Club Rugby: Woodlands make statement ahead of semifinal
Woodlands has finished top of the table and will host fourth-place Pirates-Old Boys. While second-place Eastern-Northern Barbarians and Marist will square off at the Gore Showgrounds.
The round-robin stage of Southland’s premier club rugby competition is done and next week’s semifinal games have been sorted.
Woodlands has finished top of the table and will host fourth-place Pirates-Old Boys. While second-place Eastern-Northern Barbarians and Marist will square off at the Gore Showgrounds.
Logan Savory wraps up how the intriguing final Saturday of the round-robin season played out.
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It’s taken until the final round of round-robin play but the Eastern-Northern Barbarians unbeaten run through the 2023 season has come to an end with the 42-14 loss to Woodlands in Gore.
And by doing so Woodlands has sent some shivers through the competition as it shoots for four straight Galbraith Shield titles.
Although both Woodlands coach Richard Jones and Barbarians coach Bretton Taylor were quick to play down the relevance of Saturday’s result heading into the playoff stage of the competition.
Taylor was wary of making excuses but pointed to the fact they only had one fresh forward on the bench on Saturday as some players took the week off to rest some injuries.
He felt some players might also have already had one eye on next week given it had already locked in a home semifinal.
“I tried to say the right things during the week but quite clearly some of their thoughts were already on next week. We had climbed the mountain last week getting the semifinal and ticking that box.”
Jones also stressed he too wasn’t looking too much into Saturday’s 42-14 result over the previously unbeaten Barbarians.
“It’s only a round-robin game I guess, as silly as it sounds,” Jones said.
Although despite all of the playing down of Saturday’s game Woodlands showed enough to suggest it will again take some stopping now we have reached the crunch stage of the season.
Woodlands run in six tries against the Barbarians with first five-eighth Marty McKenzie converting all six of them.
The midfield of Tauasosi Tuimavave and Viliame Fine was very physical and made good inroads on attack and hit hard in defence.
The set piece also operated well with Woodlands scoring some nice tries on the back of lineouts.
Prop Paula Latu returned from a fractured eye socket injury and quickly got back into his work.
Marist has sharpened its knife heading into semifinal footy with a commanding 76-5 victory over Midlands on Saturday.
It run in 12 tries to one in a day which was all about rustling up a bit of confidence following a couple of tough outings against Star and Blues.
The bonus-point victory meant Marist leap-frogged Pirates-Old Boys to finish third in the competition standings and will now play the Barbarians in one semifinal.
Marist first five-eighth and assistant coach Scott Eade said they were looking forward to another shot at the Barbarians after suffering two last-minute losses to them this season.
“We are right there; we’ve just got to nail some of the big moments really.”
Eade points to the 2015 and 2017 semifinal victories over the Barbarians in Gore as an example they a more than capable of winning crunch games in Gore.
‘‘We’ve beaten them twice out there in semis and I know it was a while ago and probably doesn’t count for much come Saturday, but we’ll be making the point known to the boys.”
Marist will still be without Tevita Latu and Quinn Harrison-Jones for the semifinal. The pair were probably Marist’s two best players this season before injuries struck.
Both are expected to be part of the Stags’ 2023 NPC campaign and their return from injury is being managed carefully.
Prop Shaun Stodart will return after missing the Midlands game through injury and his omission on Saturday provide an opportunity for promising loosehead Hunter Fahey to start in the No 1 jersey.
Fahey is part of the Rugby Southland academy setup but usually plays his club rugby in Dunedin where he is studying.
However, he is home during the holiday break and turned out for his hometown Marist club on Saturday.
The big prop impressed with not just his physicality but his mobility and skillset and is very much in the sights of the Stags for future seasons.
Another who impressed on Saturday was midfielder Will Murray who brought up game No 100 for Marist.
For Midlands, it was a tough day out to finish their 2023 season.
Midlands has shown plenty of fight and positive signs, particularly early in the season. However, as the season has worn on, and its depth has been tested, it’s taken a toll.
Added to that is the fact is the 2023 premier club season seems to have lifted physicality from past seasons.
For the sake of Southland rugby in general the central Southland area needs to be represented in the premier ranks and it will be important Midlands continue to build playing in the topflight.
Star’s season - in terms of playoff hopes - might have been done before Saturday’s outing, but they delivered a resolute showing against Pirates-Old Boys which denied them a four-try bonus point and third spot in the competition standings.
Pirates-Old Boys needed a bonus-point victory over Star on Saturday to remain in third spot and it would have set up a trip to Gore to take on the Barbarians.
Instead, they will take on top-of-the-table Woodlands in next week’s semifinal, and whether that is a better or worse result will differ from person to person.
Star led 3-0 midway through the first half with a Ben Pope penalty before Pirates-Old Boys scored its first points through wing Rintaro Maruyama late in the first half to lead 5-3 at halftime.
It scored two further tries in the second half to Greg Dyer and Kaea Nikora-Balloch but struggled to shake a physical Star outfit to secure that bonus point.
Hooker Kaya Symon was huge for Star, until he was replaced by Rico Fisher late in the game who was on debut for Star at a senior level.
Centre Fale Iesofa again played like a man possessed.
For Pirates-Old Boys George Smith impressed at lock, Ben Keenan in the loose forwards, and Greg Dyer in the No 10 jersey.
DIVISION ONE
Wyndham 15, Tokanui 7
Pioneer 67, Te Anau 0
Edendale 38, Albion 24
Waikaka/Riversdale 31, Drummond-Limehills-Star 19
DIVISION TWO
(Life Members Trophy)
Marist 50, Midlands 19
Pirates-Old Boys 29, Star 12
*Blues the bye
(Top Four)
Riverton 27, Bluff 22
Waikiwi 37, Mossburn 10
(Bottom Four)
Waiau Star 36, Pioneer 7
Ohai Nightcaps 17, Bush Pirates 11
PRESIDENTS CUP
Wyndham 41, Riverton 10
Balfour/Lumsden 35, Tokanui 23
Waikaka 14, Waikaia 12
PRESIDENTS GRADE TROPHY
(Semifinals)
Pirates Old Boys 13, Waikiwi 7
Mataura 19, Bluff 10