West Taieri has booked a place in the Southern Region grand final following a 26-15 win over Toko in its match at Outram on Saturday.
Toko opened the scoring through a penalty after 10 minutes of intense collisions.
West Taieri then managed to gain ascendancy and scored the opening try of the match shortly after.
This opened the floodgates for the home side which scored twice more in quick succession to build a handy lead.
West Taieri crossed for its fourth try of the half shortly before halftime to take what looked like a 26-3 lead into the second half, but Toko managed to cross on the halftime whistle to make the score 26-10 at halftime.
Toko attacked for the majority of the second half, but a resolute West Taieri defensive wall held strong.
The visiting side had numerous tries disallowed, but nothing can be said against West Taieri’s hardened resolve.
Toko scored the only try of the second half, but it was not enough to crack the tough nut that was West Taieri which more than deserves to host the final this weekend.
Clutha produced a massive second half effort to overcome a 27-8 deficit at Heriot. Clutha won the match 29-27 in treacherous conditions at the foot of the Blueys.
The teams traded tries early in the first half before Heriot took control.
Its forwards set the platform, but it was the backs who showed how classy they can be. Heriot threw the ball wide and always seemed to have overlaps on the wing which resulted in four first-half tries to the backs.
Heriot led the match 27-8 at halftime as the snow and wind arrived. Clutha, playing into the conditions in the second half decided to hold on to the ball, which it did for 40 minutes. Clutha’s forwards threw everything they had at the defence and made plenty of metres through the middle.
Clutha scored three second-half tries to push past Heriot at the death to take a win that only their hardened supporters’ thought was possible at halftime.
The bottom our final will be contested by Crescent and Lawrence. Crescent beat Owaka 49-19 and Lawrence tipped up Clutha Valley 11-10.
— Francis Parker
