Southern eventually made the most of its dominance up front to run away from University in the third round of the Dunedin premier club competition at Bathgate Park this afternoon.
The Magpies won 44-18 but might not have been feeling particularly buoyant at halftime, as they trailed 15-13 despite pulverising the students in the scrum.
Happily for coach John Leslie and the defending champions, they eventually turned that forward dominance into points, scoring four tries in the second half — including three in a devastating five-minute spell near the end of the game.
Southern was initially rather inaccurate and had just two penalties to show for its efforts before it scored just before and just after halftime, the latter from a dominant scrum and a sweeping move that led to a Jack Belcher try in the corner.
University, powered by energetic loose forwards Will Stodart and Aaron Withy, trailed just 20-18 with 25 minutes to play when the home side rolled on some powerful reserves.
Rising hooker Jack Taylor started the flurry of late scoring, and there was an entertaining 45m scamper from Ben McCarthy following a turnover.
McCarthy showed his outstanding kicking game and a cool head for Southern, while backline veteran Paul Tupai was involved in everything.
Highlanders prop Ayden Johnstone put in a good shift, captain Harry Taylor was everywhere as usual, and No 8 Ned Pene had a couple of bullocking drives.
Withy was one of the outstanding figures of the game for University. In the backs, Jermaine Pepe had a super afternoon at fullback and Jacob Waikari-Jones was tidy at first five.
The relative boilover of the round was at Miller Park, where Green Island beat Harbour 34-31.
Green Island levelled the scores at 31-31 with a couple of minutes to play before kicking the winning penalty deep into injury time.
Taieri beat an improved Alhambra-Union team 50-5, and Dunedin made it three straight with a 38-15 win over Zingari-Richmond that featured another dazzling long-range try from Oscar Schmidt-Uli.
