Southland club rugby: Midlands add spice to comp
Sunday, 7 April 2019
In a round marred by defaults Midlands has added plenty of spice to Southland's revamped 2019 premier club rugby competition.
This year's competition has seen the top six division teams combine with last year's six premier teams and it was Midlands who dealt the first blow on Saturday in terms of an upset victory.
Midlands toppled traditional Southland club rugby powerhouse Woodlands 14-5 in a game played at Limehills on Thursday night.
Traditional division one teams Edendale and Te Anau both pushed Woodlands to the wire in the first two rounds before Midlands got the job done in what is a popular victory for country rugby.
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Midlands and Woodlands battled out a scoreless first half before Midlands pushed out to a 14-0 lead in the second half and hung onto a 14-5 victory.
Just seven days earlier Midlands had been crushed 69-7 by Marist.
Not surprisingly Midlands coach Dayna Cunningham was delighted with how his team responded against a Woodlands team which included the attacking talents of Stags outside backs Tauasosi Tuimavave and Lewis Ormond.
'To be honest, when we looked back at the video against Marist we didn't play as bad as the score looked. We just didn't come off our line in defence, but we did that against Woodlands,' Cunningham said.
Ben McKerchar returned to the Midlands setup following cricket commitments and did a good job at first five-eighth in the victory.
Captain and No 8 Sam Brame was also a strong performer, as was loose forward partner Tim Watt in what was his 100th game for Midlands.
The upset victory now creates some real intrigue into pool 1 of the premier competition.
If Midlands can bank wins against Edendale and Te Anau during the next fortnight there is a real prospect the Winton-based club could advance to the top six section with Woodlands potentially relegated to the bottom six section.
Pool 2 is also setup for intriguing next couple of weeks with Pirates-Old Boys forced to default its game against Star on Saturday, while Wyndham banked a bonus-point 38-22 victory over Waikaka.
Pirates-Old Boys will host Wyndham this Saturday with the winner a strong chance to advance to the top six Galbraith Shield section of the competition.
There was a second default in pool 2 on Saturday with Riversdale unable to muster the playing numbers for its scheduled game against Blues.
On a bright the sole pool 2 game played on Saturday was a thrilling spectacle with the Eastern-Northern Barbarians and Marist as usual provided a treat for those watching at Gore.
The Barbarians were in the box seat at halftime when they led the defending champions 26-10.
However Marist scored three unanswered second half tries to snatch an unlikely 27-26 victory.
The first try came via solo effort by in-form centre Javaan Fa'amoe-Ioane, before big No 8 Lio Tosi made his presence felt when he picked the ball up from the base of the scrum and brushed through the Barbarians defence to score.
The third second half try went to replacement Sam Brierley who scored out wide to make it 26-25.
It left the calm and collected Scott Eade to step up and nail the conversion to grab a 27-26 lead and the eventual victory.
In the other premier fixture played on Saturday Te Anau picked up a 28-24 win over Edendale in a game which could have gone either way.
RESULTS
Premier
Marist 27, Eastern-Northern Barbarians 26; Te Anau 28, Edendale 24; Midlands 14, Woodlands 5; Wyndham 38, Waikaka 22; Pirates Old Star beat Pirates-Old Boys by default; Blues beat Riversdale by default.
Division One
Pioneer 19, Wakatipu 10; Star 19, Waiau Star 15; Blues 38, Mossburn 20; Waikiwi 20, Albion Excelsior 15;
Division Two
Balfour/Lumsden 24, Pirates Old Boys 15; Riverton 55, Marist 7; DLS 54, Collegiate 0; Tokanui 60, Woodlands 24; Blues 54, Mataura 27; Bush Pirates 48, Bluff 33.