Otago lock up playoff spot as darkness descends for Stags
Otago have banked a bonus point 43-19 win over Southland and confirmed their spot in the Mitre 10 Cup Championship semifinals.
They racked up six tries to three in Dunedin yesterday to leapfrog Northland and Manawatu and move into third spot.
Otago took 16 minutes before they opened the scoring through wing Mitchell Scott.
Otago had a 5m scrum after initially being held up over the line.
Scott received the ball close to the scrum and bust through the Stags defence to score. The Josh Ioane conversion made it 7-0.
Ioane extended it to a 10-0 lead
10 minutes later through a penalty, before Southland finally got some reward for their endeavour.
Some nice interplay from the Stags backline put fullback Lewis Ormond in the clear.
Ormond then produced some impressive acrobatics with his dive towards the corner post to squeeze in and score.
But just a matter of minutes later that good work was overturned.
An overthrown Southland lineout sent Otago flanker Dillon Hunt on a big run before it was centre Sio Tomkinson who finished for the home team’s second try.
At 17-5 late in the first half Otago rolled the dice by turning down plenty of kickable penalties and eventually that gamble paid off.
With time up on the clock in the first half, Teihorangi Walden sent a big cut out pass to wing Jona Nareki, who matched Ormond’s deeds at the other end by leaping towards the corner post and stayed in to score. Despite Ioane missing the conversion Otago still were able to go into halftime with a 22-5 lead.
Walden notched up the important fourth try bonus point in the 49th minute when he ran a good line off a close-range lineout.
Southland were able to strike back through Ormond’s second try but soon after it was lights out for the Stags – literally.
First flanker Phil Halder was shown a yellow card for a tackle which was deemed late and also dangerous before in bizarre circumstances the game was thrown into darkness.
A thunderstorm cut power to many parts of Dunedin and in turn briefly cut the lights at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The game continued as many of the lights sparked back into action before Otago dealt yet another blow to Southland.
They demolished the Southland scrum from close range, a common sight throughout the fixture, the ball was then flung wide to replacement wing Latu Vaeno who went in untouched to score.
Southland and Otago then went about trading tries with replacement midfielder James Schrader scoring for the Stags before replacement Otago prop Jonah Aoina then powered over from close range.
The loss took Southland’s 2017 record to 0-10 and ensured they became the first Southland team since 1990 to lose every game.