Two late tries gave the Otago Spirit a 29-20 win to open its Farah Palmer Cup campaign against Hawke’s Bay at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin yesterday.
It was a game the Spirit could have won by more and head coach Scott Manson admitted it made hard work of the win.
But he added it was hard to complain with a bonus-point win first up.
The Spirit held a 19-17 lead as it defended its line for five minutes with about 10 minutes to play.
It conceded several penalties, but it did not yield.
Hawke’s Bay eventually relented, taking a shot off one of those penalties and going ahead 20-19 with six minutes left.
But the Spirit counterattacked from a poor Hawke’s Bay clearance.
Leah Miles found space out wide and linked with Kilisitina Moata’ane, who scored her second try to put the Spirit ahead.
From there its defence held, before Rosie Kelly spotted a gap and ran 60m to put the result beyond doubt.
The Spirit attack was lively all game, always threatening to strike from long range.
Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay offered little, using its big forward pack to apply pressure. Its one try came from No8 Kathleen Brown who crashed over from a dominant scrum.
Manson said being able to execute in the key moments was important.
"We talked a lot at halftime about moments," he said.
"There were a few we still blew, but the ones we really needed we thankfully got."
The Spirit backline had looked dangerous throughout.
Moata’ane was a constant threat in the midfield, while right-winger Kiana Wereta was slippery out wide.
However, Manson felt Hawke’s Bay had done well to prevent it getting more continuity.
"I think Hawke’s Bay did incredibly well to shut us down, too.
"Sometimes we couldn’t get our second or third phase going.
"I suppose they recognised that’s our game.
"It’s not necessarily crash-and-bash and go through them.
"It’s get a couple of carries and beat them through the edges."
An early penalty gave Hawke’s Bay the lead, before Wereta used her pace on the outside and weaved through the defence to score next to the posts for the Spirit.
The visitors hit back with a penalty, before Brown crashed over from the back of a scrum — which was the side’s biggest weapon.
That made it 11-7, but Moata’ane busted through the midfield from a lineout and scored under the posts to put Otago ahead 14-11 at halftime.
Hawke’s Bay made two forays into the Spirit half early in the second half, both of which yielded penalties to make it 17-14.
But the Spirit again hit back as left winger Teilah Ferguson stepped her way around the defence to finish in the corner.
It gave the Spirit a two-point buffer, which it held for more than 20 minutes, then Hawke’s Bay’s lengthy late barrage ended in the penalty which put it up by one.
From there Moata’ane and Kelly scored their tries to hand the Spirit its win.