The Southland club rugby competitions got under way for the majority of teams on Saturday, while the division one grade began the previous week.
The three premier grade games resulted in comfortable wins to Pirates Old Boys, Woodlands and the Eastern Northern Barbarians.
Southland Stags prop Morgan Mitchell is the captain of the Eastern Northern Barbarians side this year and was a try-scorer in his team’s 50-22 win over Marist at Newman Park in Gore.
Morgan was playing his 100th game for the Barbarians and put in his usual high quality propping performance. His mate in the middle of the front row Liam Ferguson tried to steal the show by scoring four tries.
Barbarians coach AJ Aitken said he had cause for concern when his team was down two tries to one after 25 minutes.
“Their first five [Aiden Harrington] had scored a really good try and I thought we could have some trouble here.”
Marist had one man sent to the sin bin after 30 minutes, but were still well in contention at halftime when trailing 17-10.
Marist had another man binned after 50 minutes for repeated infringements which helped the Barbarians increase their lead to 36-10 after 60 minutes.
Aitken said the Barbarians forward dominance built the win.
“We scored five or six tries from lineout mauls. Our rolling maul was pretty dominant, we’ve got a big pack, it would’ve been hard to stop.”
“Marist have got a good team, they are quite a handful and will punish anyone who takes them lightly, we were just able to smother them,” Aitken said.
Replacement halfback Charlie Marsh injected speed and direction to the Barbarians in the second half, while first five Taylor Peterson kicked a penalty goal and converted six of the seven tries.
AJ Aitken is in his second season as head coach and has a larger and more organised squad to start the competition this year.
“We have had a long preseason, we had a couple of practices in December and three warm-up games, and everyone was available for selection on Saturday,” Aitken said.
First five Aidan Harrington and halfback Jordan O’Connell were the best of the Marist team. Lock Harrison Milne also made a good start to his season for Marist.
Woodlands beat Invercargill Blues 30-7 at Appleby Park in Invercargill.
Woodlands were the first to score and led 10-7 at halftime. The defending champions led 15-7 after 60 minutes and kicked away in the last 10 minutes with three more tries.
The Woodlands goal kickers were accurate during the preseason but missed all six conversion attempts on Saturday.
Woodlands coach Barry Smith was content with the performance but said it was a bit scrappy in parts.
“We got the five competition points, our defence was good and we got through without injury so we will take that any day.”
No 8 Sloane Lankshear was the best player for Woodlands on Saturday.
Lankshear has migrated south from Bay Of Plenty this year with the goal of playing for the Southland Stags.
“It was encouraging signs for Sloane and our captain Caleb Korangaroa at lock also played well,” Barry said.
Smith said the Woodlands forward pack didn’t present quality ball for young halfback Koen Rarere in the first half.
“The lineout was a bit messy in the first half particularly.”
Experienced halfback and assistant coach Liam Howley came off the bench for the second half and helped lift the team’s performance.
Pirates Old Boys beat Star 59-0 at Surrey Park.
Former Southland Stag loose forward Matt James is the new head coach for Pirates-Old Boys this year, but it was business as usual for POB, who again proved that they are always a very well prepared team.
POB hooker Shaun Kempton scored the first two tries; the first was after some skilful second phase ball movement and the next came when his accurate throw to the back of lineout was taken in and he latched onto the back of the drive to the line.
POB showed their forward dominance through a pushover scrum try finished by No 8 Hayden Hagerty.
Halfback Josh Murrell scooted over beside the posts for the bonus point try and there was still time in the first half for first five Greg Dyer to throw an accurate long ball to put left wing Tevita Chute in the corner for a try on debut.
Captain Greg Dyer continued to manipulate the Star defence in the second half with short balls laying on tries for two more POB debutants: Ngawaka Ririnui at fullback and Marama Reti.
Dyer scored his own try from a wrap around move and Ngawaka scored the team’s ninth try.
Dyer converted seven of nine tries. Star looseforward Mckenzie Hunter put in a big effort in defence.
Woodlands will host Star this Saturday, while the Barbarians will play Pirates Old Boys at Tokanui and Marist have home ground advantage for their match against Blues.
The division one defending champions Wyndham beat the division two champions Riverton 27-11 on Saturday.
Riverton were promoted to division one this year along with Waikiwi. Waikiwi drew 26-26 with the Riversdale Waikaka Vikings on Saturday.
This weekend the unbeaten Edendale team will make life difficult on their home patch for Riverton. Wyndham will head to Riversdale to play the Vikings and Waikiwi will host Pioneer.
Tokanui will host Albion on Saturday and celebrate the recently completed renovation of their club house.
The division two match of the round will be at Limehills when Drummond Limehills Star play against their near neighbours Midlands. The Limehills club are celebrating their centenary season this weekend. The division two match will be the 11th game at Limehills on the day.
Division 1 Results: Pioneer 27, Tokanui 14. Wyndham 27, Riverton 11. Waikiwi 26, Waikaka/Riversdale 26. Edendale 47, Albion 10.
Division 2/3 Results: Collegiate 38, Marist 22. Woodlands 43, Blues 7. Pirates Old Boys 26, Star 24. Mossburn 19, Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 16. Te Anau 35, Wakatipu 0. Waiau Star 24, Drummond-Limehills-Star 17. Midlands 70, Central Pirates 0 Bluff 53, Wrights Bush 17.
John Langford
