There were shades of Christian Cullen as Tony Ensor beat man after man to score one of the tries of the season. It was the highlight of another winning performance in which Otago crossed the line six times en-route to a 51-35 victory over Manawatu.
It was a far from perfect performance, as Otago let their opponents back into the game twice after opening up a reasonable gap. For all their brilliance, it was a lack of numbers at the breakdown, too many dropped balls and a certain amount of ill-discipline that allowed Manawatu to get far closer than they ever should have, after dominating early in both halves.
But as it was, they did enough to win, playing an expansive game to create some brilliant tries in what has come to be a style reminiscent of yesteryear for Otago fans.
Tony Ensor was at his slippery best, constantly threatening and showing his pace, putting on the afterburners to score two tries. It was a much more assured performance than the previous from the young fullback, and should he continue to develop, higher honours must surely beckon.
Inside him the backline operated slickly, with Hayden Parker having yet another good game, directing play well, whilst Glen Dickson was the catalyst for multiple breaks.
They looked to employ a kick-and-chase strategy for periods, a tactic that worked successfully and could have been used more. Parker's kicks were outstanding, whether looking to bomb his opponents or kick in behind, giving his team excellent field position. However, as the game loosened up they strayed away from this tactic and errors began to creep back into their game.
The forwards were a mixed bag, looking good at times, but were often guilty of trying too much and not doing enough work in the tight.
The tactic seemed to be for the team to spread out across the field and play a fast paced game with lots of ball movement. While this may have good intentions, the problem was that not enough forwards were committing to the breakdown and Manawatu were able to turnover far too much ruck ball.
It became a common theme in the second half, as the Otago pack although strong running, got pushed around by their opposition.
The scrum struggled too, as a more experienced Manawatu pack constantly had Otago on the back foot in this area. But they did enough to hold on and it was lucky they did or it could have been a very different game.
On the plus side the lineouts operated well, with Sam Anderson-Heather showing what an accurate thrower he is, while the jumpers would have to rate amongst the best in the competition.
They looked strong running and provided momentum that way, but too often they tried to do too much. When they would have been better off simply running into contact and setting up for the next phase, they resorted to throwing fifty-fifty passes and offloads which broke the momentum and turned over far too much ball.
But at the end of the day, a win's a win and it has to be said that a team must have been doing something right to score 51 points in a game. It must be remembered that this is a young team and there is room for them to get so much better. There was certainly enough in this performance to suggest this is indeed the case.
The challenge now comes in putting together a complete 80 minute performance, playing the way they have shown they can for an entire game. Not letting opponents back into the game, but burying them when they are down.
They will sure need to do this if they are to win their final two round-robin games, as they take on Wellington and Auckland in the coming week. Both games are winnable, but it's going to have to take an Otago team that's on their game to knock over two of the Premiership front-runners.