Wyndham surrender lead as Te Anau inflict first loss

All five games scheduled for round four of the Southlandwide division one club competition were played on Thursday night.

Wyndham were unbeaten entering their match against Te Anau at the Gore Showgrounds. Wyndham led 17-12 at halftime before Te Anau won 24-17.

Wyndham kept Te Anau tryless but were heavily penalised and Te Anau goalkicker Napoli Serulele landed eight penalty goals from eight attempts, some from as far back as 60 metres.

The Wyndham forwards kept the pressure on their opponents for the entire 80 minutes, with their front row excelling once again with their high work rate.

Riversdale were expected to have a comfortable win at home against Drummond Limehills Star but the visitors got stuck into it in the first half and Riversdale had to work hard for their 36-7 win.

Coach Garth Lindsay was happy to get out of the game with five competition points but was not entirely happy with his team.

‘‘We kept DLS in the game in the first half with our poor discipline and handling errors,’’ he said.

Riversdale’s best performers were second five-eighth Luren Els and fullback Tom Dickison.

Lock Logan Mckee and hooker Jarrod Lindsay were also strong.

‘‘It was a pretty even first half, they scored on the hooter to go into the break 19-7 up – which really hurt us,’’ DLS media liaison Jo McIlwrick said.

Lock David Beer was the visitors’ best, prop Andy Mckenzie was also good, and rangy utility forward Gus O’Donnell was hungry like the wolf.

Buoyed by their effort, DLS are really looking forward to playing Te Anau at Browns on Monday.

Waikiwi were clearly the underdogs going into their match against Edendale at Les George Oval, but they copped a bigger beating than most expected.

Waikiwi were competitive in the first half and went to the break only trailing 14-0 but Edendale were just getting warmed up and finished the night with 54 unanswered points.

Going into the match Waikiwi had belief that they could compete but their set piece failed to get any momentum and their communication on defence was nonexistent.

‘‘A very good Edendale team gave us a huge wake up call, we were just not good enough on the night,’’ Waikiwi coach Scott Meredith said.

‘‘Now it is very important for us to get some things sorted out before playing Wyndham on Monday.’’

Midlands had to work hard for their 30-16 win over Waikaka at Limehills.

Waikaka were well in the hunt at halftime trailing 13-8 and scored soon after the resumption but Midlands made some substitutions 10 minutes into the second half that made a real impact.

‘‘We made a slow start and Waikaka dominated first half, but for the last thirty minutes we controlled possession and territory,’’ Midlands coach Dayna Cunningham said.

Midlands wing Moape Bula had another big game scoring three tries, second five-eighth Matt Brame ran hard with the ball and Todd Keown was the pick of the forwards.

Tokanui had home ground advantage against Ohai Nightcaps but were beaten 29-6. A lack of time together as a squad haunted Tokanui as a well drilled Nightcaps forward pack was able produce front foot ball for their first five-eighth Daniel Lowe to dictate their field position.

The division one boys will be in action again on Anzac Day Monday.

The extra two teams in division one this season necessitates a compacted draw, which is going to test player numbers at some clubs as injuries have begun to take their toll.

Meanwhile, Pirates-Old Boys play Marist in today’s only premier grade game on the holiday weekend at 3pm at Marist.

Their star studded backline will be hoping for some good weather as they look to gain their third win of the season to cement a place near the top of the table.

In Thursday night’s game, Blues defeated Star 29-16 to heap further misery on Jason Harrison’s team who are still searching for their first win of the season.