Rugby: Wellington give themselves hope by beating Southland

Wellington's survival instincts have kicked in to preserve their national provincial championship rugby dignity for the time being at least.

Their desperation revealed itself tonight when they scrapped hard for a 30-25 win over Southland at Wellington Stadium.

Entering the match seventh and last on the premiership standings Wellington and sixth-placed Southland both targeted victory to ease their automatic relegation concerns.

And it was Wellington who achieved the result they wanted, helped in no small measure by highly competent young first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga, who turned in a craftman's performance in bitterly cold, windy and wet conditions.

His goalkicking proved the difference as Sopoaga landed six of seven attempts for 15 points to complement a brace of tries from promising No 8 Brad Shields and another for fullback Apoua Stewart.

Southland, who earned a bonus point for scoring four tries, succeeded with only two of six, a failing which hurt them in the end.

Shields capped a vigorous match with two second-half tries, both through his using his strength off a set piece deep in Southland territory.

His second effort gave his side an eight-point buffer with six minutes remaining after Southland had led 22-16 midway through the spell on the back of two tries to second five-eighth Matt Saunders.

Earlier, Southland stayed very much in the contest when trailing just 10-13 at halftime after benefitting from two opportunistic tries, both the result of high kicks which Wellington allowed to land inside their 22.

The first aerial attack from fullback Robbie Robinson saw the visitors regain possession before lock Josh Bekhuis muscled his way over the line and the next time the tactic was used it had the same result when Saunders zeroed in on the line after regathering a high kick from wing Glen Horton.

Other than that Wellington had much the better of the game in the first 40 minutes even though their ball security was not the best.

Two early penalties from Sopoaga, one a commendable 45m effort into the wind, gave Wellington an early edge but they failed to nail three early tryscoring opportunities when the hard work had been done.

Their forwards employed the pick and go effectively but Wellington had just one try to show for their efforts before the interval when an attack from deep launched by right wing Julian Savea ended with Stewart scoring in the 29th minute.

- NZPA