Intriguing race to shield playoffs looms
Five into four doesn’t go. It is the scenario for Southland’s premier club rugby competition as Star, Eastern-Northern Barbarians, Pirates-Old Boys, Woodlands and Marist all can consider themselves genuine Galbraith Shield title contenders at the end of the first round. The intriguing aspect is that one of those talented teams will miss out come playoff time as the second round of the competitionpromises to be an intense one. Every compe- tition point will be treated gold. Marist were bumped out of the top four in the competition points standings following a 14-11 loss to Star in the final week of the first round on Saturday. It is not a game which will go down in the archives as one of the greatest viewing pleasures but the result is one that could be very important when the points table is reflected on later in the season. Star coach Craig Pullar was
like pleased to get the win, and delighted to finish the first round on top-of-the-table, but he was not all that thrilled with the overall performance against Marist. Star’s best were probably Bubba Lau’ese and Taylor Adams. Marist were the form team during the early weeks of the competition but the closeness of the competition has been highlighted by the fact just a couple narrow lossess have pushed them out of that all important top four spots. They have been replaced by Woodlands as the sleeping giants start to awake. Woodlands are starting to welcome back key players after a horror run of injuries early in the competition. The defending champions gave yet another glimpse of what they are capable of on Saturday running in a 53-0 win over Midlands at Woodlands. Former New Zealand under-20 representative Tauasosi Tuimavave offered up some more of his attacking prowess to Southland rugby followers as he scored three of Woodlands’ nine tries. It was his second hattrick in his first season for Woodlands as he also pickled up a treble against Blues. Blindside flanker Jack Falloon also got in on the act scoring a brace of tries as he continues what has been a good 2015 season to date. Many eyes were on the introduction of Joel Everson to the Southland club rugby scene on Saturday. The former Canterbury lock has moved south for a crack and played his first club game in Southland on Saturday after recovering from a knee injury. He come on at halftime and got 40 minutes under his belt to get back into the rugby groove. The win was also important for Woodlands as the game marked 100 games for long-serving player Sonny Rangitoheriri. There was also another blowout scoreline at Blues with the Eastern-Northern Barbarians running in sevens tries to none in a commanding 45-0 victory. The Barbarians did not have it all their own way in the first half holding just a 10-0 halftime lead before some stern words at halftime spurred them into action. They ran in five second half tries to push the score out to 45-0 and claim a bonus point victory. Prop Morgan Mitchell was yet again a standout for the Barbarians and was rewarded with two tries. Lachie McCall and James Matheson also had strong games. For Blues and Midlands, the second round in the 2015 competition looks to be very much about pride and development for future seasons. Through the first round they have won one game between them and there is now a 16-point gap between sixth place Blues and fifth place Marist. Saturday wasn’t all bad for Blues, however. The South Invercargill club enjoyed a successful lip sync fundraiser on Saturday night to highlight the club spirit is still alive despite the struggles on the field. Meanwhile Pirates-Old Boys played division one team Wyndham in a cross-over fixture on Saturday and grabbed a 29-5 win after leading 17-0 at halftime.