Club Rugby: Woodlands make serious statement at Gore
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Logan Savory wraps up the action from week seven of Southland club rugby.
Traditionally, there have been few tougher assignments in Southland club rugby than a midweek trip to the Gore Showgrounds to take on the Eastern-Northern Barbarians.
Although on Wednesday night, Woodlands swatted off that thought and made a serious statement in the race to hold the prized Galbraith Shield aloft in 2025.
Woodlands piled on seven tries and ensured the Barbarians didn’t cross once in a 45-6 demolition job. It keeps Woodlands equal with Pirates-Old Boys at the top of Southland’s premier club rugby standings.
Woodlands led 24-6 at halftime before scoring three further converted tries in the second half while not conceding a single point.
Coach Richard Jones does a pretty good job of keeping a lid on the excitement at this point in the round-robin season, and that remained the case when reflecting on a significant performance against the Barbarians.
“It is positive because it is a tough place to play. We have been out there to Gore a lot over the years, and it is a hard place to get a win. We were pleased with the performance.
“But again, we are not getting ahead of ourselves; we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Jones said.
“A few of us have been around coaching for a while, you know you don’t get too excited about a round-robin win because there is lots of footy to be played yet and things can turn quick.”
Jones said everyone performed well on Wednesday night, although second five-eighth Fletcher Morgan and lock Alex Yallop were particularly good. That might pique the interest of those reading this club rugby wrap through a Stags lens.
Morgan and Yallop are both pushing for an opportunity at NPC level.
“Fletcher Morgan was really good again last night, really physical. The same as the big fella Alex Yallop, he was handy last year, but he’s throwing his weight around and dominating some collisions,” Jones said.
Looseforward Josh Evans was another significant figure in Woodlands’ win, as was Nathan Va’atausili who started at hooker and shifted to No 8 where he scored two tries.
Greg Dyer has provided another glimpse into his importance in Pirates-Old Boys’ potential march towards a 2025 Galbraith Shield title.
Top-of-the-table Pirates-Old Boys were coming off a shock 15-12 loss to the then winless Star when it lined up against a much-improved Blues outfit at the Les George Oval on Thursday night.
First five-eighth Dyer missed that loss to Star, and the absence of his kicking game was noticeable. But he returned to play a key role in Pirates-Old Boys’ five tries to two 33-10 victory over Blues.
Added to that was the return of Kaea Nikora-Balloch at fullback, to join centre Jay Thompson and halfback Kane O’Connor as other quality general kicking options in the Pirates-Old Boys backline.
On top of the kicking improvements was an improved Pirates-Old Boys lineout which had struggled against Star.
Pirates-Old Boys coach Dayna Cunningham said they needed to respond following the loss to Star, which is what they got.
“I think it’s healthy to lose some games. There are still naturally opportunities to learn when you win, but I think individually people look harder when you lose… You just don’t want to have back-to-back losses because the competition is so tight,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said Blues was a big physical team, and he was particularly impressed with the way his team absorbed what Blues threw at them on Thursday night.
“I was really happy with how we fronted on defence. They scored one of the tries against us, but it took them a long time to break our line, so I was really happy with our guys’ intent to defend.”
Pirates-Old Boys did lose lock George Hall, who picked up a broken finger on Thursday night and is set for a stint on the sidelines.
Outside back Materua Tupou was unavailable because of injury but will soon return, while Pirates-Old Boys looks set to be bolstered with a rival of a lock-looseforward from Japan as part of the relationship with Toyota Verblitz.
Toyota Verblitz hooker Shintaro Fukuzawa has already arrived in Southland and lined up for Blues against Pirates-Old Boys on Thursday night.
Star piled on 29 unanswered points against Marist to breathe further life into its playoff hopes after a bleak start to its 2025 season.
After starting the 2025 season with four straight losses, Star upset Pirates-Old Boys before banking a 35-7 bonus point victory over Marist at Miller St on Thursday night.
Star pushed out to a 6-0 lead against Marist on the back of two handy Daniel Low penalties.
With a couple of minutes to play in the first half lock Ben Fotheringham scored and with the Scott Eade conversion Marist led 7-6 with a minute to play in the first half.
The message was simple for Marist, take the kick-off, exit cleanly, and head to halftime 7-6 up.
However, an error led to a Star scrum and from there teenage halfback Jackson Hughan went on impressive run from 30-odd metres out to score and Star went into halftime 13-6 up.
Star then took charge in the second half when they racked up four tries to push out to the 35-7 victory.
One of those four second half tries came via 39-year-old lock Josh Bekhuis who, much to the delight of the Star supporters, sold a dummy out wide and headed in to score.
Low was very good at first five-eighth in the Star win, halfback Jackson Hughan continues his good form, and Star was boosted with the return of Hughan Sharp on the wing.
The bonus point win has Star now sitting just four points outside the top four, while for Marist who sit last with one win from six outings its playoff hopes are slipping away.
Marist does possess a quality forward pack that, on paper, should match most in the competition.
Included are contracted Stag tight-head prop Liam McIntosh, former Stags lock Ben Fotheringham, and potential Stags looseforward Jackson Bevin.
But even so, that pack was put under plenty of pressure at scrumtime by Star in a difficult night out on Thursday night.
Marist was guilty of making too many errors, which meant they were unable to build any significant amount of time with the ball on attack.
The few times veteran wing Keanu Kahukura did get the ball he proved a handful.
Premier Standings
Pirates-Old Boys 23, Woodlands 23, Blues 15, Barbarians 14, Star 10, Marist 6.
(Division One)
Edendale 50, Bluff 15
Albion 24, Waikaka/Riversdale 14
Pioneer 37, Te Anau 25
Wyndham 24, Tokanui 19
(Division Two)
Midlands 62, Collegiate 7
Blues 31, Pirates-Old Boys 19
Otautau-Ohai-Nightcaps 20, Wakatipu 8
Central Pirates 12, Wright's Bush 10
Waikiwi 34, Drummond-Limehills-Star 14
Mossburn 36, Waiau Star 10