West Taieri closed the gap on Clutha at the top of the Southern Region table when they beat the competition leaders 18-17 in a physical game at Outram on Saturday.
Clutha attacked for large periods of the first half but came up against a resolute West Taieri defence.
The home side opened the scoring against the run of play when flanker Conner Jenkins picked up a loose ball and ran 70m to the line.
Clutha finally managed to crack the defensive wall to score their first try but West Taieri led 10-7 at halftime.
The second half was exactly the same as the first with Clutha having all the possession but unable to break through West Taieri’s determined defensive wall.
Clutha levelled the scores before taking the lead as prop Mafi Demont broke through the defence to score.
Conner Jenkins grabbed his second try for the home side in a stroke of luck as a kick hit the corner flag, stayed in play, and sat nicely for Jenkins to finish off.
Poor discipline from the visitors gave a kickable penalty to West Taieri, and Callum Smeaton made no mistake. That was the final scoring play of the match and West Taieri claimed victory on the back of a huge defensive shift.
Crescent beat Lawrence 53-0 in one of the more one-sided clashes this season.
Crescent scored four tries inside the opening 15 minutes — Lawrence looked like they had forgotten how to tackle — but became their own worst enemies and tried too hard to score more points.
Instead of sticking to their structure, Crescent became a side of individuals and kept turning the ball over.
The score was 27-0 at halftime and remained that way through a sloppy second half until 15 minutes from the end, when Crescent stepped up the tempo and scored four more tries to blow the score out.
Toko kept their feet firmly inside the top four as they beat Owaka 22-17 in a tight game at Milton.
The club day crowd was strong, but it was Owaka who took an 11-5 lead into halftime and really dominated proceedings for the first half.
Owaka forced Toko into making a plethora of errors as the home side could not find any structure or momentum.
Toko began the second half with a try to get their heads up and they began to fight their way back.
Owaka kept the scoreboard ticking over with penalties, but Toko were scoring tries to catch up. The game was in the balance when Owaka turned down another three, which was soon punished by Toko, who scored two late tries.
Heriot beat Clutha Valley 32-27 in the Trevor Peters Memorial game at Heriot.
A late try to the home side sealed victory after Valley put themselves in a position to win with only four minutes left.
Heriot’s forward pack was strong and made metres all afternoon, while Clutha Valley paid the price for a yellow card after halftime.
By Francis Parker
