Pirates Old Boys remain on top of the points table after beating the Eastern Northern Barbarians 30-19 in their round seven Southland premier club game at Surrey Park on Saturday.
On a wet day when four of their players were celebrating milestone games, the local POB team came out firing.
Roving winger Isaac Rounds scored two of POB’s five tries in the first half.
Captain Greg Dyer was playing his 100th game for the club and kicked all five conversions to help build a 35-7 lead at halftime.
Lock Craig Smith played his 250th game, while try-scorer Jaye Thompson and loose forward Ben Keenan earned their 150th caps.
The Barbarians scored their third try in the final minute.
Marist earned their second win of the season, against Blues at Balmoral Drive.
Marist coach Derek Manson was pleased with the 24-7 victory.
"We were disappointed with our loss to Star, so we had a difficult week when exposing some truths, but the boys have responded well.
"The effort has always been there with our team, but the execution was improved on Saturday. It was a good win, a really good first half."
As conditions deteriorated in the second half, so did the quality of ball-handling.
The Marist defence got up quickly and shut down the big ball-runners from Blues.
Manson said there was a bit of feeling in the game.
"Our No 8 Ben Fotheringham earned a yellow card and then a red card which had us down to 14 men for the last 30 minutes."
Blues loose forward Billy Andrew also earned a yellow card.
Liam McIntosh is a top-class scrummager and he has taken leadership of the Marist scrum. Young Fabian Shore is adapting quickly to the propping role and big Joseva Turaganivalu also held up his corner on Saturday.
Manson reported that Marist’s best player on the day was hooker James Moodie.
"He’s an 80-minute player each week and his effort never drops. His brother Mike also went good in the midfield."
Experienced fullback Curtis Tarrant and first five Scott Eade showed their rugby IQ, and openside flanker Jackson Bevin produced his usual high-quality performance.
Woodlands beat Star 22-19 at Waverley Park in Invercargill.
— John Langford
