Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay will battle it out for promotion to the Premiership on Friday the 25th of October.
This year’s Championship final is a battle of the ‘Bays’ with Bay of Plenty playing host to Hawke’s Bay. Both teams will be having a full go this Friday with a place in the Premiership at stake.
Bay of Plenty v Hawke’s Bay
Friday 25 October
Rotorua International Stadium
08:35
To Win (80 Mins)
Bay of Plenty
Draw
Hawke’s Bay
Bay of Plenty
It’s been an absolute cracker of a season for the Steamers who won eight out of their ten round-robin phase fixtures to secure top spot on the Championship standings. Their only two defeats this term have come at the hands of Premiership sides Auckland (19-13) and Wellington 15-16.
The hosts for this weekend’s clash head into the fixture off the back of a resounding semi-final victory as they hammered Manawatu 64-3. The Steamers forward pack was untouchable last weekend while their back division was extremely clinical. If they can reproduce that sort of performance here then they will be in New Zealand’s top tier next season.
Hawke’s Bay
The visitors had a far tougher time of it in their semi-final as they had to overcome a big deficit to secure a full-time draw and then beat Otago by five points in extra time. There will be massive worries from their coaching start over how poorly they have started some of their recent encounters, and a slow start here could see them out of the contest before the half-time oranges are even peeled.
When the two sides met earlier in the season, Bay of Plenty ran out 51-24 victors on home soil. This will be fresh in the memory of the Hawke’s Bay players who may well head into this one with a psychological deficit.
Verdict: Bay of Plenty
The hosts are in great touch at the moment while the visitors have been off the boil in recent weeks. I can see the steamers taking this one by more than seven points.
Written by Darry Worthington for Hollywoodbets
