THREE tries in the last 25 minutes kept Buller's Meads Cup hopes alive and consigned Poverty Bay to their seventh successive loss, 34-21, in a Heartland Championship match at Rugby Park. The Bay dominated long periods of the game. They trailed 17-15 after 55 minutes but should have taken the lead when halfback Sam Parkes lined up a handy penalty to the right of the posts.

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Parkes scored all his side's points with seven penalties, including a 52-metre beauty. But this time he dragged the ball wide of the left-hand post.Shortly after, the Bay were awarded a kickable penalty close to the posts but chose to tap and run, only to turn the ball over. Five minutes later, Buller stretched the gap to seven points with an unconverted try to halfback Andrew Stephens. Bay fullback David Philander then spilled an up-and-under from Buller fullback Ileisa Ravudra. Classy centre Mike Schmidt-Lealavaa took advantage to score the bonus-point try for his team. With 10 minutes remaining, Buller put the final nails in the coffin with tries to Schmidt-Lealavaa and left-winger Miteli Kaloudigibeci. "I'm getting tired of saying it but it's the same old story — we get ourselves into good positions but don't finish off and then get punished," Bay coach Mutu Ngarimu said. "We also didn't help ourselves by taking wrong options at crucial stages in the game. We bombed a couple of tries early on. We just have to regroup. We've got one more game to get the win." That game is away to King Country, and Ngati Porou East Coast will be hoping the Bay can end their season with a victory.

A Bay win, coupled with the Coast beating South Canterbury in Ruatoria, could see the Coast sneak into the Lochore Cup playoffs.Saturday's match was delayed until 3pm as Buller did not arrive in Gisborne until 12.30pm, after fog prevented their scheduled flight out of Westport on Friday. "We had to bus to Nelson then fly up today (Saturday) instead of getting here on Friday," Buller coach Craig Neill said. "It showed early on when Poverty Bay dominated the first 20 minutes and it was only good scrambling defence that kept them out. "But I was proud of the boys, especially the way we finished. We're not a big side but we are big on heart." Second five-eighth Penijamini Nabainivalu led the team out for his 50th appearance and, along with centre Schmidt-Lealavaa, was outstanding. While the long-striding Nabainivalu had pace and a big step, Schmidt-Lealavaa preferred the direct route . . . catching the ball cleanly then running fast, hard and straight before setting up his outsides. Poverty Bay's inspirational captain and No.8, Sione Ngatu, controlled possession and territory for the opening 20 minutes but the first points of the game went to Buller. Schmidt-Lealavaa made the break before passing to Ravudra to score in the corner. First five Jesse Elley converted from the sideline. Parkes replied two minutes later with a monster penalty two metres inside his half. Parkes and Elley then traded penalties to give the visitors a 10-6 lead at halftime.

Filmed and Edited by
Ben Cowper

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