Clutha, Clinton and Toko are the unbeaten teams after two rounds of the South Otago premier competition.
Clinton and Clutha, coming off a draw, play Heriot and Owaka respectively, while Toko heads to Clydevale, to play Clutha Valley.
Clutha will start as the favourite but if the Owaka forwards can match the Clutha pack, that will starve the Clutha backs of the ball.
Out wide, Tyler Bichan and Kane Tuenissen have been in sparkling form, scoring tries from all angles, while the Clutha loose forwards are a capable trio, led by No 8 Kerrod Baldwin.
Owaka has a young team, with many of the players under 24 and some playing at this level for the first time.
Macrae Sanderson has been impressive at prop, while Quenton Gare has been outstanding at fullback.
Halfback Lochie Hannah has also been in top form.
Clinton travels to Heriot for what should be an interesting encounter.
Clinton upset Crescent in round one, and last week scored a last-minute try to seal an 18-18 draw with Clutha.
Clinton's forwards, led by Craig McKenzie with good support from Ken Haynes, have been in fine form.
Todd Wells and Mark McKenzie are key men in a Clinton backline that will need to make its tackles.
Heriot was beaten last week through making too many errors and taking wrong options, and if it can tidy those areas up, it could win by plenty.
The pack, led by Blair Young and Marty Wegnaar, is the biggest in the competition, so it might pay for Heriot to keep the ball in hand.
The Clydevale clash could also be intriguing.
Toko, which beat Owaka 24-12 last week, has a dominant forward pack.
With two former Lawrence players, Mark Robinson and Mark Homer, locking the scrum, Toko should get plenty of possession at lineout time.
In the Toko backline, Dylan Mathieson, Tony Ralulu and Jack Scott have plenty of ability.
Clutha Valley was thumped 48-0 by Clutha in the opening round and then had the bye to work on its error rate. Josh Botting is back for the club but others will have to lift their game to keep Valley in the picture.
Crescent, which upset Heriot 29-24 last week to claim the new Speight's Challenge Jug, has this weekend off with the bye.
- Norman Woods
