Otago back in hunt after breaking drought NPC

The scores

Otago ...................................... 27 Josh Dickson, Will Tucker, Josh Timu tries; Cameron Millar 3 con, 2 pen

Waikato .................................. 20 Damian McKenzie, Bailyn Sullivan tries; McKenzie 2 con, 2 pen

Halftime: Waikato 1410.

OTAGO snapped its losing streak and returned to the NPC playoff hunt with a moraleboosting win over previously unbeaten Waikato yesterday.

Modern rugby types are always preaching about performance over results.

By that measure, Otago was already a winner yesterday — it played (mostly) really well, and comfortably shaded an outofsorts Waikato team at the end of its storm week.

A good effort would have been cold comfort had the game been lost, though.

Otago, so disappointing in recent weeks, finished superbly with three massive plays that sealed this memorable win in front of about 1600 fans.

Waikato held a 2013 lead with 13 minutes to play when Otago winger Freedom Vahaakolo, out of nowhere, unleashed a booming kick that went for a 5022.

A minute later, replacement halfback Kieran McClea — on debut, and looking right at home — slid through half a gap and unloaded for fellow reserve Will Tucker to score, even if the grounding did look slightly dubious at first glance.

That made it 2020, and while Otago might have taken a draw, especially as it has had such a rugged run with injuries, it came up with the winning play just minutes later.

Waikato tried to give the ball some air, and in the right place at the right time was Josh Timu, who snaffled the intercept and ran a lovely diagonal line to score.

Worthy of a mention, too, was first five Cameron Millar, who converted both late tries from right on the sidelines.

Millar’s general kicking had been superb, and Sam Gilbert had another outstanding game at fullback.

Otago No 8 Christian LioWillie was prominent in the first half, Fabian Holland made an excellent return to lock, and hooker Henry Bell — while his lineout throwing is a work in progress — was aggressive with ball in hand.

It was, overall, just a good day out for Otago, which is back in the playoff race with two roundrobin games to go.

‘‘We’d talked all week around turning up with some confidence in our game and some energy and some accuracy,’’ coach Tom Donnelly said.

‘‘For the first 20 minutes, we had all those things, but we let in two pretty soft tries.

‘‘But then I thought we came out after halftime and just really put a good shift in.’’

Otago made all the running in the first 15 minutes and it seemed almost outrageously unfair that it trailed 143 at that point.

Millar’s early penalty was left in the dust by two wonderful pieces of Waikato backline trickery, both courtesy of second five D’Angelo Leuila’s pinpoint boot.

Leuila chipped over the Otago defence, midfield partner Bailyn Sullivan regathered, and a deft offload found fullback Damian McKenzie in plenty of space for the opening try.

Three minutes later, almost a carbon copy.

Leuila chipped through, Sullivan regathered — stop me if you have heard this before — and this time Sullivan was able to run on it was himself to grab Waikato’s second.

Otago had played well but was suddenly down by 11.

Heads did not drop, happily, and the response was swift as Otago claimed an attacking lineout and, after a couple of phases, lock Josh Dickson burrowed over the line.

Both teams were then guilty of wasting solid opportunities as the rest of the half went scoreless.

Otago botched two attacking lineouts, and Waikato both imploded at scrum time and wasted a 5m lineout with a poor throw.

The first 17 minutes of the second half were a snoozefest.

But the game then sprang into life — and now Otago’s season has some life in it, too.

Waikato’s consolation is that it has a Ranfurly Shield challenge against new holder Wellington this weekend.

In Tauranga, Southland’s awful season continued with a 5421 loss to Bay of Plenty.