The Eastern Northern Barbarians have been the most consistent team this season, earning the minor premiership title by winning nine of their 10 games.
The Barbarians will play Star in one semifinal at the Gore Showgrounds.
Eastern Northern beat Star 13-6 in Waikaia in May and again last weekend, 47-19, at Oreti Park.
The Barbarians’ forward pack is full of experience and halfback Charlie Marsh has been a great acquisition for the club this season.
Left winger Bunuve Dretiverata is in good form after scoring the first three of the Barbarians’ seven tries last weekend.
Star have enviable leadership in the locking department with captain Lachlan Springford and former Stags captain Josh Bekhuis.
Forty-year-old Bekhuis has previously played a part in four Galbraith Shield-winning seasons for Star.
Impressive young Star midfielders Sam Mustchin and Micaiah Johnston-Brown will not be afraid of the challenge in the semifinal.
Star have plenty of firepower in their outside backs through Hughan Sharp, Kasseus Henry and Nate Corbett. Fale Iosefa adds another option in the Star back three.
Pirates Old Boys finished second on the competition points table and will take on Woodlands in the other semifinal at Rugby Park.
POB will take confidence into the match after winning on the two occasions these teams met during the round robin. POB won 24-17 in May and beat Woodlands 35-5 on June 20.
Pirates Old Boys had racked up 47 unanswered points against Invercargill Blues last Saturday.
Woodlands have had their player roster bolstered in recent weeks as key members have returned from injury.
Caleb Karangaroa was back from injury to captain the team from No 8 last weekend. Karangaroa is working towards being part of the Stags squad in the spring.
Southland Stag and New Zealand Sevens player Fletcher Morgan played his first club rugby game of the year last weekend and helped Woodlands comfortably beat Marist 66-22.
Fletcher lined up at second five and scored two of Woodlands’ 10 tries and converted seven of them.
Right winger Justin Shaw also scored two tries against Marist and landed one conversion. Shaw and young left winger Zeke Siolo have the ability to outplay POB wingers Isaac Rounds and Sosefo Fatai.
The division one, two and three competitions still have two more weeks of round-robin games before semifinals. The women’s competition also has two more rounds to play before their semifinals.
- By John Langford
