The Galbraith Shield and all other club rugby got off to a delayed start in Southland this year in the hope of avoiding the disruption of Covid. The late start meant a couple of midweek games would be required to finish before the representative rugby season.
Pirates Old Boys were the only unbeaten team going into Wednesday night’s games and kept that record intact by beating Blues 39-14 at Les George Oval.
Blues got off to a good start and led 14-10 after 20 minutes. Poor discipline by Blues soon reduced them to 13 men and Pirates took advantage by scoring two more tries to Isaac Te Tamaki and Dustin Coveney.
Leading 22-14 at halftime, captain Greg Dyer helped Pirates control the territory in the second half with his punting. The Pirates defence ensured there was no comeback from Blues. The favourites finished strongly with three more tries. No 8 Anton Huisman was man of the match; other key players on the night were centre Te Tamaki, and first five-eighth Dyer.
The Eastern Northern Barbarians beat Woodlands 17-13 at the Gore Showgrounds. This was Jason Rutledge’s 250th game for Woodlands, a phenomenal effort when his representative rugby career was added on; over 140 games for Southland, and 60 for the Highlanders.
Marist beat Star 33-26 at Rugby Park. Marist coach Marty Smith said prop Shaun Stoddart had an outstanding 80 minutes.
"The whole front row played well. Our forwards earned good go-forward ball which led to our 26-5 lead at halftime.
"It was definitely a game of two halves. Star earned their possession and scored a couple tries. We were lucky to hold them out in the last eight minutes."
Smith was also pleased with his very inexperienced backline that is doing its job well.
The premier grade teams are back in action for round six this Saturday, as well as the division one and two grades. The veterans grade and the women are also playing this weekend.
Saturday draw: Blues v Barbarians, Star v Pirates Old Boys, Marist v Midlands, Woodlands bye.
- John Langford
