Toko capped off their 125th jubilee weekend with a spirited come-from-behind win over Crescent in one of the great Southern Region club games on Saturday.
Toko won 43-42 after trailing by 20 points at one stage.
The first half was an even battle with neither side getting away.
Both teams scored tries and knocked over penalties, but it was the visitors who went into halftime 27-21 ahead after a late try.
Crescent continued their dominance with two early second-half tries to run out to a 42-21 lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Both sides emptied their benches and Toko’s replacements restored the passion and intensity, whereas Crescent’s failed to fire.
A hat-trick of tries to replacement front-rower Jacob Jenkins brought Toko within two points in the final minutes of the game.
An offside penalty gave Toko fullback Jared Hayes a chance to etch his name into the history books. Hayes made no mistake and kicked the penalty on the final whistle to cue celebrations.
On Thursday night, at Swamp Hen Park in Owaka, defending champions Clutha Valley picked up their first win of the season with a tight 23-21 result over Owaka, who are still looking for their first win.
The first half was poor for both sides as neither team could get any sustained period of possession.
Owaka’s ill-discipline kept Valley in the match and the visitors led 13-7 at halftime.
Owaka woke up in the second half and began to play some decent rugby, but silly offloads and poor decisions on attack continued to let them down.
Valley made the most of their possession by scoring points, and a late penalty separated them in the end.
Owaka’s decisions to not take three points during the first half cost them dearly.
West Taieri escaped Heriot with a 12-7 win on Thursday night in an extremely scrappy affair.
Handling was less than ideal, both sides spurned numerous opportunities, and Heriot will be livid with the result as they were perhaps the better side in the tie, but their execution when hot on attack let them down immensely.
West Taieri’s defence was proved the winner as they only allowed the home side to cross the chalk once and sustained plenty of pressure.
Clutha had to withstand a huge effort from Lawrence in their 57-22 win at Clutha on Good Friday.
Lawrence were well in the game and led until the 55-minute mark, when Clutha brought some heavy hitters off the bench and really upped the ante in terms of physicality and fitness. Lawrence could not compete with the home side, who scored five tries in the final 15 minutes to make the score look far more one-sided than the game actually was.
Replacement hooker Josh Turnbull scored a brace of tries and led from the front when introduced in the second half. Halfback Sam Stratford also led by example.
— Francis Parker
