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Written by Kiwi Pie
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Monday, 28 September 2009 |
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A game of 2 halves with the Bay competing well in the first half to take a 17-10 lead and then kept scoreless in the second half to lose 26-17. An early try to Otago was a bad sign, with our defence close to the setpiece carved up. This was to happen for the whole game as Romans, Shortland and Ben Smith made easy metres. The Bay fought back well from the early setback and showed great continuity for Retallick to post the first try after a series of assaults on the line. Just before half-time, Bourke turned down a kickable penalty and from the lineout, Braid eventually twisted over the line.
The second half was a disaster. Delany missed an early penalty and from there things just got worse and worse. A penalty and an opportunist try saw Otago hit the lead and very soon after go out to a 9 point lead as we were cut open and then had to infringe to half their flow. Braid then saw yellow for the second game running after a dangerous tackle and the Bay became headless chooks, running it from everywhere and never looking like scoring.
The pack went pretty well, the scrums were a mess and the lineouts were respectable for the Bay - but we never put any serious pressure on Otago throws and suffered from the clean ball they won. In the tight exchanges, the forwards were outstanding with two hard-won tries. The backline had no flow at all, the opposite of last week. Nothing went right for Burleigh and the defence around 7/9/10/12 was appalling.
I hope we haven't hit the wall like we did around this time last season. The game against Hawke's Bay is a sem-final decider in my view, lose and we stand no chance, win and we keep our hopes alive.
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