Bay set course for the semi-finals

Bay of Plenty notched up a 38-20 win over Southland in Rotorua on Saturday - a bonus-point win which keeps their NPC semi-final hopes alive and kicking.

Indeed, this was Bay's sixth win from eight matches, and lifts them to third place on the NPC table with just North Harbour to face in the final round.

Charles Baxter got Bay's day off to the perfect start by crossing the whitewash in the second minute of the game, finishing off some good work by Nili Latu.

The next 38 minutes were less fruitful, with the visitors managing to close the door on every Bay raid.

Southland's Richard Apanui added a penalty to leave the scores poised at 7-3 at the break.

Bay started the second half much like the first, with a try by Rua Tipoki within two minutes of the restart.

Southland hit straight back three minutes later as centre Mike Maguire crossed for his fifth try of the season to make it 14-8.

A Glenn Jackson penalty in the 48th minute stretched the home side's led to nine points before Southland flanker Hale T-Pole got on the end of a wide ball to score a good solo try. Apanui missed the conversion but the lead was cut back to 17-13.

Some slick passing from Grant McQuoid set up Tipoki for his second of the match to once again put Bay out to a handy 11 point lead.

Southland then stole a Bay line-out on the home side's line, and Paul Miller crashed over for a converted try to narrow the scorers to 24-20 with only seven minutes left.

But Bay rallied from the blow, and duly delivered the coup de grace via late tries from Paul Tupai and McQuoid.

The scorers:

For Bay of Plenty:
Tries: Baxter, Tipoki 2, Tupai, McQuoid
Cons: Jackson 5
Pen: Jackson

For Southland:
Tries: Maguire, T-Pole, Miller
Con: Apanui
Pen: Apanui