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Rolling mauls can be hard enough to stop at the best of times.
When they contain no fewer than 14 attacking players? Unstoppable, and in a memorable case in North Otago premier rugby on Saturday, a match-winning weapon.
Excelsior broke its season duck and consigned powerful Old Boys to a second straight defeat in the Citizens Shield with a 37-34 win in Oamaru.
Old Boys held a 34-30 lead with just two minutes to play when Excelsior went on the attack.
Blues pulled together a massive rolling maul, with players sprinting from all over the field to join, before first five Tyron Davies went over to score to huge cheers from the crowd.
Josh Phipps, who had been faultless with the boot all day, slotted the conversion to cap a memorable win.
Excelsior had started strongly, taking a 10-0 lead as Phipps nailed a penalty and converted Slade Thomas’s try, but Old Boys responded with two quick converted tries.
Old Boys led 21-13 at halftime, and while Blues scored first after the break, a Junior Fakatoufifita try and two quick penalties from Logan Wilson appeared to give Old Boys the whip hand.
An inside ball from a lineout led to a converted try to Blues hooker Cullen Johnstone before the epic final play.
At Weston, Valley laboured to a 27-13 win over Athletic Marist in a game that was no spectacle.
Valley had plenty of ball in the first half but wasted almost all of it, and a silky smooth run to the line from midfielder Ryley MacColl gave Athies a 10-5 lead at the break.
The game turned on one shining moment and one slice of fortune.
Young Valley centre Asesela Ravuvu showed his strength to barrel through the defence from 30m to score a fine individual try, and eight minutes later, winger Tony McCone swooped on a wayward pass to sprint 40m for a try.
McCone added a second to secure the points for Valley, which only really played well for 15 minutes but made that period count.
Athies’ scrum was superb, and MacColl was the best player on the park.
Classy veteran Ben Nowell — who claimed to be ready for retirement — produced the individual effort of the day, scoring four tries as Kurow left Maheno with a sound 39-22 win.
Maheno struck first in just the third minute through Lachie Kingan, but Nowell immediately scored his first try and Kurow leaped to a 17-5 lead at the quarter mark.
Maheno, inspired by second five Oliver Feagin, winger Adam Johnson and the always reliable Hayden Tisdall, battled back to 17-17 at the break.
But it was the Nowell show in the second half, the great fullback rattling on three more tries to seal a second straight win for a Kurow team that will only get better.