The Otago Whalers showed up 20 minutes too late.
They were overwhelmed by the Canterbury Bulls in the opening stages of their New Zealand Premiership game in Christchurch and suffered a 30-20 defeat.
The home side struck early when winger Joel Leka got on the end of the chain and dotted down.
Otago had failed to number up, but Canterbury were playing some good code.
The Whalers were back huddled under their posts moments later when centre Ken Tofilau scored the first of his three tries.
The Whalers really should have done better. He cut back on a challenging angle but there were enough defenders in place to prevent him from getting to the chalk.
Tofilau ghosted through more feeble defence out wide and dived over in the same spot moments later.
That was too easy as well.
From the restart, Canterbury attacked down the right flank again and this time fullback Thomas Ruwhiu collected the pass and dived over.
Otago trailed 20-0 with 19 minutes gone.
To their credit, they were able to rally. But they were playing catch-up and, against a quality side like the Bulls, they had left themselves too much to do.
They needed to score next to prop up their morale. Fullback Mason Lome-Hindle jigged his way through the heavy traffic to score.
But that man Tofilau dived on a grubber kick to complete a hat-trick. Ketesemane Pouli did the hard work this time.
He weaved through the defence, saw space and placed the kick perfectly.
Otago struck just before the halftime break. Keenan Masina gave the hint of a dummy and sliced through.
They trailed 24-10 and cut the gap further. Dangerous Whalers centre Ngatokotoru Mateariki stepped off his left twice and ran around under the posts.
He is a try-scoring machine, with seven this season, and he broke the line again to set up a try a few minutes later.
Otago swung it out to the right before Canterbury was able to reset their defence and Sailusi Temaka got over.
Their confidence was swelling. They got back to within four points to set up a tense final quarter of the game.
But Pouli got the winner. He skipped free from two tackles and dashed through a half gap to score under the posts.
The win lifted Canterbury into first place in section B and they are now odds-on to progress through to the national final.
Otago’s final round-robin game is against Southland in Dunedin on Saturday.
NZ Premiership
The scores
Canterbury Bulls 30
Ken Tofilau 3, Joel Leka, Thomas Ruwhiu, Ketesemane Pouli tries; Jimmy Rangiawha 3 con.
Otago Whalers 20
Mason Lome-Hindle, Keenan Masina, Ngatokotoru Mateariki, Sailusi Temaka; Lome-Hindle 2 con.
Halftime: Canterbury 24-10.
