Southland put in another big effort last Saturday but again it wasn’t quite enough and they were beaten 39-29 by Counties-Manukau in an entertaining match at Pukekohe.
Southland’s defence was as keen as ever but the Stags were outsized and outmuscled by Counties who dominated the scrums and the lineouts.
Former All Black No 8 Hoskins Sotutu proved too hard to contain and he contributed to Counties’ first try in the second minute.
Lock Mike McKee scored Southland’s first try after he took down ball from an attacking lineout and joined the back of a rolling maul to drive across the line.
Southland’s own No 8 Blair Ryall was impressive again, while halfback Connor McLeod and first five-eighth Dan Hollinshead did some good things.
From the scrum base McLeod helped set up wing Michael Manson to score on the cut, which closed the gap to 12-10 after 20 minutes.
Counties then earned back momentum and scored a couple of tries. The Stags scored in the last act of the first half when Hollinshead sent a long skip pass out to Manson who put fullback Gabriel Hamer-Webb across the line to make it 24-17.
The Stags looked good on attack when the ball was passed through the hands out wide to Manson to score his second try. The skilful speedster then scored his third try in the 64th minute from a chip and chase to close the gap to 32-29.
Unfortunately Counties scored the final seven points of the game from a penalty try. The locals had looked like scoring a pushover try from a scrum but McLeod interfered with the ball which also got him sent to the bin.
The Stags had played well but not quite well enough.
A win over Canterbury this Sunday would be a surprise. Canterbury has won four of their six games and will be glad to be playing in Christchurch on Sunday after a close loss in Auckland last weekend and a midweek game against Counties.
- By John Langford