Gutsy SBHS topple southern rivals
The Southland Boys’ High School first XV has produced a gutsy display on their way to beating Otago Boys’ High School for the second straight year in the traditional interschool rugby fixture.
Southland Boys’ beat Otago Boys’ last year in Dunedin for the first time since 2008 and despite losing many key players, the 2017 team backed it up on Wednesday to notch up another win over Otago Boys’.
The game was played in front of a large crowd in Invercargill.
The Invercargill school won the thrilling contest 13-12 in a performance built on plenty of courage in defense.
Southland Boys’ High opened the scoring after just six minutes on the back of a beautifully worked scrum move.
They had a scrum inside Otago Boys’ 22m territory and from a set play first five-eighth Kaleb Talamahina sent a nice inside pass to right wing Allan Gillies who popped up in the middle of the field to score.
Fullback Ben Pope kicked the conversion and then in the 13th minute extended the lead to 10-0 on the back of a 40m penalty goal.
The score remained 10-0 until halftime and five minutes into the second half Otago Boys’ scored their first points of the game.
From a lineout 5m out from the Southland Boys’ line Otago Boys’ took the ball in and Southland Boys’ opted not to engage as they hoped to instead get an obstruction call.
However, lock Sean Jansen simply stretched out and scored to make it 10-5. Pope landed his second penalty to stretch the score out to 13-5 but it was far from over.
Otago Boys’ scored their second try to halfback James Arscott to bring it back to 13-12 and set up a tense finish.
As Southland Boys’ had done for the majority of the game they worked hard in defense in the final 10 minutes as they hung on to the win.
Captain and No 8 Curtis Williams led from the front with his work rate, as did lock Ben Paulin.
At fullback, Pope provided Southland Boys’ with some nice touches on attack.
Southland Boys’ were out-sized by a big Otago Boys’ outfit but was still able to hold their own physically.
Otago Boys’ were missing three players for the trip to Invercargill because of suspension following incidents in their last interschool fixture against Kings High School.