
West Coast continued their storming start to move to the top of the Mitre 10 Heartland competition when travelling to Levin and downing Horowhenua Kapiti 27-21.
But they had to come from 7-14 down to claim the win. Their effort followed an opening round 56-27 win over King Country.
Some of the usual top teams in the competition who contributed players to the New Zealand Heartland XV for their international on Saturday found the going a little tougher.
Mid Canterbury were pushed all the way by East Coast before getting home 22-15
North Otago made the most of ‘home advantage’ when playing the curtain-raiser to the Ranfurly Shield match at Forsyth Barr Stadium to record a useful 25-11 win over Wairarapa Bush.
Wanganui, beaten last week by Wairarapa Bush struggled again as Thames Valley recovered from its upset loss to Poverty Bay in the first round by claiming a 36-30 win over Wanganui. Down 19-25 at the break, Thames Valley contained the home team to only one try in the second half.
Of more concern, however, was the concession of penalty goal chances within goal-kicking range and Regan Crosland made no mistake when landing seven penalty goals.
Buller suffered a setback when going down 12-34 to King Country in Taupo.
Poverty Bay were not able to back-up their upset first round win when going down to South Canterbury 29-40. Brad Tunnicliffe picked up three tries for South Canterbury while Clarence Moli scored two.
Heartland Week Two
North Otago 25 (Howard Packman, Samuel Tatupu, Lemi Masoe tries; Robbie Smith 2 con, 2 pen)
Wairarapa Bush 11 (Brock Price try; Tipene Haira 2 pen). HT: 7-6
King Country 34 (Alefosio Tapili 2, Sisa Vosaki 2, Zayn Tipping tries; Evaan Reihana 3 con, pen)
Buller 12 (Gabba de Kock 2 tries; Timoti Manawatu con). HT: 22-7
East Coast 15 (Zac Guildford, Epeli Lotawa tries; Zane King con, pen)
Mid Canterbury 22 (Jon Dampney, Matt McAtamney, Manasa Bari tries; Corey McKay 2 con, pen). HT: 0-10
Horowhenua Kapiti 21 (Kane Tamou, Nathan Kendrick, Himiona Henare tries; Codi Hemi 3 con)
West Coast 27 (Josh Tomlinson, Sam Lebezeit, Jesse Pitman-Joass tries; Todd Struthers 3 con, pen; Pitman-Joass dropped goal). HT: 7-14
Poverty Bay 29 (Adrian Wyrill 2, Ethan Reeves tries, penalty try; Andrew Tauateluva 2 con, pen)
South Canterbury 40 (Brad Tunnicliffe 3, Clarence Moli 2, Zac Saunders tries; Theo Davidson 2 con, pen; Reilly Cormack pen). HT:
Wanganui 30 (Nick Harding, Roman Tutauha, Dane Whale, Shay Wiperi tries; Harding 2 con, 2 pen)
Thames Valley 36 (Laulea Mau, Matiu Abraham, Jason Laurich tries; Regan Crosland 7 pen). HT 25-19
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