Woodlands provided the highlight in round five of the Southland premier grade club rugby competition on Saturday when they beat the Eastern Northern Barbarians 20-13 in Gore.
The Barbarians were favoured to hand Woodlands their third straight loss but the visitors showed up with plenty of determination.
Coach Richard Jones said it was a pleasing result for his team.
"We’ve been battling away in recent weeks, but the things we’ve been working on sort of came together a bit on Saturday."
The Barbarians led 5-0 after 20 minutes and 8-0 at halftime.
Woodlands scored after halftime and kicked a penalty goal to draw level, but the locals regained the lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Woodlands scored the next two tries to take the win.
Jones was not worried about not scoring a bonus point try.
"We were just happy enough to get the win. The Barbarians were banging away on our try line at the finish and we did well to hold them out."
Woodlands hooker Jason Rutledge put in his best 60 minutes of the season, earning turnovers.
No 8 Cole Williams continued his good form and lock Alex Yallop had a good game. Young first five Samuela Nathan also showcased his skills at No 10.
Jones is far from getting carried away by the win.
"It’s a long season and there’s a very long way to go."
Some key players in the Woodlands backline have been unavailable in recent weeks, including inside backs Liam Howley and Colin McKay, and midfielder Kynan Stowers-Smith and Sos Tuimavave, but wing Sione Bakker was back and scored two of the team’s three tries.
Star was made to work hard for their 26-5 win on their home ground against Marist.
Star took confidence into their match after demolishing Woodlands the previous week but could only sneak ahead of Marist 7-5 after 20 minutes and 14-5 at halftime.
The hosts scored again in the third quarter and their converted try in the last 10 minutes gave them the bonus point win.
Star had a few changes to their starting lineup: Stags lock Josh Bekhuis made his first appearance of the season, Hayden Edgely was back in his old position of halfback which required Cole Spinks to move from fullback to first five. That allowed centre Johnny Vaili to have a run at fullback and Micaiah Johnston-Brown to get a start in the midfield.
New dad Jordan Stewart started on the bench which gave Dylan Lovett the job of blindside flanker.
Star coach Brayden Mitchell said Marist played well and was unlucky not to score more points.
"It was tough weather conditions for everyone, especially the outside backs."
The scrums were reasonably even, but both side’s lineouts struggled for accuracy in the conditions, although Marist probably performed better.
Edgely and No 8 Semisi Ta’eiloa had excellent games, and loosehead prop Jack Sexton is having an impressive season.
The Pirates Old Boys Hawks beat Invercargill Blues 69-3 at Surrey Park. Blues scored their penalty goal inside the first five minutes but from that moment the Hawks asserted their dominance.
The Hawks led 12-3 after 20 minutes and when young hooker Shaun Kempton scored his second try before halftime it was 31-3.
— John Langford
