Dunedin players celebrate their win. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Seeking to win its 10th premier banner, Dunedin came out firing and dominated early play through the line-out skills of Michael Gurran and the superb all round play of captain and number 8 Scott McKee.
This dominance translated into points when Gurran scored a try. Smith then added two penalties to have his team leading 11-nil at halftime.
The second half was a completely different story and a brilliant individual try by Lucky Mulipola in the 14th minute got Southern right back in the game. Joe Burford's conversion and then subsequent penalty kick drew his team to within one point.
From then it was a case of Dunedin just hanging on, and they did.
