Club Rugby: Late try lifts Woodlands on special day
Logan Savory wraps up the action from round 12 of Southland's premier club rugby competition.
All roads led to Oreti Park on the outskirts of Invercargill on Saturday on a day when some pretty special storylines played out. It included Jason Rutledge and his son Gregor Rutledge playing their first game together.
Logan Savory wraps up round 12 of Southland’s premier club rugby competition.
Saturday was one for the rugby romantics. There was a string on story lines that on their own made Saturday’s Woodlands-Pirates-Old Boys showdown a special one.
It started with the fact 46-year-old Southland rugby legend Jason Rutledge got the opportunity to play a premier game alongside his 18-year-old son Gregor for the first time.
The stars aligned with Rutledge junior back in Southland on a university holiday break at the weekend.
He played the entire 80 minutes on the flank, and not to be out done dad Jason also got through 80 minutes as well.
While Rutledge senior has made his name as one of the province’s all-time best hookers, for the second straight week Jason slotted in at tight-head prop as cover.
That however didn’t halt the prospect many were hoping to see unfold with Jason hitting Gregor at lineout time.
Jason still took on the throwing duties despite playing at prop and often found son Gregor in the middle of the lineout.
Woodlands coach Richard Jones said Gregor was more than at home playing at the premier club rugby level.
“He is pretty handy. He had his first training on Thursday night and picked the lineouts up quick. He definitely didn’t look out of place, he could easily play premier footy down here week in week out,” Jones said.
The two teams traded points throughout in a high-scoring entertaining spectacle as Woodlands held at 21-19 at the halftime break.
Late in the game Pirates-Old Boys went up 33-28 thanks to a Levi Gage try and it felt like that might have burst the bubble on what was a special day for Woodlands.
However, it was Woodlands who had the final say through young wing Amaziah Mitchell.
Mitchell was also in Southland on a university holiday break and turned out for Woodlands.
He scored an intercept try to open the scoring before delivering the match-winning try at the end. With the scores locked at 33-33 first five-eighth Corey McKay then landed the conversion to bank the 35-33 victory.
It also meant Woodlands lifted the Cosie Cup which is played between Woodlands and Pirates-Old Boys each year in honour of the late Paul Cosgrove.
In what was a blast from the past, former Stags and Highlanders captain Jamie Mackintosh, who is the current Hurricanes forwards coach, answered an SOS from Woodlands to take a propping spot on the bench.
He played the final 15 minutes getting to share another Woodlands victory alongside his old frontrow mate Jason Rutledge.
“He definitely didn’t look out of place… Towards the end of it he had a few nice carries and clean outs,” coach Richard Jones said.
“It was quite a cool buzz, because he’s been with the club for a long-time. It was great for the younger guys."
To add to it all, Saturday night was also a special one for the Woodlands Rugby Club. The club went about raising a significant amount of money for Ovarian Cancer Foundation NZ. It included auctioning off the unique pink Woodlands playing jerseys that were worn on Saturday against Pirates-Old Boys.
New Southland Stags recruit Connor Collins bagged two tries to help lift the Eastern-Northern Barbarians to a 36-32 victory over top-of-the-table Star at the Gore Showgrounds on Saturday.
The 25-year-old former Wellington halfback linked with the Barbarians last week when come off the bench against Pirates-Old Boys.
On Saturday Collins - who is looming a likely starter for the Stags in 2024 - started at halfback in the Barbarians’ confidence-boosting 36-32 win over Star.
It was significant turnaround from the round six game between the two teams when Star beat up the Barbarians to rack up a 54-19 victory.
But with the return of looseforwards Leroy Ferguson and Jacob Coghlan from injury, and the introduction of Collins to the mix, the Barbarians appear to be a much better team leading into the semifinals.
The Barbarians led 26-10 at halftime and the game probably got a little closer than the home team hoped.
Collins, Ferguson, prop Morgan Mitchell, and midfielder Angus Simmers were good for the Barbarians although there were standouts across the park.
Despite the loss Star banked two bonus points and maintained its seven-point gap over second placed Pirates-Old Boys in the competition standings.
Although there may be a few nerves in the Star camp on the back of its performances in recent weeks as it heads into the crunch stage on the competition.
Star will finish the round-robin season against Pirates-Old Boys on Saturday. The Barbarians will take on Marist at Miller St on Thursday night.
Blues have put together a spirited performance to go close to knocking over Marist and claiming its first win this season.
And they mounted that strong case for a win with a 42-year-old on one wing and a 40-year-old on the other. More on that later.
Blues and Marist have both been out of playoff contention for a bit now and on Saturday squared-off at Oreti Park with just pride on the line.
Blues opened the scoring before Marist strung together three tries to take charge at 19-5.
But this Blues outfit weren’t about to roll over as Blues responded with two tries to reduce the margin to 19-17 at halftime.
Marist pushed it out to 27-17 with a try and a long-range Aiden Harrington penalty before Blues went about making a late surge.
Blues scored through impressive hooker Tupou Kaufononga to bring it back to 27-24 before hammering away at the Marist line for a matchwinner.
They looked likely to score and snatch victory late in the game, but an error was forced.
From that No 8 Jackson Bevin carried strongly before it was flung wide to wing Curtis Tarrant who went on a run and setup halfback Jordan O’Connell to score to make the final score 34-24.
Bevin was again a standout for Marist, while Kaufononga at hooker and his brother Osika at halfback impressed for Blues.
Blues in recent weeks have turned back the clock a little with 42-year Mana Harrison - who made his name scoring plenty of tries for Star - slotting in the right wing for the south city club.
He was joined on the other wing on Saturday by another veteran of Southland rugby in Daniel Townson, who is better known for his deeds on the side of the scrum.
Premier Women
Pioneer 33 - Midlands 25
Albion 27 - Star 22
Blues 20 - Wakatipu 14
Division One
Waikaka/Riversdale 34 - Pioneer 16
Albion 22 - Te Anau 12
Wyndham 29 - Tokanui 21
Division Two
Mossburn 34 - Bush Pirates 12
Riverton 48 - Wakatipu 7
Waikiwi 54 - Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 10
Drummond-Limehills-Star 22 - Collegiate 10
Mataura 21 - Waiau Star 12
Senior B | Premier Development
Pirates-Old Boys 17 - Woodlands 14
Blues 41 - Marist 25
Bluff 48 - Star 7
Premier Men
Marist v EN Barbarians (7pm, Thursday)
Blues v Woodlands (7.30pm, Thursday)
Star v Pirates-Old Boys (Saturday, 3pm)
Premier Women
Pioneer v Blues (7.15pm, Thursday)
Star v Midlands (12.30pm, Saturday)
Albion v Wakatipu (1.15pm, Saturday)
Division 1
Wyndham v Pioneer (7pm, Thursday)
Te Anau v Tokanui (3pm, Friday)
Senior B | Premier Development
Marist v Bluff (7.15pm, Wednesday)
Blues v Woodlands (6pm, Thursday).