An injury-ravaged South Canterbury side snuck past West Coast in a 43-38 in a thriller at Greymouth on Saturday to seal top position as the No 1 seed for the Meads Cup.
South Canterbury will host fourth-placed Mid Canterbury at Fraser Park on Saturday after the Hammers cruised past woodenspooners Poverty Bay 47-24.
The game was a notable occasion for five players.
Halfback Willie Wright notched up his 100th first class game. Wright debuted for South Canterbury back in 2011 against Russia and has since played 90 in ‘‘Green & Black’’ and 10 games for the New Zealand Heartland side.
Just as special but in a different way was the debut of Wright’s Celtic club mate Jarrad Mannex, who pulled on the jersey for the first time at age 31. To add the occasion Mannex, who played on the wing, scored a great individual try in the first half.
Starting prop Darius Fidow, a loan player from Lincoln University, also impressed in the tight on his debut as did halfback James Robertson and midfielder Angus Mitchell, when they came off the bench in the second half.
South Canterbury scored seven tries, including a double for wing Morrison Vaisola, after leading 19-12 at halftime.
The result meant South Canterbury scored bonus point wins in all eight of their games to finish on the maximum 40 points. There were however two major upsets in the final round-robin games.
Second-placed Whanganui were well beaten 34-17 by King Country, for only their second loss of the season, but third-placed Thames Valley could not take advantage.
The Swamp Foxes were beaten 41-35 by Horowhenua-Kapiti.
The closeness of the loss allowed Thames Valley to secure two bonus points but it only tied them with Whanganui on the table.
The placing was then decided on the winner of their round four clash, which went the way of the Butcher Boys 16-14, so the semifinal will be held at Cooks Garden.
In the Lochore Cup play-offs (5th to 8th) King Country as the best finisher will host East Coast, with the other semi in seeing Horowhenua-Kapiti host West Coast.
North Otago finished their season with a strong 55-14 win over Buller to finish 9th of the 12 teams, in a season that should have seen them easily play in the Lochore Cup, based on some of their performances.
It is the fourth season in a row South Canterbury have finished the round-robin seeded No 1 and the win against the Coasters extended their unbeaten run in the Heartland Championship to 39 wins.
Their last loss in the championship was in October 2019, which was against West Coast.
Coach Nigel Walsh said he was happy with the performance in Greymouth.
‘‘We had a number of injuries and unavailable players but that just gave others an opportunity, including the four debutants that did themselves proud.’’
Walsh is expecting a tough battle on Saturday.
‘‘Mid Canterbury have not been in a Meads Cup semifinal for nine years, so it will be neighbours at war again.
‘‘They really have nothing to lose and will not want to leave any questions unanswered.’’
Walsh said he was hoping he would have a full squad to pick from.
‘‘It’s a semi so everyone will want to be fit and that may give us a hell of a headache [in terms of who misses out].
‘‘We are [in a] lucky position with plenty of depth in the squad.’’
South Canterbury will start hot favourites after they beat Mid Canterbury 41-19 in Ashburton in round three.
Mid Canterbury’s only other loss was a 48-26 defeat to Whanganui and in the end only finished a point behind the teams tied in second place.
The semifinal kicks off at 3.35pm at Fraser Park.
Fidow.
Jarrad Mannex.
NZ Heartland debuts
Mackenzie’s Kieran Harris and Celtic’s George Clark both made the New Zealand Heartland under 20 side.
For the first time, age-grade players from across the 12 Heartland unions, played against New Zealand Māori Under 18 Ngā Whatukura in Hamilton on Sunday.
The NZ Māori were too good for the Heartland side, winning an entertaining game 53-24.
Results (round 8)
South Canterbury 40 West Coast 15, King Country 34 Whanganui 17, Horowhenua Kapiti 41 Thames Valley 35, Mid Canterbury 47 Poverty Bay 24, North Otago 55 Buller 14, East Coast 45 Wairarapa Bush 32.
Championship points
South Canterbury 43, West Coast 38, Horowhenua Kapiti 41, Whanganui 35, Mid Canterbury 30, King Country 28, West Coast 20, East Coast 20, North Otago 14, Wairarapa Bush 13, Buller 10, Poverty Bay 6.
