The finalists have been found in the Southern Region competition and it will be a repeat of last season.
Clutha Valley secured home advantage for the final with a 15-5 win over Heriot at Clydevale.
The home side stepped up a gear from last week and dominated in terms of territory and possession. It held on to the ball for long periods and forced Heriot to tackle and remain on the back foot.
Heriot’s lineout struggled for most of the first half, handing possession back to the home side, which muscled up at scrum time.
Clutha Valley scored two first half-tries to outside backs Todd McCammon and Lachie Moore to lead 12-0 at the break.
The second half was largely controlled by Valley, although Heriot did mount several attacks.
However, when it did so, Heriot made crucial errors and threw possession away.
Valley extended its lead through a Thomas Johnson penalty before Heriot hit back with a try to fullback Clayton Buchanan, who benefited from a decisive break from winger Mark McKenzie.
It was to be the last scoring play of the game.
The heavy ground conditions made it tough for both packs but Valley’s forwards edged that contest.
Lock Kyle Forbes was immense and put in a mountain of work. Valley’s loose forward combination of Jordan Willocks, Damian Wilson and Maurice Tairua controlled the breakdown nicely.
Jonny Sargent was the pick of the Valley backs.
Heriot was served well up front by Tom Fraser, Tyson Adams and captain Ben Millar. Ethan Jane tried his best to get his pack moving in the right direction and made many tackles. Henry Power added energy off the bench.
West Taieri ensured it will feature in the big dance again, with a tight 12-10 win over Clutha at Outram.
Heavy ground conditions ensured that the forward contest was going to be key.
Clutha attacked hard from the start and managed to hold on to possession.
It opened the scoring with a penalty to Matt Korteweg before West Taieri hit back through an unconverted try to flanker Conner Jenkins, following a Pat Hamer charge-down for a halftime score of 5-3 to West Taieri.
It extended the score through hooker Arlen Docherty who scored close to the posts to put the home side 12-3 ahead after the conversion.
Clutha’s dominance of possession was matched wholeheartedly by West Taieri’s determined defence.
Clutha scored through replacement front rower Tyler Haua which brought the scores close after the conversion. It attacked for the final stages of the match but could not score any more points.
West Taieri’s defence was key. Captain Conor Beaton and flanker Jenkins had huge matches on defence.
Clutha will be disappointed with the result, but proud of its efforts. Halfback Jamie Brown was influential.
The bottom-four final will be contested by Crescent and Toko, after Crescent dispatched Clinton 60-14 at Kaitangata and Toko pushed aside Owaka 20-12.
- Francis Parker
