Otago fails to weather storm against BOP
OTAGO came out of its storm week just fine but it has not exactly sailed into calmer seas.
A second straight loss in the NPC, and third from six games overall, has Otago right on the bubble as it prepares for a tricky finish to the season.
It has games to come against three of the big unions, including the current leaders of both pools in the competition, and points dropped at home are not particularly welcome at this time of year.
The 3327 loss to Bay of Plenty at Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday was neither terrible nor unlucky — it was just a bit deflating.
Otago played well in spurts, looked quite dangerous when it secured clean ball, and scored a couple of fabulous tries.
But the blue and golds were also flat in patches and inconsistent in others.
They never really got a solid platform courtesy of an erratic lineout, fell off too many tackles and they made small errors in big moments — and those are not the sorts of things that win you a title.
They have to quickly rediscover some of the mojo that carried them through their storm week — three wins in seven days — if they are to make some noise in the NPC playoffs.
Winger Sam Gilbert, Otago’s most potent attacking threat, and forwards Josh Hill and James Lentjes were the pick of the home bunch yesterday, while hooker Henry Bell tried hard in general play before making way to give Brady Robertson a debut.
It had not been a first half of immense entertainment overall, but there were a couple of moments to get the crowd of about 2500 into the Father’s Day spirit.
Otago made a cracking start when it held on to the ball for about three minutes and showed some super handling skills.
Young midfield back Jake Te Hiwi then created the opportunity when he attacked the line and offloaded to Gilbert, who had to do plenty of work to score the try.
Bay of Plenty, sparked by the relentless goforward of flanker Naitoa Ah Kuoi and the creativity of second fiveeighth Inga Finau, struck back quickly, scoring tries after the 11th and 18th minutes.
The first was after a sweeping sidetoside passage of play that ended with an overlap and a chance for winger Emoni Narawa to race to the line.
The Steamers then chose to get bold and turned down a very kickable penalty. From the lineout, they drove and turned and grimaced and lock Manaaki SelbyRickit showed good leg power to bustle over.
Two Cam Millar penalties gave Otago a 1310 advantage at the break.
The second half became a titfortat battle once Bay of Plenty had made it 1313.
Otago scored a beauty when Vilimoni Koroi and Lentjes combined in the leadup and James Arscott popped to Hill — a late replacement for Fabian Holland, who suffered a head knock in training — for the try.
The home side was perhaps then guilty of falling asleep as Narawa quickly scored his second to make it 2020.
Bay of Plenty went ahead when lock Justin Sangster, a hugely impressive figure in the second half, burrowed over.
But, again, the scores were levelled when Otago showed some crisp handling skills to create a gap for Koroi.
Who would blink first? It turned out to be Otago, which gave away a couple of crucial penalties within kicking distance and was left reflecting on a frustrating afternoon.
Next up for Otago is a trip to the capital to play Wellington on Sunday afternoon.