Taieri 26
Southern 10
Taieri beat Southern 26-10 at Peter Johnstone Park on Saturday to remain the only unbeaten team in the Dunedin premier grade.
Southern will be wondering what it did wrong to lose by 16 points. And the short answer is nothing — nothing at all.
The Magpies just could not crack Taieri’s defence.
The Eels have to be the most organised defensive unit in the competition and incredibly the home team led 19-3 at the break. We say incredibly because Southern dominated.
The Magpies had nearly all the ball and made nearly all the play. Taieri got three opportunities in that opening half and scored every time.
Southern got over the line twice but was held up by said defence again.
The Magpies finally found a way around the wall midway through the second spell when winger Josh Buchan stepped a couple of players to score.
Taieri halfback Bob Martin had an impressive game and he scored with 15 minutes remaining to round out the win. — Adrian Seconi
Green Island 39
Zingari-Richmond 10
Green Island looks like a side that has put its early-season struggles behind it.
Zingari-Richmond looks like a team with more struggles ahead.
The Colours boasted a big pack and route 1 seemed the mostly like plan of attack at Montecillo.
But Green Island was hungrier for possession, stronger over the ball and was a lot more aggressive.
Zingari-Richmond barely fired a shot and trailed 25-10 at halftime.
The visiting side opened the scoring through Jesse Va’afusuaga, who barged over.
Zingari-Richmond scored against the run of play when Simon Pupualii crossed.
But Highlanders back-up hooker Leni Apisai, who slotted in at No 8, charged over from the back of a lineout.
Oliver Haig won the lineout and tossed it to Apisai and punched through a couple of tacklers.
Nelson Yorston’s try was the most creative of the game. Green Island attacked left, but moved the pill quickly back the other way to the winger who dash towards the corner.
Zingari-Richmond No 8 Israel Otunuku got sent to the bin late in the half, but Green Island was not able to capitalise on his absence.
Eventually the weight of possession told and lock Ronan Dynes muscled over and the Grizzlies collected a penalty try late in the game to complete the 39-10 win.
Harbour 26
University 14
The Samate brothers set the game alight with two sensational tries in the opening minutes to hand Harbour early momentum in a four-try bonus point victory at Watson Park.
With University attacking the Harbour line from the kick-off it turned the ball over 5m out from the Habour line.
First five-eighth Obey Samate received the ensuing ball, jinked his way into space and let rip with a huge cut-out pass to brother Opeti on the left wing, who left all in his wake as he sprinted down the touchline and carved his way across to score near the uprights.
The brothers combined again soon after for Opeti’s second try that resulted from a turnover from a second consecutive tight head, the big Harbour pack proving a handful for the more mobile University forwards.
Not until the Bookies went to the bench did they start to offer some resistance to the push put in from the home side up front.
Oliver Gardiner gave security to the University lineout.
Jeremiah Asi offered impetus to the Varsity midfield, scoring both its tries, but all too often the student side let itself down with handling and basic errors.
Despite finishing with just 13 men, Harbour proved too strong both defensively and up front, with a backline that threatened throughout.
— Wayne Parsons
Kaikorai 26
Dunedin 15
Apart from the first five minutes, Dunedin totally dominated the first half, but only had a solidarity try from a lineout drive after 15 minutes to hooker Harry Press to show for it.
Dunedin struggled to get out of its own way with handling errors, million-dollar offloads and aimless passing.
Kaikorai stayed in the fight through resolute defence and economy of movement.
The first defining moment of the game was late in the first spell when Dunedin was defending and winger Joe Coote put in a crunching tackle which looked dangerously high and both sides stopped waiting for the while, and the ball lay lonely on the ground. Sharp thinking replacement hooker for Kaikorai picked it up and strolled 20m to score, while the other 29 players watched.
Unbelievably, the try was awarded and Kaikorai led by two at the break.
Kaikorai totally dominated the first 20m and halfback Charlie Marsh burst through a ruck and ran in a converted try to give Kaikorai a nine-point buffer which it never relinquished.
Dunedin had the chance to take the lead when hot on attack after 27 minutes of the spell, but as most of the day went, they threw a loose pass on the 22 and Kaikorai winger Nico Bowering latched on to it and went 80m to put the game to bed.
Both sides scored meaningless tries late to Jacob Mik for Kaikorai and Konrad Konrad Lotu-I’iga from Dunedin to put a full stop on the scoring.
— Paul Dwyer
Results
Round 5
Taieri 26 (Bob Martin 2, Cam Allan-McNeill, Kori Rupene tries; Caleb Leef con 3)
Southern 10 (Josh Buchan try; Ben McCarthy con, pen).
Halftime: 19-3.
Green Island 39 (Jesse Vaafusuaga, Leni Apisai, Nelson Yorston, Ronan Dynes tries; penalty try, Caleb Williams 3, con, 2 pen)
Zingari-Richmond 10 (Simon Pupualii try; Shaun Drive con, pen).
Halftime: 25-10.
Harbour 26 (Opeti Samate 2, Solomon Pole, Nathan Hastie tries; Obey Samate 3 con)
University 14 (Jeremiah Asi 2 tries; Jacob Waikari-Jones 2 con).
Halftime: 19-7.
Kaikorai 26 (Mitch Pryde, Charlie Marsh, Nico Bowering, Jacob Mika tires; Ben Miller 2 con, Nic Proffit con)
Dunedin 15 (Harry Press, Konrad Lotu-I’iga tries; Ajay Faleafaga con, pen).
Halftime: 7-5.
Standings
| P | W | D | L | F | A | B | Pts | |
| Taieri | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 152 | 49 | 3 | 23 |
| Kaikorai | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 127 | 70 | 4 | 20 |
| Dunedin | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 200 | 82 | 3 | 19 |
| Green Is | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 122 | 129 | 2 | 14 |
| Southern | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 93 | 71 | 2 | 13 |
| Harbour | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 96 | 94 | 6 | 12 |
| University | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 158 | 134 | 3 | 11 |
| Zingari-R | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 59 | 146 | 2 | 3 |
| AU | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 251 | 0 | 0 |
— Pro rata points for the bye: Kaikorai 4, Southern 3, Harbour 2, Zingari-Richmond 1, AU 0.
