The Southern Region season started with a flourish as the area was blessed with weather that was conducive to running rugby.
In an early upset, defending champions Clutha Valley were beaten 47-27 at home by last season’s wooden spooners, Heriot.
The match was a hotly contested battle and scores were locked at 27-27 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Heriot’s depth on the bench made a huge difference towards the end as they broke the deadlock, and a late intercept try helped Heriot secure the Trevor Peters Memorial for the remainder of the first round.
Heriot caught Valley off guard in the early exchanges and dominated territory and possession.
Valley’s discipline was lacking, and they lacked direction at times
Once they held on to the ball, they made rugby look easy and scored some nice tries.
Heriot replied with some strong tries of their own before overpowering the hosts at the death.
Heriot’s backline was marshalled well by fullback Logan Cornish, while winger Jack Blair was elusive and dangerous with ball in hand.
Valley’s forwards put in a huge shift with hooker Dave Matsas and flankers Ben Witt and Scott Gouman the strong performers.
Crescent walked away from Swamp Hen Park with two trophies and a 66-10 win over hosts Owaka in a fairly one-sided encounter.
Crescent made the most of some poor defence and scored early points to give them confidence, but Owaka found their way to the tryline once they began to hold on to the ball.
A serious leg injury to Crescent prop Oceania Ioane brought the first half to a premature close with Crescent leading 33-10.
The second half was one-way traffic in terms of points, but the home side managed some nice passages of play at times.
Crescent were sharp, especially out wide, and found numerous holes and gaps to make metres through.
Playmaker Chase Owen had a huge match and directed play extremely well. Owen also grabbed two tries and slotted eight conversions.
Prop Liuliu Pasina was Owaka’s best ball-running forward, and winger Riley Lambert carried well and showed his bigger team-mates how to tackle low with some key defence.
West Taieri retained the Speight’s Jug and the McIntosh Cup with a 41-14 win over Toko at Outram.
The opening salvos were fired by the visitors, who threw the proverbial sink at their opposition, but West Taieri scored tries against the run of play as Toko peppered their tryline without much luck.
The hosts led 17-14 at the break after a physically demanding half of rugby.
The second half showed how clinical West Taieri can be as they kept Toko scoreless while scoring numerous tries themselves. West Taieri’s bench impact was huge, while Toko’s left a little to be desired.
Clinton defaulted to Clutha, which has signalled many conversations about Clinton’s participation this season.
By Francis Parker
