Marist lock Luka Cassidy on the charge at a wet and muddy Miller St against Star in Invercargill on Saturday. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
It was a weird old Saturday afternoon at Miller St in Invercargill for a few different reasons.
Half of the story is probably best told through the lens of Southland’s leading rugby photographer Debbie Fahey.
Saturday’s Marist-Star showdown at Marist’s Miller St ground turned into an absolute mud bath – one of the muddiest and wettest games played in Southland premier club rugby in recent memory.
Fahey’s images will forever be proof of that.
Star and Marist pack down a scrum in the muddy Southland premier club rugby fixture. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
The mud aside, Saturday’s fixture turned out to be drama-filled and one that was decided in the last act of the game and followed what appeared to be a brain snap from a Stags hooker early in the second half.
More on that in a bit.
Despite the horrendous conditions, Star actually produced some good rugby in the first half, led by first five-eighth Josh Jennings, who set up fullback Nate Corbett to score after eight minutes.
It remained 7-0 at halftime, and when Corbett scored his second try inside the first couple of minutes in the second half, the visitors went up 14-0, and a Star win was at very short odds.
But minutes later came the telling moment when Aukusitino Salanoa was shown a red card for what appeared to be a reckless and blatant shoulder charge.
Earlier in the game, Salanoa had also been shown a yellow card on the back of a team infringement.
Salanoa was playing in the loose forwards on Saturday but is one of three contracted Stags hookers for the 2026 NPC season.
Saturday’s defining red card moment might have drawn some frowned looks from the Stags decision-makers given they won’t be able to afford to have that sort of potential liability come the crunch time of an NPC game.
Salanoa’s involvement in the remainder of the club season will probably now be decided by a judiciary.
Stags hooker Aukusitino Salanoa departs on Saturday after being shown a red card playing for Star against Marist in a Southland premier club rugby fixture. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
When Salanoa departed, the momentum started to shift Marist’s way as they went about scoring three unconverted tries in the space of about 20 minutes to go from 14-0 down to 15-14 up.
The last of those three tries came with not a lot of time left on the clock, but there was still a couple of plot twists remaining.
Marist was awarded a penalty inside their own half with time pretty much up and interestingly opted for a scrum.
The assignment was simple: secure the scrum and kick the ball out, and it was game over.
However, Star put some pressure on Marist through a charge-down kick which led to a penalty of their own.
All of a sudden, Jennings, for the second week in a row, had the opportunity to step up and kick a match-winning penalty goal for Star.
Most would have banked Jennings to get the job done from relatively handy range, but much to the delight of the Marist faithful, he pushed it wide, and Marist finished with a 15-14 win.
Lock Luca Cassidy was probably Marist’s best on Saturday and bagged two tries in the process. For Star, Jennings, despite the final act of the game, had a good day out in difficult conditions.
To be fair, any player that took the field in those conditions on Saturday deserves a shout out.
Star and Marist players scrap it out in the mud. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY
The table-topping Eastern-Northern Barbarians have quickly ensured any doubters that their shock loss to Woodlands was simply a blip, rather than any sort of downward slide late in the season.
After being upset 31-27 by an undermanned Woodlands outfit seven days earlier, coach AJ Aitken got the response he was after when his team ran up a 57-10 victory over a much-improved Blues outfit.
Barbarians racked up those 57 points in challenging conditions at the Gore Showgrounds, as they dished up nine tries in a commanding win.
“It was good to reassure ourselves that the week before was just basically all mental and a wee lesson of what happens if you don’t quite turn up in the right mindset,” Aitken told The Tribune.
Blues did have the Barbarians thinking ‘not again’ in the early exchanges when they opened the scoring through Jiuta Navukuka after just three minutes.
However, the Barbarians found some territory and from that point took charge of the game to push out to a 31-5 halftime lead.
Aitken paid credit to the spirited Blues outfit for continuing to come at them in defence in the second half when they could have easily had enough in difficult conditions.
Veteran hooker Lachlan McCall was one of the Barbarians’ best on Saturday, in a performance that would have received the approval of his late father Bain McCall.
“All his family was up in Christchurch; it was 10 years since the late Bain passed away, and he decided to stay back. We needed him, and he played 80 and played his guts out so Bain would be bloody proud of that,” Aitken said.
The Barbarians now face the likely prospect of coming up against Star two Saturdays in a row, firstly in the final round-robin fixture this coming Saturday.
The two teams are then likely to square off again in one of the Galbraith Shield semi-finals seven days later.
Where the Barbarians will host that home semi-final is still to be decided, with the Gore Showgrounds set to be sidelined because of the state of the ground.
Somewhere like Riversdale might well find itself hosting a 2026 Southland premier club rugby semifinal.
While the two other premier fixtures navigated some challenging muddy conditions on Saturday, Pirates-Old Boys revelled in a dry track at Oreti Park.
The second-placed Pirates-Old Boys dished up a clinical win, running in five tries to one to beat Woodlands 35-5.
Given the two teams are likely to square off in a semifinal fixture in a fortnight, it’s a confidence-boosting result as Pirates-Old Boys eye the crunch stage of the season and yet another trip to a Galbraith Shield final.
Greg Dyer opened the scoring inside the first three minutes on Saturday via a penalty before Pirates-Old Boys ran in three first-half tries – two of them to wing Sam McLachlan.
By halftime they had pushed out to a 23-0 at halftime.
Woodlands scored the first points of the second half via lock Riley Smith, but there wasn’t any sort of dramatic comeback on the cards in this one.
The score remained 23-5 for much of the second half, with the game going to uncontested scrums which potentially nullified a strength of Pirates-Old Boys.
However, Pirates-Old Boys did finish with two late tries to Tevita Chute and Hayden Haggerty to push out to the 35-5 victory.
Dyer continued his good 2026 season; Haggerty was strong at No 8, while Sam Wheely did a good job stepping at halfback.
PREMIER WOMEN
Pioneer 34, Wakatipu 22
Marist 38, Star 7
Blues – BYE
DIVISION ONE
Riversdale/Waikaka 26, Riverton 16
Pioneer 36, Albion 5
Wyndham 18, Tokanui 0
Edendale 45, Waikiwi 28
DIVISION TWO
Woodlands 27, Pirates-Old Boys 10
Midlands 48, Star 7
Mossburn 24, Te Anau 0
Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 17, Central Pirates 15
DIVISION THREE
Marist 41, Wakatipu 27
Bluff 15, Waiau Star 12
Drummond-Limehills-Star 37, Collegiate 5