The Old Golds locked away the Lochore Cup to wrap up their Heartland Championship in style in front of a buzzing home crowd at Maheno on Sunday.
They dispatched Horowhenua-Kapiti 64-47 in a dazzling second half — after the scores were locked 19-19 at halftime — that kept everyone entertained.
Old Golds coach Luke Herden was proud of what they produced throughout the whole 10-week campaign.
"Successful — very successful," Herden said.
"The boys — and this goes back to club rugby as well — there’s talent in the province.
"They deserve what they got. We came together really well and I’m just really proud of them, proud for them."
North Otago finished the regular season in sixth place with a record of five wins and three losses.
They lost their opening two games, falling 39-21 to Whanganui and 56-29 to Wairarapa-Bush, before going on a five-game winning streak.
Their mid-season purple patch included wins over two of the four eventual Meads Cup semifinalists: defending champions Thames Valley and South Canterbury, the latter whom they beat for the first time since 2019.
"South Canterbury at home was a great win."
A costly 47-7 loss to Mid Canterbury — who went unbeaten to win the Meads Cup — in the final round-robin game resulted in the Old Golds slipping out of Meads Cup contention.
But they made a welcome return to the playoffs, after missing last year for the first time in 25 years.
They beat Poverty Bay 48-46 in the Lochore Cup semifinal at home and flew past Horowhenua-Kapiti to end the season on a high.
They won five of their six home games, five of which were played at the Oamaru Showgrounds as Whitestone Contracting Stadium was out of action due to the Waitaki Event Centre construction.
"Hopefully, they believe in themselves now."
Centre Matia Qiolevu finished as the top try-scorer with eight, followed by co-captain Hayden Tisdall (six), and halfback Kippei Taninaka and winger Hopate Finau (five each).
Second five Tini Feke was outstanding all season and flanker Mitch Morton and prop Kelepi Funaki always put in big shifts.
"Everyone’s contributed in their way, off the field as well," Herden said.
There is always room for improvement and Herden said they would look to fine-tune their preparation for the Heartland season.
"In reflection, we’ll try get our preseason a bit better so we’re a bit more conditioned come time."
It has been a special season for Herden returning to North Otago.
He pulled on the Old Golds jersey through the 2000s as a Dunedin loan player, winning the old NPC third division in 2002 and captaining the 2010 Meads Cup-winning side.
Returning as head coach, having previously had a stint as assistant, had been "awesome".
"I love coming up the road. Trainings have been great — but that’s the environment that they’ve created for us.
"Everyone contributes to the environment and that can be a negative or a positive, and for us it’s a positive. We’ve had a great team culture."
A big crowd spread around the Maheno Domain to support the team in Sunday’s final.
"It’s a great community. This is Heartland rugby.
"Seeing the players I used to play with coming out in their old kit ... it’s awesome. It’s what it’s about."
