Kamo opened their account for this year's club rugby season in style on Friday by scoring a half century of points against Old Boys, while on Thursday night there were two major upsets to kick off the round.
Hikurangi had to wait until the final kick of the match to celebrate
their narrow 14-13 win, with Mid Northern's first five-eighth Josh Barry missing a penalty attempt in referee's time at Hikurangi Park.
The game was a tight, high quality affair throughout, with Mid Northern dominating the first spell but still trailing 9-8 at the break thanks to three penalties to Henry Foy.
The tide turned slightly in the second spell with Hikurangi enjoying more possession but it was still some good cover defence that kept them in the match.
Eric Wihongi scored the home side's only try of the match to put them ahead but it was a nerve-racking end for the Hikurangi faithful as Mid Northern pressed forward.
"We hung on until the end of the game from there but it was our defence that won us the game. We had to make two man tackles to stop them getting a roll on because if they did, they gained heaps of metres," Hikurangi coach Stu Cook said.
The coach was pleased with how the game went considering the quality of Mid Northern's players but said they still had plenty of work to do particularly maintaining their discipline while under pressure.
In Dargaville, the Western Sharks upset last year's finalists Mid Western 17-15 to make it three wins from three this season.
In a close affair, Mid Western playmaker Lachie Munro had a rare off night with the boot and missed some kicks that may have affected the final result.
Sharks coach Myles Ferris said their forward effort was the basis of the win but he was disappointed they hadn't swung the ball wide when they had the opportunity. "One of the biggest positives was that in the past we might have lost close ones like this but the boys showed good fortitude to grind out the win with some pretty solid defence," he said.
Kamo captain Steve Baker finally had something to smile about after his side trounced Old Boys 51-6 at the Kamo Rec.
Old Boys were missing a couple of front rowers and it showed at scrum time.
They battled hard to keep pace with Kamo until 15 minutes into the second spell but the effort cost them dearly and when Kamo crossed for their first try of the spell, the floodgates opened.
Baker said his side has been building well and he hoped Friday's win would help them turn a corner.
"Our forwards have been pretty solid and our backs played a lot better. I think they've been lacking a bit of confidence."
Wrightson PGG Southern Districts Premier Grade Round Three results: Hikurangi 14 (E Wihongi try; H Foy 3 pen) Mid Northern 13 (J Evans, A Abel tries; J Barry pen), Western Sharks 17 (I Siolua try; H Rawiri 4 pen) Mid Western 15 (T Petit, L Munro tries; Munro con, pen), Kamo 51 (R Wright (2) R Griffin, W Meltzer, J Mason, L Boylan J Tango tries, M Cook 5 con and 2 pen) Old Boys 6 (H Darkins 2 pen), Wellsford 8 (A Davis try, M White pen) Hora
Hora 17 (K Courtney, L Voss, A Nesbitt tries; L Baigent 1 con).
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