The Southland Stags have finished their 2018 campaign with a 38-26 loss to Manawatu in Palmerston North this afternoon.

Locked in to sixth and seventh on the Mitre 10 Cup Championship ladder, the two sides had nothing but pride on the line and fought out an open, mistake-riddled contest in clear, blustery conditions.

Manawatu opened the scoring after just 80 seconds following a Southland mistake from the kick off which gave the Turbos an instant attacking opportunity. Jackson Hemopo, one of three Manawatu All Black squad members released for the game, crashed over under the posts to give the Turbos the best possible start.

Southland were then given a reprieve after Junior Laloifi was awarded a suspect try, which was belatedly scrubbed out when replays showed his foot was clearly in touch before the ball was grounded. However, the respite was short with Antonio Kiri Kiri crossing moments later following a Ngani Laumape break.

Southland needed to reply quickly and reply they did, with one of the tries of the season. Lewis Ormond and Tony Lamborn combined down the right flank to put Isaac Te Tamaki into space. A quick recycle followed, allowing Nic Costa to feed a rampaging Morgan Mitchell who charged over for his fourth try of the year to close the game back up to seven points.

A moment of individual brilliance from Ray Nu’u then broke the first half open, as the young midfielder found himself in space, thanks to a left foot step in traffic, a 40-metre scamper and an easy run-in for James Wilson who converted his own try to level the scores after 27 minutes.

Manawatu then re-took the lead as Nehe Milner-Skudder made his presence felt, injecting himself from the blindside wing, running off a Kane Hammington pass, before popping a pass up to Laumape to score the easiest try of his career and push Manawatu out to a 21-14 lead, where the scoreboard stayed until halftime.

The Southland coaches preached simple messages at halftime focussing on field position and limiting mistakes. 

The message was still ringing in Southland’s ears as Lewis Ormond crossed to level the scores. Manaaki Selby-Rickit offloaded to set Tony Lamborn free who fought his way to within metres of the goal line before Ormond ran a perfect line to score Southland’s third.

Southland’s struggles from restarts then continued with Wilson’s attempted clearance being charged down to give his opposite captain Antonio Kiri Kiri his second try of the afternoon.

Southland then had their opportunities to continue the tit-for-tat nature of the first 50 minutes, a Nu’u fend and break and later a Wilson grubber kick which came within a whisker of a Tony Lamborn try being two notable examples.

By contrast, Manawatu was able to capitalise on a rare second half excursion deep into Southland territory with Laumape crossing for his second, getting a kind bounce from Otere Black’s kick to give the green and whites some breathing space at 35-21 after an hour.

But the Stags were not going away. After hammering away at the Manawatu line in the forwards, Southland banked its four-try bonus point with Ormond dotting down for his second of the afternoon.

A Jade Te Rure penalty pushed the Manawatu lead out to 12 where it stayed until fulltime.

Captain James Wilson believed the effort was symptomatic of Southland’s difficult season.

“It was a tough loss today. The season has been a tough one. We came to play rugby, but we fell short unfortunately. There have been positives throughout the season and there have been patches where we have played well like we did today, but we just haven’t been able to string it together for 80 minutes and that’s why we haven’t been able to get that win this year, Wilson said. 

"It’s a young side. Some of these guys are in their first season. The experience this year will help them tenfold for next year and beyond,” he said. 

Manawatu 38 (J Hemopo, A Kiri Kiri (2), N Laumape (2) tries, O Black 5 conv, J Te Rure pen.)Southland 26 (M Mitchell, J Wilson, L Ormond (2) tries, Wilson 3 conv.) Article added: Sunday 14 October 2018

Article added: Sunday 14 October 2018