FRANCIS PARKER
West Taieri continued its impressive round-one form with a 43-0 demolition of Clinton on club day in Outram. Clinton piled the pressure on early but failed to reap the rewards because of its own mistakes and West Taieri’s determined defence.
West Taieri used its counterattacking abilities with great success as it tore Clinton open from turnover ball.
In the second half West Taieri capitalised on Clinton’s poor ball security.
The home side ran in three further second-half tries and kept a commendable clean sheet.
Toko has beaten Clutha for the first time since 2009.
The Axemen defeated their opposition 33-28 on their club day at Milton.
Clutha led 14-6 at halftime before Toko hit back straight away in the second half.
Clutha started to gain momentum, but Toko rolled up their sleeves and mounted a comeback Lazarus would have been proud of.
Clutha led by a single point with time almost up, but the home side was not done yet.
Continued pressure forced Clutha into giving away two late penalties which Toko kicker Jacky Scott gratefully accepted, to give his side a monumental win in front of a huge home crowd.
Heriot has not taken long to hop back on the winning horse with a 43-35 win over Crescent at Kaitangata.
After a tight first half, Heriot led 17-14 at halftime.
Heriot dominated the second half.
Towards the end of the match, Crescent fought back with three late tries to close the gap on the scoreboard, but Heriot’s earlier dominance created a big enough gap for it to hold on for victory.
Clutha Valley has kept in touch with the competition leader with a 31-20 win over Lawrence at Lawrence.
Lawrence scored two early tries to show its intent.
Valley paid the price for its slow start as it went into halftime 20-19 down, then found its mojo in the second half.
Valley scored two further second-half tries and kept Lawrence from scoring to take a hard-fought win.
• Big River Country travelled to Oamaru and was comprehensively beaten 52-27 by a fired-up Waitaki Wahine outfit which secured its first win of the season.
RESULTS
Waitaki Wahine 52 (Pesalini Heehau x3, Kirsten Lemmens x2, Madi Barclay-George, Nicole Emmerson, Cheyenne Cunningham tries; Cunningham 6 con) beat Big River Country 27 (Isla Pringle, Lily Pringle, Shanika McKenzie, Abbey Cochrane, Kate Smith tries; Abby Agnew 1 con). HT: 24-17.
Clutha Valley 31 (Damian Wilson x2, Matt Anderson, Daymon Shanks, Brayden Wilson tries; Ben Smart 3 con) beat Lawrence 20 (Byron Aitken, Callum Smollett, Dion Muir, Chigga Tuhaka tries). HT: 19-20.
West Taieri 43 (Reggie Masina x2, Conor Beaton, Conner Jenkins, Steve Green, Cooper Keach tries; Callum Smeaton 5 con, 1 pen) beat Clinton 0. HT: 22-0.
Toko 33 (Dylan Greer, Dion Shaw, Ethan Harrex tries; Jacky Scott 3 con, 4 pen) beat Clutha 28 (Kerrod Baldwin, Junior Samuelu, Tyler Bichan, Lene Fetalaiga tries; Sam Stratford 4 con). HT: 6-14.
Heriot 43 (Clayton Buchanan, Elliott Hancox, Louis Batchelor, Jack Blair, Tama Hawken, Nico Hellewell, Junior Lafoga tries; Logan Cornish 4 con) beat Crescent 35 (Oceania Ioane x2, Joe Skipps, Jamahl Little, Mananui Keane tries; Luc Thomson 5 con). HT: 17-14.
