West Taieri jumped to the top of the Southern region ladder with a whopping 85-7 win over Clinton at Outram on Saturday.
The home side were dominant from start to finish as they ran in tries from everywhere.
West Taieri scored three tries in the opening 10 minutes as Clinton forgot that tackling is an important part of the game.
It did not get any easier as the home side ran in another five tries to lead 52-0 at halftime.
The second half continued to be one-way traffic apart from one small pocket of play when Clinton managed to cross the line after building some decent momentum.
West Taieri’s bench entered the fray and raised the bar with two more late tries to produce the biggest winning margin of the season by any side.
Will Scorgie led the Pigs with a hat-trick of tries, while Conner Jenkins, Pat Hamer and Eli Ellison each scored twice.
Clutha kept their chances of hosting a semifinal alive with a comfortable 57-14 win over Toko at the Balclutha Showgrounds.
Clutha scored two early tries but failed to capitalise any further for large parts of the first half due to rushing and trying to score with every play.
Once the home side slowed things down they made metres and scored two further tries to head to halftime 26-0 ahead.
Toko opened the scoring in the second half, which gave them a spark, but Clutha soon regained control, and their bench came on and contributed to some nice team tries.
Clutha Valley are just one win away from locking in a semifinal spot after their 53-0 win over Lawrence at Clydevale.
Valley withstood some early pressure from the visitors before building momentum which they carried through the rest of the game.
Their forwards broke the advantage line at will, which set a platform for their backs, and the home side led 22-0 at the break.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first with Valley making the majority of the play based off a huge platform set by the forwards.
Valley’s set piece was dominant until they made changes later in the game. They scored five second-half tries, Damian Wilson completing a hat-trick, and have hit their straps at the right time of the season.
Sene Te’o and Riley Lambert each scored two tries as Owaka kept the pressure on the top four with a 29-19 win over Heriot at Heriot.
The visitors started with a bang in the first half as they dominated territory and possession.
Owaka had the bonus point wrapped up in the first half as they went into the break 24-5 ahead but it could have easily been more.
Heriot threw plenty at Owaka in the second half and narrowed the gap to five points with time running out.
Owaka were too strong in the finish with a late try to seal the victory, their fourth in their past five games.
— Francis Parker
