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Otago Daily Times
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
POB entering shield final as favourites
Pirates Old Boys and Woodlands will contest the Galbraith Shield final tomorrow after winning their respective Southland premier club semifinals. POB, the minor premiership winners, start the game as favourites after beating Woodlands 31-12 when they last met in May. Pirates Old Boys beat Marist 56-26 last weekend on centre stage at Rugby Park, while Woodlands earned their spot in the final after beating the Eastern Northern Barbarians 15-5 in the other semifinal at Oreti Park. Woodlands finished the round robin in second position and had earned home ground advantage for their semifinalbut took the match against the Barbarians out to the firmer sand-based surface. Woodlands, who will get another good surface at Rugby Park tomorrow, have former Stags inside backs Liam Howley and Marty McKenzie to steer the team around the park, but most of the game-driving for the club this year has been undertaken by their younger team-mate Fletcher Morgan. Morgan has played Woodlands into the final and his own way into this year's Stags squad. Robust POB second five Napo Seru breaks the line multiple times during each game and creates the momentum, and Seru's combination with the competition's best centre, Jaye Thompson, is hard to contain. POB assistant coach Ben McHugh said his team had trained well this week and a full squad was available for selection. "I definitely noticed a mind-shift change in the boys this week," McHugh said. "They know that the job is on." POB have no contracted Southland Stags members in their squad but McHugh said his team had the ideal mixture of experienced and young players. "Most of the team have won the competition before and then we've been fortunate this season to add in this year's Highlanders under-20 front-rowers to add some extra energy." The battle of the front rows will be interesting in the final. The POB scrum has been dominant in recent weeks through front-rowers Levi Gage, Alex Fraito, Riki Gage, Tua Tuapati and youngsters JJ Fisher and Thomas Jennings. Woodlands have their own solid front-row options in Harry Burgess, Paula Latu, Brian Tyrell, Nathan Vaatausili and Jason Rutledge. McHugh said a disappointment for the POB club would be not having their B team players attending the game. "They've trained with us all year and are a big part of the club but they've got their division three semifinal on Saturday and Collegiate won't accept an earlier kick-off time."
Otago Daily Times
26-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Marist, POB get possible dress rehearsal
Woodlands halfback Liam Howley prepares to feed a scrum during the Southland premier club game against Star at Waverley Park in Invercargill last month. PHOTO: DEBBIE FAHEY The 13th and final round robin club games in the Southland premier competition will be played tomorrow. Marist will play minor premiership winners Pirates Old Boys (POB) at Surrey Park. Marist locked in their spot in the Galbraith Shield semifinals last weekend when they beat Blues 29-24. Coach Derek Manson and his Marist team have been planning this week on how to approach tomorrow's game. "There is a possibility that we could be playing them [POB] again in the semi next week. It could be a good time to rest a few players." One Marist player who might be on limited duties this week is captain Jackson Bevin. The openside flanker has taken on the heaviest workload every week for Marist during the last two seasons. Marist are in a tricky position, not wanting to lose momentum after winning their past five games in a row. "We were happy with how the team [ground] out the victory last week. They have belief and know-how to win." The Barbarians beat competition leaders Pirates Old Boys 29-25 last weekend to book their spot in the semifinals. The Barbarians can determine whether they finish third or fourth when they take on Star at Oreti Park tomorrow. Star will be playing their last fixture of the year, but have enough quality in their team to win this game. Blues will host Woodlands in the third dead rubber at Balmoral Drive. Woodlands had already booked a semifinal on their home ground before beating Star 56-22 last week. Woodlands had lost their previous three games, but bounced back in style to knock the defending champions out of finals contention.
