Woodlands has fired a warning shot that has echoed around Southland’s premier club rugby scene.
The Stu Brown-coached Woodlands side delivered a blistering first-half performance in round three action against Star on Saturday on its way to a 57-26 win.
Star headed into the game unbeaten, but Woodlands looked a class above the home team for much of the game.
Key tight forwards Morgan Mitchell and Manaaki Selby-Rickit were missing for Star but their absence should not be overplayed in assessing the whopping Woodlands win.
On top of the five competition points, Woodlands also picked up the Phil Butt Memorial Shield played for between the two clubs. Woodlands ran in six first tries in a remarkable 40 minutes of running rugby.
Former Warriors under-20 rugby league player and new Woodlands recruit, Jarel Hemehema, playing on the wing, opened the scoring with a nice try after just a few minutes.
The onslaught continued and, before the 20-minute mark had even ticked over, Woodlands had notched up its four-try bonus point at 26-0.
It scored a further two first-half tries to lead 40-7 at halftime.Star’s sole highlight in the first half came through an impressive individual effort from loose forward Tama Toomata who showed good strength and evasive qualities to score a long-range try.
Woodlands’ dominance continued in the early stages of the second half when first five-eighth Ignacio Costa pushed it out to 43-7 with a penalty before younger brother Nico showed good pace to scoot away and score a try.
Early in the game, the third of the Costa brothers, fullback Rodrigo, also showed some nice skills but he had to leave the field with a collarbone injury.
Lewis Ormond added another try to the Woodlands tally to make it 57-7, which prompted some stern words from Star’s senior players behind the goalposts as they pondered what was going wrong.
To the home team’s credit, it did finish strongly and even managed to take something out of what was an otherwise difficult afternoon. Star scored three late tries, one brilliant one to wing Ben Pope, as the Blue and Whites picked up a four-try bonus point.
Star’s loss means Marist now is the only unbeaten team through the first three weeks of the season, although it was provided with a big scare against an impressive Pirates-Old Boys on Saturday.
Pirates-Old Boys made much of the play throughout the game before Marist was able to come back to lock in a 39-34 win.
In the third premier fixture on Saturday, Blues finally claimed the honours in another tight contest. Blues had lost its opening two games by three and five points respectively, but on Saturday it came out on the right side of the 20-15 scoreline against the Eastern-Northern Barbarians in, Invercargill.
- Logan Savory
Southland premier
Results
Woodlands 57, Star 26; Marist 39, Pirates-Old Boys 34; Blues 20, Eastern-Northern Barbarians 15