Southland Boys’ put up a valiant effort but their hopes of being back-to-back national champions are over.
The defending national champions lost 47-24 to Nelson College in the South Island final in Nelson this morning.
Nelson’s win means they will head to Palmerston North for the National First XV Championship next month.
Nelson burst out of the gates and led 7-0 in the opening minutes.
They scored again from a rolling maul and suddenly held a 14-0 lead, and controlled the tempo of the opening 15 minutes.
Southland Boys’ took a while to get into their danger zone, but when they did they looked strong.
They had a couple of chances but were held up in the maul to deny them any points.
Then classy first-five Mika Muliaina ran a nice line and put a lovely inside ball up for his fullback Jack Brock to charge on to and finish off.
Muliania added the extras to trail 14-7.
That gave the visitors a bit of confidence and they scored off practically the same move soon after.
Muliania held the ball up and swung a nice pass wide, this time for winger Caleb Harvey to storm on to and slice through Nelson’s defence.
That levelled the score 14-14.
Nelson first-five Harrison Inch shimmied through the middle of the park and Southland Boys’ defence.
It ended with halfback Marley Gibbons scoring under the posts and the home side led 21-14 at halftime.
Big No 6 Saumaki Saumaki went on a barnstorming run to open the scoring in the second half for Nelson College.
Inch added the extras and extended the lead to 28-14.
But Southland Boys’ came back immediately to narrow the gap 28-19 – but Nelson did the same and pushed out to a 35-19 lead.
Nelson winger Mikey Morrison sped away to score made it 42-19 to Nelson.
Southland Boys scored with Nelson down to only 14 players after a yellow card, but then Nelson went over as well to seal the win.
In the girls South Island wide final, Columba College lost 78-8 to Christchurch Girls’ High School this morning.
Winger Lyla Bowering, who has speed to burn on the fringes, scored the home sides only try at Logan Park.
Christchurch Girls’ will now also head to Palmerston North for the national championship.
