Bay of Plenty have secured a spot in the NPC semifinals after a thrilling last-minute victory over Hawke’s Bay in the quarter-finals on Saturday. The final score in the Battle of the Bays game was 19-17, with the Steamers staging a dramatic comeback at home.

“It was heart in the mouth stuff,” said Bay of Plenty Steamers coach Richard Watt. “We pulled it out of the fire in the end.”

Despite leading for most of the match, Hawke’s Bay were unable to hold on to their advantage as the game approached its conclusion.

Bay of Plenty Steamers won against Hawke's Bay in the Bunnings NPC semifinals at Tauranga Domain. Photo: BOP Rugby.

Watt praised the tenacity of the Hawke’s Bay team, describing their performance as “real gutsy”.

He noted their strong track record in recent years, including victories in previous knockout stages.

“That team’s been like that for a few years now, they’ve had two good shield tenures. They beat us in that game last year, they won the semis, and they nearly won the final.

“It’s a Battle of the Bays, and it’s knock-out footy, so it’s not about bonus points. It’s about who wins head-to-head,” Watt said. “They came to play, and we came to play. It was an arm wrestle and at the end of the day we got the last shot in.”

Bay of Plenty Steamers won against Hawke's Bay in the Bunnings NPC semifinals at Tauranga Domain. Photo: BOP Rugby.

The match was tightly contested, with the score at halftime 12-7 in favour of the Magpies. With just a minute and a half remaining, the Steamers found themselves trailing 17-14.

“We were absolutely losing that game,” said Watt. “It was the 79th minute. It was really windy, and we got a penalty about 35m out of the right of the post.

“Normally you could kick and go to extra time, but the wind was so strong,”

They went for a line-out drive, resulting in a try from hooker Taine Kolose just as the clock ticked down. The Steamers took a narrow lead at 19-17 but missed the conversion.

In a tense final moment, the referee allowed for one more play after the try.

“We thought the game was over, but anything could happen,” Watt said, reflecting on the pressure of the situation. The Steamers managed to secure the ball, with Kaleb Trask, who had returned after the Auckland game to take the reins at first five, kicking it out to end the game, and as Watt said, “that was that”.

A huge crowd turned out for the Bay of Plenty Steamers game against Hawke's Bay in the Bunnings NPC semifinals at Tauranga Domain. Photo: BOP Rugby.

The roar of the crowd was immense.

“The whole crowd was just going off. It was awesome. The emotion in the crowd was unreal.

“When you’re in knock-out footy time stage, and there’s only a few minutes to go – these guys have got great belief, they’re never going to die … to win the way we did in the last minute with that play, I think there’s a deep sense of relief. We could have lost that, and we’re done. But we didn’t. We pulled it out of the fire, and we get to go another week.”

Looking ahead, the Steamers are to face Canterbury in a home semifinal this Saturday.

“We’re still alive, there’s only four teams left,” said Watt. “While the team is happy, they’re relieved happy. We earned the right to come back on Monday.”

Bay of Plenty Steamers won against Hawke's Bay in the Bunnings NPC semifinals at Tauranga Domain. Photo: BOP Rugby.

This season has seen Bay of Plenty bounce back from a quarter-final exit last year, with only three losses throughout this year’s campaign. Their record includes strong wins against Waikato, Counties Manukau, and North Harbour, culminating in a strong finish to the round-robin phase.

“Some games we’ve won convincingly, but the last two weeks, we’ve had to really dig deep to win,” said Watt.

“We’re finding ways to win now. In playoff footy, you’re playing the best teams. Sometimes the games come down to moments, and you’ve got to nail those.

“It’s about high pressure, there’s more at stake obviously, it’s the whole ‘performance under pressure’ thing.”

Canterbury showed up at their quarter-final against an overpowered Tasman team with three All Blacks – George Bell, Fletcher Newell and Sam Darry – as well as veteran halfback Mitchell Drummond. However, the All Blacks trio have to return to camp, and Canterbury’s hopes of winning their first title since 2017 rests on how well they can replace the three.

Watt had planned to have an All Black join them on Saturday’s game against Hawke’s Bay.

“We had Pasilio Tosi to play but he got pulled out by the All Blacks the day before because he had a bruised heel.

“But then Benet Kumeroa stepped up, he had a massive game. He played the full 80 minutes, which is impressive.”

Tight head props don’t normally play 80 minutes. For Taine Kolose, it was his blazer game, where a blazer is awarded after a player has played 15 games. It was also Triple T(Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi)’s 50th Steamers game.

“Normally we mark those occasions and celebrate a little bit with them that night, but because we’ve got a big game next week, they’ll save that celebrating for the end of the season,” said Watt.

Bay of Plenty Steamers won against Hawke's Bay in the Bunnings NPC semifinals at Tauranga Domain. Photo: BOP Rugby.

Despite it being the only Battle of the Bay game this year, the Steamers and Magpies weren’t playing for the Macrae Shelford Bay Cup on Saturday, which the Steamers currently hold, because that is only on the line during the round-robin games, not for the playoffs.

The Steamers have had a remarkable season, collecting several provincial trophies along the way, and are just two wins away from a historic NPC title – their first since 1976.

They now have a full trophy cabinet, with the John Drake Boot, the Chief’s Cup, the Peter Burke Trophy, the Mark Weedon Trophy, the Nathan Strongman Memorial Trophy and the Macrae Shelford Bay Cup.

In other Bunnings NPC quarter-finals results, Taranaki fell to Waikato 14-15, and Tasman were defeated by Canterbury 62-14. The semifinals will see Wellington face Waikato and Bay of Plenty host Canterbury at Tauranga Domain this Saturday, October 19, at 4.10pm.

When asked about the Canterbury game ahead, Wattie said, “Canterbury’s Canterbury, you know.”

He credits the home crowd support for helping boost the Steamers on.

“The passion in the crowd on Saturday was just awesome. The players love it. The more people in that place, the more happens. And they’re close to the ground too, they’re right there.”