Trailing 26-12 at halftime, North Otago roared to life to thump Poverty Bay 59-33 at the Oamaru Showgrounds on Saturday.
Centre Matia Qiolevu dazzled with his footwork to score a hat-trick and co-captain Savenaca Rabaka was explosive to dot down twice, including an 40m individual effort after stealing Poverty Bay’s scrum.
Japanese inside back duo Kenta Iemura and Kippei Taninaka were impressive.
Iemura piled on 12 points with his accurate boot and Taninaka was lively and celebrated wildly after his own conversion.
It was an impressive response from the Old Golds, who played into a tough, swirling wind in the first half.
Poverty Bay got on the scoreboard first in the opening five minutes.
The Old Golds levelled through winger Sevu Druma, who was put into space by Tini Feke and shrugged off the defence in a nice finish.
Poverty Bay had more punch in the opening half and found their second when flanker Lennox Shanks put a lovely ball inside that was eventually finished by centre Cohen Loffler.
Lock Leka Palusa made a break and was hard to bring down, and he offloaded to halfback Henry Saker to score.
Poverty Bay strung together some lovely passages and co-captain Ngahiwi Manuel added another try to give his side a 26-7 lead.
Qiolevu scored before halftime and the Old Golds trailed 26-12 at the break.
But once the wind was behind them, they pounced.
Qiolevu scored his second 46 seconds into the second half and that set the trend.
Fullback Ben Paton and blindside Mitch Morton linked up to start a big move for the Old Golds that ended with Rabaka pushing through to level the scores.
Iemura’s boot put the Old Golds deep in the danger zone but they coughed up possession.
They packed down for a big scrum and Feke — who carried strongly all game — picked up the scraps to score and put the Old Golds in front for the first time.
The try of the game came after Taninaka shifted the ball to Iemura in the middle deep inside North Otago’s half.
He cantered upfield and dished off to Paton, which led to another exciting buildup that was eventually finished with Qiolevu skating through to complete his hat-trick.
That made if 40-26 in favour of the Old Golds, but they were not done yet.
Winger Ben McCarthy flirted with the sidelined, chipped ahead and finished, and co-captain Hayden Tisdall bustled over from a rolling maul.
When the ball popped out the side of a Poverty Bay scrum 40m out, Rabaka snaffled it and caught everyone on the hop to put the game to bed.
Loffler scored a constellation intercept try late for Poverty Bay.
Mid Canterbury remain the only unbeaten Heartland team after beating rivals South Canterbury 34-18.
Whanganui beat East Coast 64-19, Thames Valley thumped Buller 40-5, Horowhenua-Kapiti pipped West Coast 27-26, and Wairarapa-Bush kicked a late penalty to edge King Country 25-24.
Heartland Championship
The scores
North Otago 59
Matia Qiolevu 3, Savenaca Rabaka 2, Sevu Druma, Tini Feke, Ben McCarthy, Hayden Tisdall tries; Kenta Iemura 6 con, Kippei Taninaka con
Poverty Bay 33
Cohen Loffler 2, Uini Fetalaiga, Henry Saker, Ngahiwi Manuel tries; Tayler Adams 4 con
Halftime: Poverty Bay 26-12.
