Otago wins South Island U18

FALLING behind by 24 points proved to be a turning point for the Otago under18 team.

Its hopes of defending its South Island age group title looked bleak when it trailed Tasman 240 at halftime in the semifinal.

But it piled on 40 unanswered points to win, and then went on to beat Canterbury Metro Red 3417 in the final in Kaiapoi during the weekend.

‘‘That second half was probably the defining point of the campaign, to be honest,’’coach Regan Turoa said.

The turnaround had more to do with the team ‘‘realising they needed to step it up a gear’’ than his halftime speech.

‘‘They stepped up, particularly on defence. We got quite a few turnovers and were able to go wide quickly.’’

That brought speedy winger Michael Manson into the game more, and Otago was able to run in some fine tries.

Loosehead prop Cameron McNeill had an impressive tournament. He carried strongly and was outstanding in the scrums.

Halfback Nathan Hastie helped turn around the effort in the semifinal with his passing game.

Openside flanker Jessie Vaafusuaga was industrious and was always in support. Elusive fullback Isaak Te Hiwi was a standout in the final and blindside flanker JJ Tonks, from England, also gave a good account of himself.

A Canterbury Metro reversed the result in the under16 tournament final in Nelson, beating Otago Metro 2916. Otago Country lost 2720 in the plate final to Canterbury Country.