Waikato have suffered a loss to open their 2024 Bunnings NPC after going down 21-36 to Bay of Plenty Steamers at FMG Stadium Waikato.

Both sides were competing for two pieces of silverware, the Chiefs Country Cup and the Nathan Strongman Memorial both trophies were held by the Steamers.

The home team opened the scoring for the day through Quinn Tupaea, when he took a short pass from Xavier Roe close to the line to score the first try. D’Angelo Leuila was able to add the extras as Waikato led 7-nil after 10 minutes.

Unfortunately the rest of the first half was dominated by visitors as they scored 22 unanswered points scoring tries through Joe Johnston, Cody Vai and Emoni Narawa. Kaleb Trask was successful in converting two out of the three tries. He also added a penalty right on half time as Bay of Plenty led 7-22 at the break.

In the second half, Joe Johnston completed his brace when he scored early in the second to extend the visitors lead to 22 points.

Midway through the second half, Waikato were able to bust through the Steamers defence to cut into the Bay of Plenty lead. Taha Kemara added the extras to make it a 15 point game with 17 minutes remaining.  

However the Steamers were able to strike right back through Seamus Bardoul only five minutes later. Trask added the conversion, to lead 14-36 with 12 minutes remaining.

Josh Moorby was able to score on debut approaching full time. After a mistake from Waikato at halfway, Kemara toed the ball through and it bounced up for him to grab and offload to Moorby in support who raced away to score. Kemara added the extras to bring Waikato’s score to 21 but by then it was too late as the Steamers had done enough to hand Waikato a 21-36 defeat.

Waikato 21 (Quinn Tupaea, Lachlan McWhannell, Josh Moorby tries; D’Angelo Leuila 1 conversion, Taha Kemara 2 conversions)

Bay of Plenty Steamers 36 (Joe Johnston 2, Cody Vai, Emoni Narawa, Seamus Bardoul tries; Kaleb Trask 4 conversions, 1 penalty)    

HT: 7-22

Article added: Monday 12 August 2024