Rugby: One point delivers vengeance

Round eight of the Southern Districts Reserves had some interesting results

Round eight of the Southern Districts Reserves coughed up some interesting results for a number of teams vying for playoff berths.

With both the reserve and premier grades heading into a rest week because of the Harding Shield finals this Saturday, everything was left on the field in some close-fought battles at the weekend.

Top of the table Wellsford finally succumbed to Mid Northern in a narrow 17-16 contest, which saw the Hukerenui side avenge their 34-31 loss to Wellsford in round two of the reserve grade competition.

After sitting on top of the standings for most of this year's competition, Wellsford will be making the most of a week off from round robin games to address their second loss of the season and look toward how they can rebuild for their next match, versus Waipu on June 6, when competition resumes.

Otamatea made the most of their home advantage to beat the Western Sharks 26-19 at Kaiwaka. Otamatea's reserve team are now the ones to beat heading into the next few rounds as they hang on to top spot.

Kamo's reserves continued their good form with a 27-15 win over Waipu. Though they sit in the middle of the table, a late season rebuttal could still come about.

The results of Kamo's reserve team have kept morale up amid Kamo fans, due to their premier side failing to secure a win in the premier competition so far this year.

In other reserve grade matches of the round, Hora Hora enjoyed a narrow 16-14 win over Mid Western, while Hikurangi's round eight match versus Old Boys Marist saw them prevail with a 22-14 win.