Southern dug deep into its Cavanagh legacy to snatch three quick forward-oriented tries just before half-time to set up victory over Taieri at Peter Johnstone Park.
While Southern may have dominated territory in the first quarter, an inspired Taieri side held the Magpies scoreless and began to dominate through the backs, eventually opening the scorebook through a Michael Witt try.
This sparked Southern into action and it capitalised on its forward domination with tries to Simon Knight, Jed Vercoe and Ollie Spence.
The second half meandered along with neither side able to make a move, and not until the game was into its final five minutes did it come alive again.
Taieri scored through Jared Campbell, only for for Southern to score two tries in as many minutes to shut the game down.
For Southern, Warren Moffat and Jed Vercoe featured in the forwards, with Julius Glasson inspirational at first five-eighth.
The Taieri backs always appeared full of promise but lacked cohesion, while loose forwards Jeremy Corliss, Ben Kerr and Eric Vaafusuaga proved more than capable at this level.
Southern 31 (Simon Knight, Jed Vercoe, Ollie Spence, Julius Glasson, Luke Herden tries; Craig Sneddon 3 conversions), Taieri 12 (Michael Witt, Jared Campbell tries; Witt conversion).
Half-time: Southern 19-7.
Referee: Scott Taylor.
