The battle of the blue and gold has gone to the north.
North Otago put out an impressive second half to pull away from Otago Country and win 38-17.
It was a much-improved effort from North Otago in front of a home crowd at Whitestone Contracting Stadium on Saturday.
The Old Golds showed intent early, when a nice ball from first five Ben McCarthy helped Josh Phipps hit the line at pace to run in the opening try.
Phipps pulled up injured after the try and was replaced by Inoke Fisilau at fullback.
Fisilau was solid at the back for North Otago, providing plenty of chat and line breaks, putting his team into space and scoring a strong try of his own.
Otago Country held on to the ball well in the first half, creating plenty of opportunities and pulling phases together. Moving the ball wide, Otago Country spotted a mismatch on the left wing and Clayton Buchanan scored his first try of the game.
Country defended well and made North Otago work hard to get close to its line.
Fisilau slotted through a gap and, in a big defensive effort, Otago Country fullback Doug Smith held him up, but Fisilau showed his strength to reach out and slam the ball down to lead 14-5.
North Otago could not shake Otago Country, though, winger Tyler Ford scoring to make it 14-12 at the break.
Country was slow to start in the second half, letting McCarthy score 30 seconds in to push out to a 21-12 lead.
But the visiting side returned fire with Buchanan showing his pace to dart down the side line to score Otago Country’s only points in the second half.
Big No8 Junior Fakatoufifita went over to start a run of stunning tries to bring home the win for the Old Golds.
McCarthy took a quick throw from the sideline to Levi Emery — a member of the Southland Country side which lost to Otago Country last week — who used his silky footwork to break through and put replacement flanker Seta Koroitamana into space to score.
Koroitamana scored again in the 79th minute to wrap up the win.
It was a much better performance from North Otago and gives the side a good lead-in to Sunday’s first Heartland Championship game.
Buchanan, Chase Owen and Rube Peina were best on the park for Otago Country.
In the curtain-raiser, South Canterbury development beat North Otago development 31-15.
Representative rugby
The scores
North Otago 38
Seta Koroitamana 2, Josh Phipps, Inoke Fisilau, Ben McCarthy, Junior Fakatoufifita tries; McCarthy 4 con
Otago Country 17
Clayton Buchanan 2, Tyler Ford tries; Chase Owen con
Halftime: North Otago 14-12.
