Clinton beat Crescent for the first time since 2015 on Saturday, to cement its standing inside the top four after four weeks of the Southern Region Rugby competition.
The home side won 28-26 after leading 18-14 at halftime.
Crescent opened the scoring early in the first half before Clinton hit back with three tries before halftime, two to rampaging hooker Russell Moloney.
Clinton’s young forward pack set the platform for the match and at times dominated their more-experienced opposition.
A second-half debut double to Crescent winger Jonty Sopp was not enough to give his side the victory, as Crescent paid the price for handling errors and poor discipline at ruck time.
Heriot is the only unbeaten team left in the competition, after securing a hard-fought 19-18 win over West Taieri at Heriot. West Taieri crossed the chalk inside 10 minutes in what was a fairly sluggish start from both sides. But try turned the match up a gear and it became extremely physical and intense. Heriot led 15-12 at halftime before West Taieri took the lead with 15 minutes remaining, thanks to winger Hayden Ross’ second try of the match.
Heriot attacked with vigour towards the end of the match and was awarded a penalty on fulltime which first five Logan Cornish kicked to give his side the win.
Toko responded perfectly to its loss last weekend with a 47-31 win over Clutha Valley in their match at Milton.
The first half was extremely lopsided in terms of territory, possession and penalties, and Toko went to the break with a whopping 40-5 lead.
In the second half, Valley got the rub of the green and managed to look after possession. With the penalty count in its favour in the second spell, Valley scored four tries, but could not close the imposing gap created in the first half.
Toko played intelligent, direct rugby as it excelled at the basics.
Owaka picked up its first win of the season with a confidence-boosting 29-12 win over Lawrence in Owaka.
The first half was a tight, physical battle in which each team scored a try each to go into halftime tied at 5-5. Owaka took control of the second half on the back of a strong scrum and some heavy carries into contact.
Owaka’s ball runners made plenty of metres and they found space out wide on plenty of occasions.
Lawrence played a physical, up tempo game but handling errors and penalties at key times let them down.
— Francis Parker
