Two dramatic Saturday NPC quarterfinals with hosts Bay of Plenty winning over Hawke's Bay while Waikato turned the tables on Taranaki in New Plymouth.
The Steamers scored a dramatic 19-17 win over rivals Hawke's Bay at Tauranga Domain but it took until the last moments to do so.
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Hawke's Bay overcame a second-half penalty try and a sin-binning to lead Bay of Plenty 17-14, with less than 10 minutes to play.
However the home side were able to steady themselves and start a rolling maul in the last minute where replacement hooker Taine Kolose emerged as the try scorer.
Trailing 14-17, Bay of Plenty won a late penalty and first-five Kaleb Trask turned down the shot at goal to put the ball deep in the corner.
Kolose’s throw went to Naitoa Ah Kuoi and the drive was on guided by former halfback All Black Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi,
Earlier Hawke’s Bay conceded a penalty try early in the second half and also had tighthead prop Joel Hintz shown a yellow card for collapsing a maul.
Magpies fullback Harry Godfrey scored an individual try and converted it, but missed the conversions of the other conversions of replacement hooker Jacob Devery and earlier original hooker Tyrone Thompson
Meanwhile in the evening game, perhaps it was a Ranfurly Shield hangover, but it took until the second half for the home side to score.
Waikato were ahead 12-0 at half time and added a vital drop goal to Teapea Cook-Strange in the second half to score the victory and a place in the semifinals.
The home side roared back into life with tries to forward Bradley Slater as well as the speedy Adam Lennox, both of which were converted.
Earlier it the game it was frontrower Oli Norris scoring followed by Oli Mathis, usually a loose forward on the wing plus one conversion for ex-All Black Aaron Cruden.
Waikato will now play Wellington in the capital on Friday night while Bay of Plenty will face either Tasman away or Canterbury at home in the other semifinal.
Bay of Plenty 19 (Leroy Carter, penalty try, Taine Kolose tries, Kaleb Trask 1 con,)
Hawke's Bay 17 (Harry Godfrey, Tyrone Thompson, Jacob Devery tries Godfrey 1 con,
Waikato 15 (Ollie Norris, Oli Mathis tries Aaron, Cruden, 1 con, Teapea Cook-Strange 1 dg)
Taranaki 14 (Bradley Slater, Adam Lennox tries, Stephen Perofeta 1 con, Josh Jacomb 1 con)