Club Rugby: Marist honour club great with victory
The Southland Tribune's club rugby coverage is brought to you thanks to the support of Regional Ford Gore & Balclutha.
Logan Savory wraps up the action from week eight of Southland club rugby.
Marist has picked a timely moment to spark its 2025 Southland premier club rugby season into action.
Bottom-of-the-table Marist dispatched Blues 24-7 in a much-needed victory that came days after Marist lost one of its greats.
Marist Rugby Club life member Bill McCaw died aged 97 this week. McCaw joined the Marist senior team as a 21-year-old and was a member of the Galbraith Shield-winning team in 1948.
That was before he went on to make five appearances for the All Blacks at No 8 in 1951, 1953, and 1954.
McCaw was back at Marist as a 32-year-old as its sole coach in 1959 when Marist next won the Galbraith Shield.
He was also a club captain and president at Marist and played a pivotal role in getting the Marist clubrooms built.
Current Marist coach Derek Manson said the team was aware of McCaw’s significance at the Marist club, and he was pleased the team was able to honour McCaw with a win on Saturday.
Marist did the damage in the first half against Blues when it scored all of its 24 points in the first 40 minutes during a game played in challenging wet and windy conditions.
It was the response Manson was after following some pretty honest conversations in the lead up to Saturday’s game.
Marist had beaten Blues in round one on March 22 before then losing five straight. It included a disappointing 35-7 loss to Star a week ago.
“That win [against Blues] was massive for the team. We had a pretty open and honest discussion as a team. We’ve addressed a few things, so that win was a response and the boys taking ownership of the team. It was well-timed,” Manson said.
“I’m proud of the way the boys responded.”
Manson said in the challenging conditions first five-eighth Scott Eade and fullback Curtis Tarrant’s kicking game was important in the victory over Blues.
Despite that run of losses, Marist said there had been some individuals who had been key figures throughout the season.
“James Moodie has been outstanding for us this season. It has sort of been the veteran guys, so him, Jackson Bevin, Fozzy [Ben Fotheringham], he’s been great… Hunter Burgess has been playing bloody well.”
Although Fotheringham might be in for a short spell on the sidelines after being shown a red card in the second half against Blues, which followed a yellow card in the first half.
Manson said tight-head prop Liam McIntosh also sparked into action on Saturday in what was probably his best game to date in 2025.
That’s not just important for Marist but potentially the Stags as well, as McIntosh pushes for gametime in the maroon jersey come NPC time.
While it has been a challenging season to date for Marist, Manson said the closeness of the competition meant a semifinal berth was still very much a target.
At just over the halfway mark in the competition, Marist sit sixth but just three competition points behind the Eastern-Northern Barbarians in the all-important fourth spot.
Pirates-Old Boys has racked up 35 first half points to ensure a quartet of club stalwarts marked some special milestones on Saturday with a win.
Pirates-Old Boys capitalised on playing with the wind in the first half to bank plenty of field position leading to five first half tries to lead 35-7 at the break.
To the Eastern-Northern Barbarians credit, they showed some fight in miserable conditions in the second half to win that second stanza 14-0, although still came up short at 35-21.
Pirates-Old Boys coach Dayna Cunningham acknowledged there was no shortage of motivation on Saturday as the club celebrated four key members of its premier team who were playing in milestone games.
They were, Craig Smith (250 games), Jaye Thompson (150), Ben Keenan (150), and Greg Dyer (100).
“That is what club rugby is built on, that sort of commitment and longevity. They’ve given up a massive part of their life to be at the club, and it is commitment from their families to allow them to do that,” Cunningham said.
“The way we play club rugby now, in terms of the competition structures, you are probably going to see less of those sort of milestones come up.”
The bonus point victory ensured Pirates-Old Boys remained at top-of-the-table after seven rounds.
Alex Fraito has had a big season at hooker for Pirates-Old Boys and backed that up on Saturday against the Barbarians.
“He just keeps getting up and knocking people over. He was really physical, I thought he was really good,” Cunningham said.
With Shaun Kempton unlikely to play any club rugby this season because of his New Zealand Under-20s commitments, Fraito’s importance in Pirates-Old Boys’ march towards a potential Galbraith Shield title has increased.
Halfback Kane O’Connor was another key in Saturday’s win, as was Greg Dyer.
Dyer started at fullback with Kaea Nikora-Balloch at first five-eighth before the two swapped roles.
A late Fletcher Morgan penalty goal has lifted Woodlands to a 22-19 victory over Star on Saturday in a game dominated by the heavy rain and a tricky cross-field wind.
The inform Woodlands picked up from where they left off in recent weeks when they scored two earlier tries to push out to a 14-0 lead.
With points looking like they were going to be hard to come by, that impressive start proved to be vital and ended up being the difference.
Star was able to get the score 19-12 and then levelled the scores up at 19-19 in the second half, despite Woodlands dominating a big chunk of the territory stakes.
Star had the luxury of bringing on Stags hooker Nic Souchon at halftime after he just recently joined the club.
Souchon had initially planned to join Star early in the season but got picked up by the Hurricanes as injury cover and spent some time in Wellington with them. It included making his Super Rugby debut against Moana Pasifika in March.
Unfortunately, Souchon’s debut with Star against Woodlands on Saturday only lasted 28 minutes when he was forced from the field with an ankle injury.
Star did struggle at lineout time throughout the second half, which proved costly as they pushed for field position and a victory.
Inside the final 10 minutes, and with the scores locked up 19-19, Morgan had the chance to push his team in front, which he did so with what turned out to be the match-winning penalty.
It was a nice moment considering Morgan’s parents had made the trip down south from up north to watch the game.
Although, like many onlookers, they probably could have dreamt up better places to be given they witnessed Invercargill at its worst, weather-wise.
(Premier Women)
Pioneer 36, Wakatipu 5
Albion 54, Blues 12
Star 15, Marist 5
(Division One)
Tokanui 59, Te Anau 26
Waikaka/Riversdale 33, Pioneer 32
Wyndham 26, Bluff 5
Edendale 48, Albion 14
(Division Two)
Midlands 26, Woodlands 7
Waikiwi 24, Riverton 12
Marist 12, Mossburn 7
Drummond-Limehills-Star 5, Blues 0
(Division Three)
Waiau Star 31, Pirates-Old Boys 7
Mataura 13, Star 10
Wakatipu 24, Collegiate 22
Wright’s Bush 14, Central Pirates 12