Clayton MacMillan (c) 9. Kevin Senio 10. Glen Jackson 11. Charles Baxter 12. Grant McQuoid 13. Alan Bunting 14. Anthony Tahana 15. Damon Kaui

16. Ngarimu Simpkins 17. Taufa’ao Filise 18. John Moore 19. Paul Tupai 20. Nathaniel Walker 21. Ray MacDonald 22. Apoua Stewart

Waikato

1. David Briggs 2. Jamie Muir 3. Michael Collins 4. Chresten Davis 5. Sean Hohneck 6. Jonno Gibbs (c) 7. Scott Couch 8. Liam Messam 9. Rhys Duggan 10. Derek Maisey 11. Sosene Anesi 12. Loki Crichton 13. Matt Priscott 14. David Johnson 15. Todd Miller

16. Scott Linklater 17. Deacon Manu 18. Keith Robinson 19. Daniel Alofa 20. Stephen Bates 21. Isaac Boss 22. Dwayne Sweeney

Referee: Lynden Bray

MIA

Bay of Plenty: Rodney Voullaire (injured) Nathan Strongman (family Wedding) Dale Rasmussen (Samoa squad duties)

Waikato: Keith Lowen, David Hill, Mark Ranby (short term injuries), Regan King (seems to be allowed an extra recovery period after a premature club rugby return)