Waikato have gone top of the premiership division in the national provincial rugby championship after a 25-10 win over Otago in Hamilton today.
The Mooloos scored four tries to Henry Speight, Brendon Leonard, Declan O'Donnell and Marcel Cummings-Toone to claim a bonus point win and leapfrog Taranaki into pole position in the standings.
Otago could only manage a solitary try to Buxton Popoalii and were kept scoreless in the second half despite playing with a helpful wind.
With the breeze at their backs, Waikato were behind early to a Glenn Dickson penalty before the Bath-bound Stephen Donald landed a 55-metre penalty of his own to level the scores.
Speight, who played fro the ACT Brumbies in this year's Super 15, gave the Mooloos the lead after stepping inside two tacklers to cross out wide
Leonard, playing in his 50th match for Waikato, added a second midway through the half after Donald found Jackson Willison on the outside before slipping the ball to the halfback to scoot 25 metres to score.
Up 15-3, Waikato relaxed somewhat and former All Blacks prop Kees Meeuws was held up over the line before a piece of Popoalii brilliance got Otago back into the game.
The New Zealand sevens representative stepped his way past four defenders from 38 metres out to grab a memorable try and Dickson's conversion had the hosts leading 15-10 at the interval.
Otago started the second half brightly and centre Jayden Spence failed to get a toe to the ball with the tryline begging and then a minute later wing Matt Faddas was denied a try in the corner by another national sevens rep Tim Mikkelson.
In a match littered with handling errors a highlight came with 10 minutes to go when a sweeping Waikato counter-attack, launched from deep within their own half, was rounded off by replacement winger O'Donnell who went over in the corner.
The home side were then recipients of a generous decision by the television match official who awarded a try to hooker Cummings-Toone when he appeared to have dropped the ball over the line. The try gave Waikato a bonus point which could prove invaluable at the end of the season but for now put them top of the premiership table.
