The Harbour Hawks pretty much confirmed the last spot in the six when they dismantled the Dunedin Sharks at the Sandpit in the weekend. They posted a half-century as they fed on innumerable turnovers from the hapless Sharks and posted a series of long-range tries. The Sharks weren’t helped by a very porous defence. The drums will be beating at Shark Park as it is a long time since they didn’t make the playoffs. Kaikorai put 50 on an under-strength Varsity outfit who had a third straight loss. Kaik move into second, a point behind Taieri. An under-strength GI team came firing out of the blocks at the Toolbox and scored some great tries, but the big Southern pack overpowered them and delivered a comfortable 14-point win in the end. In the ‘‘wooden spoon’’ battle AU finally put it together to hand Zingers, who now sit last by one, a 28-point loss. Congratulations to the hard-working AU club for finally getting the monkey off the back in the crucial game. So you can take it to the bank that the top six, in no particular order at this stage, will be Taieri, Kaik, Varsity, Southern, GI and Harbour.
I’m not sure if they’re playing rugby on the farm, but they certainly didn’t in North Otago and Southland. But there was rugby in Balclutha, where Central and South went at it to decide who holds the Topp Cup for the season. I hear coach Brown was on the sidelines looking for prospective Otago talent but failed to sign anybody! It was a pretty disappointing spectacle from all accounts, but the tenacious defence of Central kept them in the hunt and they took their opportunities to deservedly retain the cup. I did bag their coaching panel last week, Hore, Purvis and Dowling, but to the winners go the spoils!
Ranfurly Shield challenge
The local coaches have been dreading it as they will lose a lot of players out of their prem teams next weekend (June 13) as Otago prepare for the Ranfurly Shield challenge from North Otago at 6pm on Tuesday, June 16 at the Greenhouse. They’ve currently named a 28-man squad for the game which will be trimmed down to 23 next week. Rather bizarrely, they circulated to the clubs on Tuesday then sent out a note on the Wednesday to keep it a secret. The clubs most affected are Kaik (7), GI (4), Taieri (4), and Harbour (4). Well, Kaik are not really affected as miraculously they have the bye next weekend. I’m not sure why more of Otago’s Highlanders could not have played, as some are already back on deck in their clubs. Who knows who Spook Herden will turn up with on June 16 considering he had already approached superstars Mo’unga and Weber. I’ll try to get Brownie on Rugby Chat (odt.co.nz) next week and all will be revealed.
Comings and goings
This Saturday I think marks the last game for the season for Eels No 8 Sam Fischli, as Southland have demanded his presence — again, this makes no real sense. Word is Kaik prop Moana Takataka has been called into the Crusaders camp as cover this week — great work if you can get it! There was an interesting sub for Varsity at the weekend in the form of lock Harry Irving. He’s been named in the shield side and was a NZ Colt last year and is out of the Wellington Lions — another question for Brownie?
The big game
Unbeaten Clutha travel to Outram this weekend to take on the (also unbeaten) West Taieri Pigs in the game of the season. Whoever wins this will probably go on to win the South Otago competition. Clutha under Marty Hurring have been a revelation this year with their unique brand of running rugby. I’ve heard the coach is unsure if anybody in the team can kick well, and thus they don’t! If only more coaches thought that way. If you’re in the area at 3pm tomorrow you could do much worse than to head to West Taieri rugby club.
This weekend
I lost at the weekend to the world’s worst tipster, Lukey from Kaik, and you know what that means — I’m worse than him! Anyway on to Blinky Blair from Zingers and he’s not even picking his own team — he doesn’t deserve to win. Varsity are at home to Taieri (13+) and this only goes one way — the Eels too good. Harbour host Kaik; both teams are coming off big wins and Harbour are hard to beat at home, but I’ll take Kaik (12-) just, who have a better all-round game. Southern (13+) should destroy Zingers at Bathgate — that’s all she wrote. Dunedin lost more players at the weekend and are struggling to field a team, so GI go in as commanding favourites but I’ll take the Sharks and I know it’s illogical!
Thrashed Russ Lundy from Property Brokers last week and on to Darryl McKenzie — a West Taieri ‘‘heavy’’ — this week. Crescent (12-) get up over Heriot, Clutha Valley (13+) thrash Owaka, Lawrence (13+) beat up Clinton and in the biggie, Clutha (13+) too fast for West Taieri at the Market Garden.
