Only a Bay player's foot into touch in the last play of the Bay Development team encounter with Auckland Under 21 team stopped the home side from grabbing victory at Te Ariki Park, on Saturday .

Facing the cream of the Auckland age group sides, the Bay of Plenty representatives made most of the running in the first spell and led the Auckland visitors six nil courtesy of two Willie Ripia penalty goals.

Auckland scored first in the second half, before Ripia again punished an Auckland indiscretion to lead 9-3 with ten minutes remaining in the encounter.

It wasn't until the last five minutes that Auckland breached the Bay defence to run in two quick touchdowns to take a 13-9 advantage.

In the last play of the game, an attack on the try line was initially rewarded when a Bay players crashed the ball down over the line, however the touch judge stood firm with his flag extended with the referee forced to acknowledge the TJ's decision.

'The team is still on the improve and we just need an ounce of luck to post out first victory,” says Bay of Plenty Development Manager Kevin Lee.

While the Bay of Plenty Under 16 A team extended their unbeaten record, when they beat the Bay second team 37 nil – team management were far from happy with their players concentration in the match.

The standout players in the local derby were B team hooker Ben McDell and Jade Murray in the number 12 jersey.

The Bay Under 16 first fifteen will need to up their performance next week if they wish to be competitive against arch-rivals Waikato.

Another Bay team that controlled much of their match without tasting success was the Bay of Plenty Under 18 representatives who played Counties Manukau in the Steamers curtain raiser on Friday night.

The Bay side were leading Counties 8-5, before an opposition player crashed over for the touchdown with just minutes left in the match.

With the Counties conversion sailing outside the uprights the visitors took home a narrow 10-8 victory.

The Bay Under 20 side faced long-time rivals Waikato at Fred Jones Park in Hamilton. Waikato started strongly scoring early, before Shem Whareroa touched down the ball for the Bay, which saw the home side with a 28-5 first half advantage.

John-Bosco Togotogorua crashed over the line in the second spell with Kaui Ririnui adding the conversion, however Waikato kept up their intensity to post a 47-12 win against a game Bay team.

BOPRU Representative Northern Region Results September 14/15

Development: Auckland U21 – 13 BOP 9 (Willie Ripia 3 pen) HT 0-6

Under 20: Waikato 47 BOP 12 (Shem Whareroa, John-Bosco Togotogorua tries; Kaui Ririnui con) HT 28-5

Under 18: Counties Manukau 10 BOP 8

Under 16: BOP A 37 BOP B 0