Wyndham are the 2024 Division One Southland Club Rugby champions after beating Edendale 35-19 in the Ack Soper Shield final on Saturday.
Pioneer had a win and a loss against Wyndham during the regular phase but Wyndham had home ground advantage for the final.
Wyndham also had some extra determination after narrowly losing the last two finals, first to Edendale in 2022 and then to Tokanui last year.
Pioneer led 15-13 at halftime. Wyndham defended especially well for the 10 minutes on either side of halftime when they had two players sent to the sin bin.
The elusive Wyndham centre Hayden Diack played the best game his coach has seen him play. Diack was at his instinctive best on Saturday, while blindside flanker Jaden Walsh and halfback Tyrone Braven were two other standout players.
Wyndham had an experienced team led by hooker Mark Snow Kingsbury.
Snow played 80 minutes of every game this year, while another experienced campaigner who played some of his best rugby was No 8 MattMcRae.
Wyndham coach Gavin McDermott said his reserve bench had been their team’s strength in recent weeks.
"We used 32 players this year and we had 29 fit players to choose from during the last six weeks. It was hard to leave players out."
McDermott spoke highly of the Pioneer club. "They’ve got a young side and are going to go great during the next couple of years. The amount of supporters at Pioneer is phenomenal."
McDermott said the division had been a quality competition for a long time. "Anyone could beat anyone on their day this year so it was satisfying to win. Our team celebrated hard; some of them didn’t get any sleep before the Sunday session."
The win ranks Wyndham as the seventh strongest club in Southland.
McDermott has stepped down after five years of coaching, so he can more closely follow his daughters playing netball and rugby.
One disappointing side-note for Wyndham was their senior team only playing at the same venue as the club’s Presidents’ Grade team twice this season. Waikaia beat Waikaka 24-13 in the Presidents’ Grade Cup final.
- By John Langford
