A long range penalty to Whakarewarewa first five Ryubyn Vaipo with time up on the clock was enough to give his side a wildly-celebrated 31-29 win over Tauranga Sports, but not to secure the Rotorua outfit a ticket to the playoffs.

Despite a mixed performance at their Tauranga Domain HQ Sports did enough in the game to take a couple of bonus points and secure third place, and join top dogs Te Puke Sports and Te Puna in the post-season party.

Defending champs Mt Maunganui took their place too with a bonus point from their 36-28 defeat of Rangataua at Blake Park.

They finished level on points with Whakarewarewa but hold on to fourth place on the table thanks to their earlier round-robin win over the Sulphur City side.

Te Puke had already sewn up top spot, and inked in their title favouritism with a 51-12 demolition of Greerton Marist, while Te Puna were similarly untroubled in their 57-5 romp over Rotoiti and nailed down hosting rights for their semifinal showdown with Tauranga.

A semifinal place was not guaranteed for Tauranga Sports before the weekend, and looked to be receding in the distance in the early moments of the match. The visitors, playing more engergized and focused rugby, leapt out to a 14-0 lead with tries to Pauli Asaeli and Tom McHugh, both a result of drives over the line by the committed Whaka forwards. Vaipo began a good day with the boot by converting both.

Whaka's Ryubyn Vaipo lines up the winning penalty.

Whakarewarewa's gameplan of keeping it tight and making progress through the forwards before releasing it to the backs in the danger zone was paying dividends, and it was only through an opportunistic intercept try to evasive winger Emone Narawa after 25 minutes that the home side looked to begin turning the tide.

Ten minutes later Narawa simply had to catch the ball and fall untouched over the line to grab his second, and probably the try of the match, when Sports' first five John Dodd aimed a perfectly weighted cross kick in his direction.

Dodd opened his account from the tee with the conversion to close it to 14-12, then gave his side a halftime lead with a penalty two minutes into added time.

A yellow card to Tauranga's Paula Narawa seven minutes into a penalty and error-ridden third quarter gave the visitors a numerical advantage, which they were unable to capitalise on.

Two minutes after Narawa's return though they did have their third try and a 21-15 lead as hooker Jesse Mason-Grant drove over.

The lead briefly returned to the home side as Beau Williams scored, before Andy Noble forced the ball against the goalpost padding to register Whakarewarewa's fourth.

Vaipo's conversion took his team out to 28-22 inside the last ten minutes, but an odd and controversial moment turned the match back in the home side's direction.

Referee John Dustow held up the kickoff after Noble's try to check the numbers Whakarewarewa had on the field, then before they realised time was on again the kick was taken short down the middle and regathered by Ty Keith. Sports' livewire second five then broke all the way to the posts to touch down, igniting indignant protests from the visitors.

The try stood, however, and Dodd's conversion had Tauranga Sports back into an unlikely but apparently match-winning lead. It also, more importantly, gave them the bonus point they needed to ensure they finished in third place.

Perhaps inspired by the perceived injustice, Whakarewarewa turned up the wick for the remaining moments of the match before earning themselves a penalty just inside Tauranga's half, from which Vaipo kicked them to a deserved win.

Coach Peter Smith was happy with his team's effort regardless of the playoff picture.

'It was more a two-three year plan for our club to build that culture again and put a bit of mana back in the jersey.

'Whether we make the semifinals or not I'm just super proud of our boys. From where they've come from this year the improvement as a collective has been huge.

Peter singled out the go-forward from his pack as critical in the win.

'Our forwards, they got the pat on the back today. I think we won the collision zone, and the set-piece was good. They just put it all on the line for our backs to finish off.”

Emone Narawa grabs the intercept for Tauranga Sports' opening try.

Tauranga Sports' assistant coach Culum Retallick was ready to make do with the bonus points from the match.

'The main thing for us at the start of the year was to make the semis, and we're in there so that's the main thing.

'That's how you want to play your rugby, games like that, so it's a good rehearsal for next week.”

A trip to Maramatanga Park to take on Te Puna holds no fears for Sports' John Dodd.

'We're definitely going to have to play for 80 minutes. We'll be confident but we'll know that they're a pretty sharp side so we're going to have to be at our best.

'We know that when we stick to our systems and everyone's in the same zone we're pretty hard to stick with. That's been our Achilles heel all year just taking our foot off the throat.”

Frontrunners Te Puke Sports host Mt Maunganui at Murray Salt Stadium in the other semifinal.