Southland District Rugby League – Semi Final Round Up

Cowboys were to play Winton City in the first semi final of the day. Winton City have struggled all season to get player numbers and had to default to Cowboys in the semi final due to , only being able to produce 5 players for the game .

Photo’s thanks to Dave Loudon Photography, wrap up by Southland District Rugby League.

Cowboys will head into next weeks Grand Final as favourites and injury free , after going through the season undefeated.
The main game of the day between He Tauaa and Cooks was a game that could of gone either way.

He Tauaa started off strong from the kick off by posting 2 unanswered tries in the first five minutes , putting them in the lead by 12 points.
Cooks defence wore He Tauaa down and from there they were able to post some points of their own.

Referee Bruce Aupouri had to talk to both captains a couple of times during the game to get them to settle their players down , as there was a bit of back chat going on from both sides.

The small crowd that were out at the Sandy Point grounds were not short of action. It was a full on.

Crunching tackles, hard runs and some free flowing league.
Cooks began to open the He Tauaa defence line with some hard running. This took its toll on He Tauaa by letting Cooks in for 4 answered tries.

The score was looking like it was starting to slip away from He Tauaa , with Cooks leading 22 – 12.
He Tauaa dug deep and found that they still had some fuel in the tank to finish the game the same way they started.

With time ticking away on He Tauaa to fight their way back into it. They knew it was now or never to put more points on the score board if they wanted to make the Grand Final for a straight seventh season.
He Tauaa scored with 15 minutes remaining putting them 4 points behind on the score board. He Tauaa found a gap in the Cooks defence line and went over again with 10 minutes to go.

They took the lead from Cooks and we had a game on our hands. With just over 8 minutes of play left in the game and the score at 24 – 22 , He Tauaa scored in the corner to take them to 30 -22.

Cooks were not going to give up that easy and gave everything they had left in the tank.
With time almost up , He Tauaa made a break through the backs which saw them cross over just before full time.
Half Time Score : 12 All
Full time score :
He Tauaa 36 – Cooks 22

2018 GRAND FINAL
Cowboys vs He Tauaa
Saturday 23rd June
Kick off :2.30pm
SDRL Grounds – Elles Road