What can I say about the Mafia day out in Hamilton? From the moment we arrived in the ground, we were treated to a feast of Bay rugby, forwards driving hard, sweeping back line moves and a Waikato side bewildered and ultimately defeated heavily. Oh how we shouted our approval and made such cutting and disparaging remarks to the Waikato fans.

Unfortunately the development game ended (with a fantastic victory for the Bay Bs, cute name huh?), and the real event took over. Our triumphant shouts were replaced by shouts of anger as we had a first-half game plan of giving the ball to Waikato and letting them attack. Any throws to the lineout were charitably put directly into the hands of Keith Robinson, and when we took the ball into the tackle we were very fair about letting the defensive players have a chance to grab it. Unfortunately our kind actions were not reciprocated by the Mooloo men and at half-time the game was pretty much over as a contest. We were left to rejoice in small triumphs such as keeping the ball beyond phase 1, passing the half-way line and noting that we had twice as many mascots who were 10 times as entertaining. As for the stadium, it is OK although there was a guy there still revving his chainsaw with no tree in sight, very bizarre.

From 33-0 down deep in the second half we revised our game plan and showed that we would have won the game had there been another 40 minutes to play. We undoubtedly missed Sorensen in the lineout but other than that it was just one of those days, the sort of day that leads the Chiefs to end up with 25 Waikato players unfortunately. Looking on the bright side, we did reasonably well to concede so much possession and still only lose 33-12, last season it would have been a cricket score and we’re not talking Lou Vincent here. Surely it will take a superhuman effort for the lads to rise up to the challenge of Southland next weekend…