Stags stymied in shield bid
THERE was a period in the first half against Waikato on Saturday when the shackles looked to have finally been broken and in turn, the Southland Stags found some muchneeded attacking mojo.
The offloads were sticking, the long pass was effective, and the odd line break was coming.
At 117 up on the back of a Tauasosi Tuimavave try and two James Wilson penalties, the Southland faithful dared to dream in the Ranfurly Shield challenge against Waikato in Hamilton.
But the 2018 Stags have been brilliant at piquing people’s interest only for it to all come unstuck in doublequick time.
On Saturday it was a 10minute period, which started with a try to Waikato wing Sevu Reece on the stroke of halftime, which ultimately set up this 4211 loss.
No 8 Murray Iti scored just a minute into the second half and when replacement hooker Samisoni Taukeiaho drove over from a lineout just eight minutes later, Southland’s Ranfurly Shield dreams were shattered.
The men in maroon had gone from 117 up to trailing 2811 in the space of 10 minutes of rugby.
It has been a familiar line which has been rolled out following each of Southland’s seven losses this season.
Waikato was not done at that point either. Replacement prop Toby Smith scored in the 69th minute before Taukeiaho scored his second try five minutes before fulltime to wrap up the 4211 win.
After leading 117 at the 23minute mark, the Stags let in 35 unanswered points.
To make Southland’s challenge that bit more difficult, Waikato was able to increase in lots of seven as first fiveeighth Fletcher Smith converted all six tries.
Captain James Wilson was again one of the Stags’ best in a beaten team, this week playing at centre.
He went into the game with a hamstring injury, but the 35yearold was able to spark most of those Southland attacking raids in the first half.
Naturally, Wilson was disappointed with the result, but could not fault his team’s effort.
‘‘The boys are still battling, which is great. It’s been a tough season, but we are still fighting.
‘‘I thought our boys come out and really performed in that first half, but we just didn’t bring it in the second half.’’
Lock Manaaki SelbyRickit was another Southland player to enhance his reputation in the loss to Waikato.
SelbyRickit is a skilful lock and week by week has developed other parts of his game.
‘‘It was a tough game and it does really hurt going down time after time, but we are still hopeful and we do think we can get there in the end,’’ SelbyRickit said.
His locking partner, Ben Fotheringham, had his best game at Mitre 10 Cup level on Saturday.
It is obvious the young Marist lock is prepared to work hard and he put himself in a position to make a trysaving tackle late in the first half.
The focus now switches to Bay of Plenty at Rugby Park in Invercargill on Sunday.
Southland sits on 18 straight Mitre 10 Cup losses and is closing in on the record which is held by Northland at 19.
The Stags should fancy themselves a chance against Bay of Plenty if they can cut out that horror 10 minutes or so which has haunted them in each game this season.
In the other Mitre 10 Cup games over the weekend, Tasman edged Wellington 2822 in the capital, Canterbury downed Hawke’s Bay 4945 in Christchurch, and Northland beat CountiesManukau 2420 in Pukekohe.