FRANCIS PARKER
The semifinal picture is finally sorted in the Southern Region Rugby competition after the last week of round robin matches.
West Taieri has locked away the Springbok Horns after finishing on top of the table.
West Taieri kicked a late penalty to take a 30-29 win over Clutha at the Balclutha Showgrounds. The match had plenty of twists and turns with both sides taking the lead at various stages of the match.
West Taieri showed its set piece dominance and was rewarded with an early penalty try at scrum time.
Clutha found its feet and showed its physicality in the tight before showing some pace in the outside channels.
Clutha outscored the visitors five tries to four but struggled off the tee. It had a chance to win the match on the fulltime whistle with a penalty, but it was unsuccessful.
West Taieri hosts Toko next weekend and Clutha heads to Heriot in the other semifinal.
Heriot overcame a second-half scare to beat Clutha Valley 24-22 at Heriot in front of a bumper crowd.
The home side controlled large portions of the first half and scored three early tries to take a strong lead. Valley fought its way back into the contest and scored an important try on the stroke of halftime. This fired Valley up and it increased the tempo after halftime, scoring the opening try of the second half.
Heriot hit straight back before Valley mounted a huge offensive in the latter part of the match, scoring two more tries to close the gap.
These tries were scored out wide, making the conversions tough and unsuccessful. Heriot finished second on the table and hosts Clutha next weekend.
Clutha Valley host Lawrence in a bottom four semifinal.
Owaka has won back the Bill Mitchell Memorial Trophy with a 52-39 win over Clinton at Clinton in a match that showed plenty of attacking promise, not much so defensive.
Owaka started strongly and scored the opening try of the match inside five minutes.
Clinton woke up shortly after and capitalised on three errors from the Owaka side and scored three quick tries to take a 19-7 lead.
Owaka found its feet again and made plenty of metres up the middle before exposing Clinton out wide.
Owaka scored three more first half tries to take a 26-19 lead into halftime.
The second half was a free-for-all as Owaka and Clinton made the most of some nonexistent defensive lines.
Owaka controlled territory, which allowed it to score more tries than the home side, but Clinton scored more often than not when it found itself in its red-zone.
Crescent has retained the Miners Cup with a 34-22 win over Lawrence at Kaitangata.
Crescent led the match 15-12 at halftime but was the stronger side especially with ball in hand.
The second half opened up with both sides finding space out wide.
Crescent continued to smash its way up the middle but was met by a resilient Lawrence defence.
Two quick tries after the break sealed the win for Crescent, which was made to work hard for it.
