Southland Stags prop and Eastern Northern Barbarians captain Morgan Mitchell scored in his team’s 50-22 win against Marist in Gore.
Morgan put out his usual high quality propping performance for his 100th game for the club, although hooker Liam Ferguson tried to steal the show by scoring four tries.
Barbarians coach AJ Aitken said when his team was down two tries to one down after 25 minutes he had cause for concern
‘‘Their first five (Aiden Harrington) had scored a really good try and I thought we could have some trouble here,’’ Aitken said.
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.’’
Replacement halfback Charlie Marsh injected speed and direction in the second half, while first five Taylor Peterson kicked a penalty and six conversions.
Harrington and halfback Jordan O’Connell were the best for Marist. Lock Harrison Milne also made a good start to his season.
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 pulled away in last 10 minutes with three more tries.
The Woodlands’ goal kickers were good during the preseason but missed all six conversion attempts.
Woodlands coach Barry Smith was content 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 for Woodlands. Lankshear has moved from Bay Of Plenty, aiming to crack to the Stags.
‘‘It was encouraging signs for Sloane and our captain Caleb Korangaroa at lock also played well,’’ Smith said.
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 in Invercargill.
Former Stags loose forward Matt James is the new head coach for Pirates-Old Boys this year but it was business as usual for POB again proved that they are always well prepared.
POB hooker Shaun Kempton scored the first two tries.
The first was after some skilful second phase ball movement and the next from his accurate throw to the back of the lineout was taken in and he latched on to the drive to the line.
POB showed their dominance through a pushover scrum try from No 8 Hayden Hagerty.
Halfback Josh Murrell scooted over for the bonus point 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.
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 seven conversions, and Ngawaka scored the team’s ninth try.
Star loose forward Mckenzie Hunter put in a big effort.
- By John Langford
