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Dominant scrummaging has helped Southland Country get the better of their Otago counterparts.
Southland won the Tuppy Diack Memorial Shield game against Otago Country 31 to 29 on Saturday at Mataura.
The team also won the Donaghy Shield contested between the two teams and finished fourth on the table ahead of Otago.
Coach AJ Aitken said he could not say how many times his forward pack pushed Otago back.
“Our scrum was a damn sight better than theirs.”
Otago may have felt hard done by given the number of scrum penalties they gave away, but the evidence spoke for itself, Aitken said.
“When they're going backwards like they were, you can't hide from that.”
It was pleasing to get the win.
“Obviously, our boys played pretty well.
“We were reasonably clinical.”
While some of the option taking in the first half might not have been the best the team were up 14 to 12 at half time.
“I thought our discipline was a lot better than theirs and our attack was probably better than theirs as well.”
The plan had been to end the season on a high after losing to Southland Metro the week before.
“They gave us a bit of a hiding, and we were a bit disappointed about that, so the whole plan was to finish well.”
Otago gave the team a good run for their money.
“They were awesome on defence.”
He singled out half back Jordy Smith as having a very good game.
“He was our best on Saturday.
“He was outstanding.”
Flanker Ben Hill, first five Taylor Peterson and prop Oliver Woodrow also played well.
“Generally, across the board, we were pretty good, really.”
Unlike some of the other teams, the selectors only had one premier team to choose players from so needed to make up the balance of the team from division one and two players.
“We're real focused on trying to develop some of those guys in those lower grades, and I think it all came to a head on Saturday, the way we played, and the way that some of those division one and division two boys fronted up.”
After the match Keiran Short of the Tokanui club received his 15 game blazer.
Earlier in the series Barbarian’s Ryan McFaul also received his.
The country clubs were in good heart having won the premier, division one to three and president grades in the Southland competition, Aitken said.
“There's pretty dominant sort of country performances across the board, really.”