Bay of Plenty began a late bid to avoid the ITM Cup wooden spoon with an impressive 33-16 victory over Otago today.
An unhappy season has brought the Bay just two victories and they will probably need to add a third next week against Waikato if they wish to climb off the bottom of the table.
But the woes of the campaign were far from evident at Bay Park, with the home side running in five tries to edge within two points of Otago and put a dent in their opponents' playoff hopes.
Aside from a brief period at the start of each half, the home side completely controlled the clash between the two bottom sides in the Championship, finding success up front and out wide to pull away whenever Otago threatened to get close.
First five-eighth Dan Hollingshead crossed twice as the backs did the majority of the damage, a departure from the Steamers' usual reliance on the forwards that, coming into the encounter, had seen 16 of this season's 20 tries produced by the pack.
After a minute's silence for missing five-year-old Jack Dixon, Bay of Plenty's backs set the tone through Siaosi Iongi's brute strength. Having been second-best for much of the opening quarter, the Bay burst to life though Iongi's scything run that eventually saw Hollingshead find a hole to give his side a lead they would never relinquish.
The try seemed to galvanise the hosts and, reverting to type, their dominance up front led to Joe Royal's fifth try of the season, coming from a driving maul after Culum Retallick turned down a shot at goal.
It was all going the way of the Bay when Byron McGuigan charged down Michael Collins' kick to race away for a third try, but Otago made a game of it right before the break when Aki Seiuli scored against the run of play.
Like they did in the first, Otago began the second spell by setting up camp inside the opposition 22, though they struggled to apply the finishing touch to their pressure. And Bay of Plenty soon made Otago pay, showing a clinical edge the visitors were lacking to seal the game through Hollingshead and Leroy Van Dam.
Bay of Plenty 33 (Hollingshead 2, Royal, McGuigan, Van Dam tries; Hollingshead 4 cons) Otago 16 (Seiuli; Parker 3 pens, con) HT: 19-10
- By Kris Shannon of APNZ
