Club Rugby: Stag Lewis Ormond suffers knee injury

Sunday, 26 May 2019

Stags outside back Lewis Ormond has suffered a serious knee injury. (File photo).

Outside back Lewis Ormond will miss the remainder of the Southland club rugby season and is now in doubt for the Stags' 2019 Mitre 10 Cup campaign.

The former New Zealand sevens representative, who played 19 games for the Southland during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, injured his knee at a Stags wider squad training session during the week.

Blues second five-eighth Kelepi Holi on the charge as Barbarians players, from left, Bill Christie, Lachlan McCall, and Scott McKee attempt to bring him down in the Galbraith Shield Southland club rugby fixture.

Ormond has been a key figure in the Woodlands team and coach Derek Manson said it was a big blow that he had been ruled out of the club season and indicated he was a chance to now miss the Stags campaign.

Despite Ormond's absence on Saturday, Woodlands still had more than enough artillery to dispatch Pirates-Old Boys 31-19 in the game played at Surrey Park.

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Woodlands scored three first-half tries with big loose forward Charles Alaimalo playing a key role in getting his team on the front foot.

Alaimalo has been nursing a hamstring injury and missed a couple of games. However, he made his presence felt playing 40 minutes against Pirates-Old Boys.

Fellow loose forward Matt James also was strong for Woodlands.

The 31-19 win ensured a special milestone was celebrated in the preferred fashion with first five-eighth Ricky Bakker playing his 100th game for Woodlands on Saturday.

Manson said Bakker brought plenty of experience to the Woodlands backline and that was particularly important in the absence of Ormond.

It was Woodlands' third straight win which now saw them sitting third in the competition standings.

They are two points behind second place Blues and one point ahead of Star who Woodlands will play on Thursday night.

Star was unable to halt Marist's run on Saturday as Marist made it 10 from 10 this season with a 29-17 win in the game played at Miller St.

The Marist backline seemed to find plenty of holes in the Star defence throughout the game, although it wasn't until very late in the game when the green-and-blacks felt comfortable that the victory was locked in.

Second five-eighth Will Murray was one of those players who caused havoc and he opened the scoring for Marist after close to 10 minutes of play.

Loosehead prop Leo Wiki was one of Star's best. He scored a nice try when Star went the short side, and the Kaleb Talamahina conversion gave Star the lead for a short period, and the only period of the game.

Marist responded through tries to Javaan Fa'amoe-Ioane and Tane Puki to lead 19-7 at halftime.

For much of the second half Marist remained in charge but unable to completely shake Star.

Marist was hard on attack with about 15 minutes to play when Star first five-eighth Jono Hayes latched onto an intercept and scooted away to score to bring it back to 19-12.

However, Marist quickly doused any burning hopes of an upset when loose forward Jack Nally scored soon after and Fa'amoe-Ioane scored his second try with time just about up.

In the third Galbraith Shield fixture on Saturday Blues locked in an important 37-25 bonus point win over the Eastern-Northern Barbarians to mark their club day in fine style.

Blues got out to a 20-6 halftime lead and while the country team showed plenty of spirit in the second half Blues were in control throughout.

Prop Ethan de Groot was strong for Blues in the win, while centre Kalani Elder again impressed.

A highlight for the Barbarians was its penalty try late in the game which came from a dominant scrum.

RESULTS

Premier

(Galbraith Shield)

Marist 29, Star 17; Woodlands 31, Pirates-Old Boys 17; Blues 37, Eastern-Northern Barbarians 25.

(Ack Soper)

Te Anau 20, Waikaka 17; Wyndham 27, Midlands 18; Edendale 40, Riversdale 37.

Division One

Wakatipu 39, Star 15

Pioneer 42, Albion Excelsior 10; Mossburn 64, Waiau Star 14; Blues 39, Waikiwi 7.

Division Two

Bush Pirates 20, Blues 19; Riverton 41, Ohai-Nightcaps 14; Collegiate 37, Pirates Old Boys 26; Balfour-Lumsden 82, Woodlands 22; DLS 48, Marist 12; Tokanui 22, Mataura 10.