A late try denied Hautapu Sports a first-round win as Waikato Premier Rugby’s senior season got underway.
The Hautapu Premier A side lost 16-14 at Otorohanga, while the Premier B side won their match 13-12 against Otorohanga.
In the Premier A game, Hautapu started the game positively but conceded an early penalty to trail 3-0.
After a resolute piece of attack, Quincy Ngatai scored under the posts for Hautapu to go up 7-3 in the 18th minute.
Again after a sustained attack, Hautapu were awarded a penalty and chose to go to touch.
From five metres out, Hautapu drove the lineout and were awarded a penalty try to go ahead 14-3.
Poor discipline saw them concede another penalty and go into halftime ahead 14-6.
The second half was played in solid rain, which slowed the pace of the game down and inhibited Hautapu’s style of play.
The game was made a stop-start affair, and no further scoring took place until the 70th minute when Oto got another penalty to be behind 14-9.
The last five minutes saw silly penalties conceded by Hautapu, gifting Oto territory, and after a number of phases, they crashed over in the 77th minute to score the winning try which was converted.
In the Premier B fixture, Jordan Santy and Todd Silva scored the tries for the Development team.
Meanwhile, the Hautapu Colts travelled to Waitete for their opening fixture and romped to a 57-0 win.
Results
Games played on Saturday April 1, 2023
Premier A
Otorohanga 16
Hautapu Sports 14
Premier B
Otorohanga 12
Hautapu Sports 13
Colts
Waitete 0
Hautapu Sports 57
Photographer Matt Gould was on the sideline at Otorohanga to capture some of the action.
Photo gallery
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Credit
Our thanks to Matt Gould of True You Photography for supplying us with matchday photography. See his work at Instagram @trueyou_photography.
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