FRANCIS PARKER
West Taieri has again become the leader of the Southern Region rugby premier competition.
The Pigs produced a dominant effort to beat Lawrence 32-5 at Outram on Saturday.
The first half was dominated by the home side as it fed off numerous Lawrence mistakes.
West Taieri’s set piece was unrivalled, and the platform set there allowed the backs to scythe through the opposition without hassle.
Lawrence could not find any momentum and was punished for turning the ball over far too regularly.
West Taieri continued the onslaught in the second half and looked to have kept a clean sheet until a late intercept try allowed Lawrence to feature on the scoreboard.
Heriot put a dampener on Clutha’s club day with a 25-22 win over the home side, the first time Heriot has won in Balclutha for 15 years.
It was a hugely physical encounter with both forward packs throwing everything they had at one another.
Heriot led 15-7 at halftime in a match that could have swung in either direction.
The second half was highlighted by Heriot’s tenacious defence. Clutha threw everything it could muster at the visiting team, but Heriot responded in kind by forcing turnovers, holding on to possession, and taking chances at the other end of the field.
Toko stayed in the top four with a hard-fought 20-16 win over Owaka at Swamp Hen Park.
Owaka again put in a huge first 50 minutes and was leading 16-10 before Toko grew another leg in the back half of the match to take the much-needed win.
Owaka was very competitive at times but could not quite remain composed enough towards the end of the game to take the win.
Crescent finally found its mojo with a convincing 52-17 win over Clinton on club day at Kaitangata.
Clinton started the better of the two teams and actually led 17-12 at halftime.
Crescent players rolled up their sleeves in the second half and scored six tries to none to win their first game of the second round.
