Hall in No 11 jersey for side’s near miss
Southland Premier rugby
HAS there ever been a stranger sight in Southland club rugby than David Hall donning the No 11 jersey?
The 38yearold former Stags centurion in recent years has made the transition into the coaching ranks.
However, he has still popped in for his PiratesOld Boys club to fill gaps where needed, either in the loose forwards or at hooker, where he played the bulk of representative rugby.
With PiratesOld Boys down on back troops on Saturday against Marist, Southland club rugby entered some sort of twilight zone as Hall threw himself into the leftwing role, where he ended up playing 80 minutes.
It is a glowing endorsement for Hall in regard to his willingness to do what is needed for his team.
On the flip side, it has probably shone the spotlight on just where Southland’s outside back stocks are at.
Let’s put that side story to one side, though, and focus on the actual game at Surrey Park on Saturday — a game where both sides probably came away a little bit disappointed.
Marist dominated the early exchanges and wing Keanu Kahukura opened the scoring with a try after eight minutes, after a nice run from Curtis Tarrant.
Scott Eade pushed it out to 80 before Marist made it 150 inside the first half of the game when centre Will Murray scored.
PiratesOld Boys struck back when halfback Jonty Wood scored the first of his two tries in the game to make it 157.
Just five minutes into the second half, wing Bryce Morgan scooted down the righthand touch to score and at 207 a runaway Marist win looked likely.
But the momentum switched and for the remainder of the game it was all PiratesOld Boys, as they went close to snatching victory.
Fullback Josh Buchan scored before Wood went in for his second try when PiratesOld Boys put the Marist scrum under pressure and he swooped as the ball popped out.
That reduced the margin to 2017 and set up a tense finish.
With just a few minutes on the clock, PiratesOld Boys was awarded a very handy penalty and captain Craig Smith pointed to the posts in a quest to level the scores.
However, first fiveeighth Greg Dyer pushed the penalty attempt wide.
PiratesOld Boys were not doneand went on an attacking assault in the final couple of minutes.
The home team went close to scoring on many occasions but eventually an error ended play and referee Kirk Rae blew fulltime.
Topofthetable Marist would have been delighted with the 2017 result but not so encouraged by the overall performance.
For PiratesOld Boys, it was another game where the whatif tag could be attached.
The close loss takes PiratesOld Boys’ 2018 record to two wins and six losses but the close nature of the competition ensures it is still very much in the playoff hunt, sitting just three points behind fourthplaced EasternNorthern Barbarians, who lost 2819 to Blues on Saturday.
Blues sits in third spot, two points behind secondplaced Woodlands.
Woodlandsbeat Star 2215 on Saturday, in a game played at Woodlands.