First five-eighth Connor Bolton has been one of Blues’ best performers to date in 2026. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
Sometimes in sport, it’s the response that matters most.
For the faithful attached to the proud Invercargill Blues club, they got that from their premier team on Saturday.
While just coming up short, losing 33-26 against defending champions Woodlands, Blues helped to shuffle the horror show from seven days earlier to the back of their minds.
When they were beaten 106-0 by Pirates-Old Boys, some started to question the viability of Blues in the premier competition, although that thought never entered coach Mike Cunningham’s mind.
“Blues will never drop down out of the premier grade, I can tell you that now,” Cunningham told The Tribune.
“There is too much pride in that club, and it is too old of a club for that to happen. There are guys in the background, and everybody is contributing, making sure we are going in the right direction.”
Although Cunningham didn’t shy away from how tough that outing was at Surrey Park.
There were multiple factors at play, Cunningham said, including some injuries to key players and the flu entering the camp.
Not to mention the opposition.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a premier team in my time play as good as Pirates-Old Boys did last Saturday.
“Look, if they had a poo, it would have been a bar of gold. Some of the things they done, you don’t see that in rugby matches.”
Cunningham said they did not spend a lot of time dwelling on the 106-0 loss in the lead-up to Saturday’s game against Woodlands, instead simply asking the team to bring effort.
And that’s what they did.
“It was no good looking back. We knew we were better than that, and everybody was disappointed,” Cunningham said.
“After we lost to [Pirates-Old Boys], we said to the boys, ‘Tell me one thing you learned from Saturday’, and we went around the whole room.
“I said once we do this, that’s it, we will march on, and we will forget about it and worry about the next task, which is Woodlands.”
Blues found themselves down 33-7 at halftime against Woodlands at Woodlands. They were hurt by conceding a couple of tries later in the half when Blues were down to 14-men with a player in the sin-bin.
Another second-half blowout was potentially on the cards, but the spirited Blues outfit ensured that wasn’t going to happen.
Instead, they run in 19 unanswered second-half points and put themselves in a strong position to snatch a draw late against the defending champions, but come up short.
Big No 8 Albert Qoro was strong for Blues, as was midfielder Jay Naqianivalu. Young lock Keegan Goodall impressed, while first five-eighth Connor Bolton continued his good season.
Blues have some further reinforcements coming to help bolster the team with a prop and looseforward from the Toyota Verblitz club in Japan on their way.
They will arrive next Monday and take the field in their next game against Marist on June 6.
Those at Rugby Southland HQ have moved quickly to try to bolster the province’s first five-eighth depth in the wake of Kaea Nikora-Balloch’s season-ending broken ankle.
Nikora-Balloch was very much in the Stags selection thinking in 2026, but suffered a broken ankle playing for Pirates-Old Boys last Saturday.
Seven days later, Josh Jennings arrived in the province to line up for Star in Southland club rugby to try to stake his claim for one of the first five-eighth spots in the Stags.
Jennings played for Canterbury B last year and has previously represented Mid Canterbury at Heartland Championship level.
He had been playing for Linwood in Christchurch before this week transferring to Star in Southland.
Jennings will line up the Team Withy v Team de Groot high performance trial fixture on Wednesday night.
Stags coach Scott Eade was gutted for Nikora-Balloch.
“I’m devastated for Kaea… The work he had put in for the first four months of the year I was excited to see him go.
“There was a reason why he came back into [the high performance group], I wanted to give him every opportunity to show us he can be part of the squad because there is no doubt Kaea has got the ability.”
Josh Jennings.
While there were some eyes on Jennings in his debut outing in Southland club rugby on Saturday, it was his opposite No 10, Greg Dyer, who continued to shine for Pirates-Old Boys with another strong performance.
After notching up a 37-point haul against Blues, Dyer’s fingerprints were again all over his team’s 33-17 victory at Waverley Park, where a physical Star outfit took it Pirates-Old Boys for much of the game.
Star was right in the contest for much of the first half before conceding three tries in less than 10 minutes.
Dyer scored the first of those tries before later producing a brilliant pass to set up midfielder Sam McLauchlan to score to make it 26-5 at halftime.
Those three tries coincided with Star having halfback Jackson Hughan in the sin-bin.
Hughan was otherwise outstanding in his last outing for Star before he sets his sights on the World U20 Championships in Georgia.
Star kept coming at Pirates-Old Boys in the second half, but the inform Surrey Park-based unit held on to the 33-17 victory.
Greg Dyer was again a key figure in Pirates-Old Boys’ victory over Star on Saturday. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
Marist dished up table-topping Eastern-Northern Barbarians a significant fright on Saturday. The visiting Barbarians had to delve into their playing depth to get themselves home.
When the Barbarians pushed out to a 15-0 lead early in the game, the contest was playing out how many probably had scripted it.
But Marist had other ideas at Miller St.
In a remarkable turnaround, Marist went about piling on 27 unanswered points to lead 27-15 at halftime, prompting plenty of pondering within the Barbarians camp as they stared down their potential first loss of the season.
However, the Barbarians’ playing depth eventually shone through.
The country outfit had the luxury of rolling the likes of Charlie Marsh, Ryan McFaul, Rylee Stewart, and Harry McKenzie off the bench, who all had significant impacts in the second half.
The Barbarians went about scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half to go from 27-15 down to win 34-27.
The scary thought for other Galbraith Shield contenders is the Barbarians are about to add even further playing depth for the second half of the season.
Woody Kirkwood, Harrison Morton, and Tom Scanlon are all close to returning from injury, while looseforward Sam Fischli will soon join the Barbarians as he eyes another NPC season with the Stags.
Former Barbarians head coach Bretton Taylor has also arranged for a Welsh prop to join the club for the remainder of the season in another boost.
Everything points to a mouthwatering top-of-the-table showdown between Pirates-Old Boys and the Barbarians on June 6.
For the second week in a row, looseforward Ben Hill was the Barbarians’ best on Saturday, while for Marist, Joseva Turanganivula, Alex Meulenbroek, and Xavier Wright were amongst their best.
Stags lock Woody Kirkwood is close to returning from injury for the Eastern-Northern Barbarians.
Premier Women
Wakatipu 40, Marist 36
Pioneer 68, Blues 5
Star – BYE
Division One
Wyndham 24, Pioneer 17
Riverton 54, Albion 22
Tokanui 31, Waikiwi 22
Edendale 36, Riversdale/Waikaka 17
Division Two
Pirates-Old Boys 36, Star 25
Midlands 75, Central Pirates 5
Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 36, Mossburn 29
Division Three
Marist 22, Collegiate 10
Wakatipu 81, Wrights Bush 0
Drummond-Limehills-Star 34, Waiau Star 0