Woodlands wing Justin Shaw scored a try and kicked three conversions in Woodlands’ upset win over the Eastern-Northern Barbarians on Saturday. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
The odds were stacked against Woodlands on Saturday for many different reasons, but they delivered what just might be the upset of the 2026 Southland premier club rugby season.
Their opposition was the table-topping Eastern-Northern Barbarians who headed into Saturday’s game unbeaten and had dispatched Pirates-Old Boys with ease the week before.
Meanwhile, Woodlands were well down on troops with key loose forwards Slone Lankshear and Caleb Karangaroa both out, while in-form prop Bryan Tyrell was ruled out the morning of the game.
Woodlands ended up taking 19 players to Gore and coach Barry Smith conceded some of those 19 players were also carrying injuries.
On the flipside, the Barbarians had a handy addition in Stags looseforward Sam Fischli to call on for the first time this season after he transferred from Dunedin club rugby to make himself available for the Stags.
Unfortunately for him, Fischli left the field in the first half with a dislocated shoulder, and the Stags coaching group will now be sweating on how long he will be sidelined for.
Despite losing Fischli at that point, the Barbarians would have felt they had more than enough artillery to put Woodlands away.
It never eventuated though.
The Barbarians opened the scoring early in the game before the spirited Woodlands outfit took charge, running five tries with wing Justin Shaw’s three conversions proving vital.
Coach Barry Smith was reluctant to lump praise on any individual players on the back of a performance where everyone stepped up.
“They were all outstanding yesterday,” Smith told The Tribune.
Although Smith said there was a member of the coaching group that deserved some credit for his work in recent weeks.
“Damian Pine has been a big help; he has come out and helped around the mental skills, and we bore some fruit [on Saturday] from what he has been loading into the team over the last few weeks.”
If there was any doubt prior to Saturday as to whether Woodlands’ semifinal spot had been locked in, that doubt has now been quashed altogether.
Third-place Woodlands has a 17-point gap over fifth-placed Blues with two round-robin games to play and cannot be overtaken.
A late Josh Jennings penalty has lifted Star to an all-important bonus-point victory that has locked in their 2026 semifinal spot.
The ever-improving Blues outfit made Star work for every bit of it, and at one point went up 19-5 on the back of three first-half tries.
Star was able to claw the halftime score back to 19-19 before the teams continued to trade tries in the second half, with the score locked up at 29-29 late in the fixture.
It was then over to Jennings to calmly slot the late match-winning penalty.
At one point, Star was operating with 13 players, with tight forwards Cordell Prescott and Josh Bekhuis both shown yellow cards in a short space of time.
Star also operated without one of its key generals, Sam Mutschin, for much of the game after he left the field in the first half with a leg complaint.
Star coach Brayden Mitchell said Blues were the better team for about 60 minutes of the game and probably deserved to win it.
Jennings played an important role at first five-eighth, while Stags hooker Aukustino Salanoa, slotting in on the blindside flank, was destructive with ball in hand and bagged two tries.
The Star coach added wing Kasseus Henry continued his good form with another strong performance.
After a challenging start to the season, Blues have been the big improvers in recent weeks, aided by the arrival of a couple of players from Japanese club Toyota Verblitz in prop Ryunosuke Momoji and looseforward Jingo Muruata.
Muruata has been particularly impressive in his opening two games for Blues.
It probably wasn’t the bounce-back performance Pirates-Old Boys were hoping for on Saturday, but they still secured four competition points with a 19-10 victory over Marist at Surrey Park.
Pirates-Old Boys turned in a flat performance in a 29-10 loss to the Barbarians the week before, and when hooker Alex Fraito scored inside the first 10 minutes against Marist they looked set to take complete charge.
But that never happened, as they struggled to shake a spirited Marist outfit which kept coming at them for the full 80 minutes.
Wing Ben Andrews scored for Marist midway through the first half, and the score remained at 5-5 through to halftime.
When replacement prop JJ Fisher and wing Isaac Rounds scored early in the first half to push the score out to 19-5, Pirates-Old Boys threatened to run away with it.
But it still didn’t eventuate, as Marist hung tough, scoring through flanker Luka Cassidy to make it 19-10, and then went on the attack for more points.
More points didn’t come, and despite the effort, Marist finished the game without any competition points, which has shunted them to the bottom of the competition standings and quashed any hope of playing semifinals in 2026.
Star 45, Wakatipu 24
Marist 80, Blues 5
Waikiwi 26, Pioneer 25
Wyndham 22, Waikaka/Riversdale Vikings 17
Riverton 19, Edendale 13
Tokanui 20, Albion 10
Midlands 88, Mossburn 12
Central Pirates 16, Woodlands 13
Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 19, Star 19
Te Anau 20, Pirates-Old Boys 15
Waiau Star 34, Marist 14
Collegiate 40, Blues 12
Wakatipu 45, Drummond-Limehills-Star 29
Bluff 48, Wrights Bush 3