Down 20-25 with 80 minutes on the clock, home side Southbridge’s reserve forwards proved the telling point as they ground out a 27-25 victory.
Southbridge had been reduced to 14 players from the 35th-minute when second-five Peni Manumanuniliwa was red-carded for a dangerous high tackle, and Lincoln lost lock Lyndon Dunshea to a yellow card late in the game.
The loss knocked Lincoln out of a quarter-finals spot.
Southbridge coach Reece Allen said the make-up of the team’s bench was crucial to how they played the last quarter of the game.
The scores were tied 10-all at half-time. Allen said they didn’t make it easy on themselves, trying to make too many offloads early and their ball-handling wasn’t tidy.
“We could have had a pretty chunky lead, but we were our own worst enemies in the first half. But we tidied that up after a few educated words at half-time.”
Lincoln coach Bevan Sisson said his team played a solid, hard-fought 65 minutes.
“We just got trapped in our 22 and then we got penalty after penalty on us, and the game just kept on going really. The time was ridiculous,” he said.
Sisson credited Southbridge for winning with just 14 men.
“We should have capitalised better,” he said.
A win for Lincoln would have taken them to the quarter-finals as the wildcard entry.
But miscommunication in the dying minutes cost them dearly.
“We kicked it out thinking that would be the game, and then the referee said there’s another four or five minutes to go and then they got the ball back and away they went,” said Sisson.
Southbridge now head confidently into play-offs as the top spot holder with 26 points.
Prebbleton coach Dave Kettles said their work on discipline and accuracy paid dividends in the vital 36-27 result over Glenmark Cheviot. “We’ve been working really hard on it at training, and we got a bit of reward from it yesterday.”
Southern scored a converted try on full-time in pool C’s play-off decider to steal Springston’s lead and win 24-21.
But Springston gained a much-needed bonus point from the narrow margin to edge into a quarter-final spot in seventh position on 21 points.
Said Springston coach Warwick Reid: “We kept them honest for a long part of the game … we’re gutted but you’ve got to admire a side that has the guts that they had.”
“It was an awesome scrum by them I must admit,” Reid said of the match’s last play.
“They put a fair chunk of weight in, and they just made us look like amateurs.”
Glenmark Cheviot joined the quarter-finalists sneaking in with 20 points in the eighth spot.
- Luisetti Seeds combined division one results:
Pool A: Southbridge 27 Lincoln 25; Ashley 44 Methven 26; Oxford 43 Darfield 43; Woodend bye.
Pool B: Glenmark Cheviot 27 Prebbleton 36; Kaiapoi 17 Waihora 5; Hurunui 57 Rolleston 3; Celtic bye.
Pool C: Southern 24 Springston 21; Rakaia 51 Hornby 21; Ohoka 46 West Melton 19; Saracens bye.
- Standings:
Pool A: Southbridge 26, Darfield 23, Lincoln 18, Methven 18, Ashley 17, Oxford 10, Woodend 1.
Pool B: Celtic 22, Prebbleton 22, Glenmark Cheviot 20, Kaiapoi 17, Waihora 17, Hurunui 11, Rolleston 0.
Pool C: Saracens 25, Southern 25, Springston 21, Ohoka 20, Rakaia 10, West Melton 3, Hornby 2.
- Quarter-finalists:
Southbridge 26; Darfield 23 (pool A top qualifiers), Saracens 25; Southern 25 (pool C top qualifiers), Celtic 22; Prebbleton 22 (pool B top qualifiers), Springston 21; Glenmark Cheviot 20 (wildcards).
-By Tatiana Gibbs
