Crescent kept their stranglehold on first position on the Southern Region ladder with an extremely hard-fought 22-14 win over Owaka at Swamp Hen Park on Saturday.
Conditions were damp and neither side really used the ball well in the first half.
Crescent controlled territory and possession but came up against a tenacious Owaka defence that made them work extremely hard for their points.
The halftime score was 15-7 to Crescent.
Owaka’s dominance at scrum time should have had them in the right areas of the field and they were unlucky to not be awarded several penalties.
When they did make it into Crescent territory, they scored two tries and kept in touching distance.
Crescent made Owaka pay for two handling errors at crucial times, which was the only difference between the teams.
West Taieri took control of second place on the ladder with a comfortable 41-22 win over Toko at Milton.
The visitors showed their might in the first half as they roared out to a 24-3 lead.
Toko showed all the heart in the world and took it to West Taieri in the second half as they narrowed the gap, but their lack of depth on the bench showed towards the end of the game as West Taieri scored some late tries to extend the score.
Toko’s physicality never wavered, and they were competitive in the tight, but West Taieri’s set piece was dominant and their backs looked smart with front-foot ball.
Clutha Valley returned from the bye week and made yet another statement as they looked to solidify their position in the top four, beating Heriot 49-12 at Clydevale to retain the Trevor Peters Memorial Trophy.
The scoreline would not suggest this, but Heriot controlled play for the opening 20 minutes as they were back to their physical best and held on to possession for long periods.
Valley weathered the storm and fought their way back to lead 28-12 at the break.
Valley rolled up their sleeves in the second half and denied Heriot any more points while scoring three more tries themselves.
Lawrence beat Clinton 22-17 at Clinton to move up the table and keep tabs on the teams in front of them.
Clinton were quick out of the blocks and scored two tries in the opening five minutes. Their line speed on defence was outstanding and they put plenty of pressure on the Lawrence attack as they took a 17-10 lead into halftime.
Lawrence’s structure and superior fitness came to the fore in the second half as they controlled possession, forced their way into Clinton’s red zone and scored two tries to claim victory.
By Francis Parker
