For the most over-hyped ITM Cup game of the season, Bay’s visit to Canterbury was a rather dull affair and already largely forgotten in the wake of an event a few hours later. In truth, the Bay did not play well enough to win and their only consolation was to deny Canterbury their usual four try bonus point.

It was a chilly night down in Christchurch and the southerly chilled the bones of the few Bay faithful from the tropical north. The first half didn’t do much to warm us but a narrow 10-9 half-time deficit had the Fan dreaming of a stirring second half and a glorious victory.

From where I was sitting, Colin Bourke definitely scored a try early in the second half which would have given us the lead and maybe (that’s a fairly large maybe) a rattled Canterbury would have folded.

It was possibly the cold weather that made it into an ugly game but at times it felt like amateur hour with both sides guilty of some awful play and poor decisions. The Fan never has a bad word to say about Mike Delany so I won’t mention him taking a quick tap and kicking it out on the full. It really summed up the whole night for the Bay.

The All Black tight five for Canterbury totally demolished our Bay boys in the scrum. It must have been disconcerting for Colin Bourke to see his own front row rushing to meet him. The Fan began to dread knock-ons and crooked line out throws as the Cantabrian beasts licked their lips at the prospect of another few seconds of destruction. A partisan Bay supporter may question the legality of prop Wyatt Crockett and his rather crooked scrummaging; but when you have such a power advantage over your opposition, the referee is always going to penalise the other team.

The media phenomenon of Sonny Bill Williams was presented to the crowd much earlier than expected due to Crotty’s injury. He and Robby Fruean form the largest bicep centre pairing in world rugby and SBW looked as if his jersey had been sewn onto him. The social skier had a generally quiet debut although he did cover well to push Masaga out in the corner. Fruean was the one to score the eye-catching try and the Fan predicts that he will win the race for All Black selection.

With some of the lower ranked teams grabbing wins, the race for the ITM Cup top seven is shaping up to be a tight one. The Bay now faces a run of three home games that all have to be won, starting with the Thursday night visit of Manawatu. Who would have thought that the rabble that collapsed against Northland could pick themselves up and humble Wellington at the weekend?