Town-Country: Scrum dominance key to victory
While it had the Town-Country tag attached the reality is the senior men’s game was a Stags and Southland B trial fixture.
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A dominant scrum has propelled Town to a 22-7 victory over Country in the senior men’s rugby showdown at Rugby Park on Monday evening.
The senior men’s showdown was the third of three games played on what was a festival of rugby on King’s Birthday.
While it had the Town-Country tag attached the reality is the senior men’s game was a Stags and Southland B trial fixture.
It provided Rugby Southland’s high-performance staff with an opportunity to look at players at a level above club rugby.
It took 17 minutes for the first scoring in the game when in form wing Michael Manson simply hammered home what we all already knew in regard to his pace.
He found himself in some space and gassed the Town defence to score as Country took a 7-0 lead.
But that lead was short-lived as the Town team responded minutes later with a try to blindside flanker and captain Blair Ryall.
From that point, Town started to dominate with its scrum - led by the front row of Jonah Aiona, Jacob Payne, and Shunsuke Asaoka - its key asset.
After a series of scrum penalties close to the Country line referee Sam Nicholson eventually lost patience with Town awarded a penalty try.
Country tighthead prop Chris Barrett also found himself yellow-carded.
Town held a 12-7 halftime lead before controlling possession and territory in the second half despite plenty of player changes by both teams.
Ben Pope scored six minutes into the second half and Isaac Te Tamaki in the 65th minute to round out the 22-7 win.
While it was hard to find a player that knocked down the selection door there were plenty of players who showed enough in what was a physical, and at times fiery encounter.
Country captain and lock Grayson Knapp was in the thick of it.
Country second five-eighth Joeseva Mara carried the ball strongly and was one of his team’s best.
Hooker Tupou Kaufonoga was physical and a handful with the ball in hand.
For Town, first five-eighth Ben Pope provided some spark on attack while Albert Qoro off the bench got Town going forward.
Earlier in the day the Women’s and Colts games were both exciting contests.
In the women’s showdown, Country won a thriller 35-29 through a late try. While in the colts fixture it was Town which won a high-scoring affair 46-35.
The three games were a superb celebration of rugby and a prime example as to why the home of Southland rugby, Rugby Park, should be used more often.
The Town-Country rugby day will be held at Rugby Park in Invercargill tomorrow [Monday]. Although probably more importantly the three games will act as important trial fixtures for representative teams, including the Southland Stags.
There has been a player-of-origin type element added to it this year. Those at Rugby Southland HQ have attempted to make sure there were even teams rolled out, and at the same time the players they want to have a look at were all included.
The day is hoped to be a big step up from a Southland premier club rugby fixture to see how certain players respond.