Southland Sport
Southland District Rugby League – 09.06.2018
There was scheduled to be two premier grade games last Saturday . The first game between Winton/City and Cooks ended up being a friendly 9’s game due to Winton/City having a shortage of available players on the day . Mike Lemalie refereed the game.
They played 25 minutes each way and made the most of the situation for both teams to enjoy a run with some good banter on the field .
At the halftime whistle cooks held the lead on 28 to Winton/ City on 24. The full time score was Cooks 56 and Winton City 46.
The main game of the day was between He Tauaa RLC and Cowboys RLC .There was some talk on the sideline that this game could go either way. Bruce Aupouri was the referee for the game which kicked off at 2.30 pm.
Moments in to the game Cowboys scored the opening try – very quickly followed by He Tauaa scoring a try . The game was evenly played during the first half with excellentUp 9 6 18 defence and tackling being demonstrated by both sides . At the half time whistle both teams had each scored two tries with He Tauaa converting one of the tries whilst Cowboys had not converted any . The half time score saw He Tauua with 10 points on the board and Cowboys sitting on 8 – At this stage the game could gave gone either way as discussed by the folk on the sideline !
The second half saw the Cowboys ramp up and run in 4 tries for the half , He Tauaa gained one more try for the half . He Tauaa had players out with injuries and only one player on the bench – but to their credit , in true He Tauaa fashion they dug it in and played good rugby league . Cowboys showed their ongoing consistency during this game and with the Southland club semis and final looming over the next two weeks . It will provide some close quartered premier grade Rugby League. Cowboys won the game with a score of 28 over He Tauaa on 16 .
Next weekend ( Sat 16th June ) sees the semi finals . Cowboys are scheduled to play Winton/ City and Cooks meet He Tauaa . Both games will be at Sandy Point . The first game timed to kick off at 1 pm and the second game for 2.30 pm .
The winners of those two games will meet each other in the SDRL grand final on Saturday June 23rd – Time and Venue to be confirmed .
Dave Loudon
Southern Rugby League – Invercargill