{"id":661116,"date":"2026-05-10T04:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T04:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T04:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T04:02:44","slug":"first-five-plays-key-role-in-important-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661116\/","title":{"rendered":"First five plays key role in important victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>First five-eighth Sam Mustchin was again one of Star\u2019s best in the 29-5 win over Marist on Saturday. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The importance of Saturday\u2019s round four Southland premier club rugby showdown at Waverley Park wasn\u2019t lost on many.<\/p>\n

Many already have the Eastern-Northern Barbarians, Pirates-Old Boys, and probably Woodlands pencilled in as playing semi-finals later this year.<\/p>\n

Under that logic, it probably leaves Star and Marist scrapping it out for the fourth spot, with Blues potentially off the pace with four losses to start the season.<\/p>\n

Hence why Saturday\u2019s Star, Marist contest at Waverley Park in Invercargill, came with some added intrigue.<\/p>\n

And in bleak, miserable conditions, it was young Star first five-eighth Sam Mutschin who stood up to the occasion, playing a lead role in guiding his team to a 29-7 victory that saw Star bank the maximum five points.<\/p>\n

With strong sideways winds mixed in with heavy rain, the kicking game on Saturday was always going to be a deciding factor, and that\u2019s where Mustchin had his biggest influence.<\/p>\n

Although he also carried the ball well, highlighting that he is, in fact, a midfielder filling in at first five-eighth at the moment.<\/p>\n

The son of former Scottish international Matt Mustchin is in his second year playing in Southland after joining Rugby Southland\u2019s academy system after his time at St Andrew\u2019s College in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

Star opened the scoring on Saturday at about the 17-minute mark when, fittingly, it was wing Fale Iosefa who dotted down outwide.<\/p>\n

Iosefa, a former Samoan under-20s and sevens representative, has been a popular and important figure in the Star club since joining in 2016.<\/p>\n

Saturday was his 100-game milestone for Star.<\/p>\n

The score remained 7-0 for the rest of the first half until Marist No 8 James Moodie put his head down and drove his way over on the stroke of halftime. The Jordan Goodall conversion locked the score up at 7-7 at the break.<\/p>\n

Star then went about taking charge in the second half, starting with a Mustchin penalty to make it 10-7.<\/p>\n

The home team then scored three further tries to Dylan Lovett, Nate Corbett, and Flynn McCallum to push out to a 29-7 victory, which included the four-try bonus point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Halback Charlie Marsh has scored a brace of tries in his first start for his new club, the Eastern-Northern Barbarians, in the 24-5 victory over Blues on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Marsh is a player Stags fans might want to keep an eye on as he eyes a shot at playing for Southland in this year\u2019s NPC.<\/p>\n

The 2019 Otago Boys\u2019 High School head boy played in the Meads Cup-winning Thames Valley team in 2024 and last year made three appearances off the bench for Waikato in the NPC.<\/p>\n

Marsh, a rural banker with ASB, has transferred to Southland this year with the prospect of lining up for the Stags in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Barbarians have eased Marsh into the season, starting him off the bench in the first three games before he started in the No 9 jersey against Blues on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Marsh scored the sole first-half try as the game, for the first 40 minutes at least, resembled the conditions the players were playing in, with the sideways wind and rain making for a tough day.<\/p>\n

The competition-leading unbeaten Barbarians started to step it up a notch in the second half, scoring three tries to push out to a 24-5 victory.<\/p>\n

For the Barbarians, No 8 Brenton Howden was their best in the victory, getting through plenty of work.<\/p>\n

The Barbarians are down on front row troops at the moment, operating with just four front rowers, although in tighthead prop Morgan Mitchell, they do possess the best in Southland club rugby, and that again showed on Saturday.<\/p>\n

While Blues are winless through four rounds, they again showed plenty of fight on Saturday and at their best, can put teams under pressure with the way they carry the ball.<\/p>\n

In the defensive department, openside flanker and captain Hamish Gray yet again got through plenty of work on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>New Eastern-Northern Barbarians halfback Charlie Marsh played three games for Waikato in the 2025 NPC. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pirates-Old Boys has retained the Cossie Cup, although it took an 80-minute effort to fend off a spirited Woodlands outfit on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Cossie Cup is contested between Pirates-Old Boys in honour of former Southland player Paul Cosgrove, who had a strong connection to both the Pirates-Old Boys and Woodlands clubs.<\/p>\n

Cosgrove died in 2021 following a battle with cancer, which prompted the clubs to establish the Cossie Cup in his memory.<\/p>\n

Pirates-Old Boys started the best with a try to No 8 Hayden Hegarty from a lineout drive in the 8th minute. The home side were back in 10 minutes later when powerful second five-eighth Napo Seru proved too tough to stop running onto the ball close to the line.<\/p>\n

At 12-0 up with 18 minutes gone, it looked to be one-way traffic. That was before a momentum shift in Woodlands\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n

By the 33-minute mark, Woodlands had locked the scores up at 12-all on the back of tries to Sloane Lankshear and Brian Tyrell, and by halftime, Woodlands had hit the lead 17-12 with No 8 and captain Caleb Karangaroa crossing.<\/p>\n

Eleven minutes into the second, Pirates-Old Boys regained the lead when veteran lock Craig Smith scored from close range, and the Greg Dyer conversion made it 19-17.<\/p>\n

The lead was extended to 24-17 when replacement prop JJ Fisher scored Pirates-Old Boys\u2019 fourth try.<\/p>\n

Woodlands went about throwing plenty at Pirates-Old Boys in the later stages of the game, and at one point looked likely to score, which could have drawn the game.<\/p>\n

However, Pirates-Old Boys hung tough to secure a bonus point victory on a day that many would have thought four try bonus points would have been hard to come by.<\/p>\n

Pirates-Old Boys sit second on the competition standings, three points behind competition leaders the Barbarians.<\/p>\n

Woodlands are four competition points back in third place, with Star sitting one point behind Woodlands in fourth spot.<\/p>\n

Star has a four-point buffer on fifth-place Marist, with Blues five points behind Marist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Centre Sam McLachlan was one of Pirates-Old Boys\u2019 best in the win over Woodlands on Saturday. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pioneer 24, Wakatipu 15
Star 54, Marist 29<\/p>\n

Riversdale\/Waikaka 45, Albion 22
Tokanui 5, Riverton 0
Edendale 26, Pioneer 20
Wyndham 29, Waikiwi 7<\/p>\n

Star 20, Marist 5
Collegiate 20, Blues 0
Pirates-Old Boys 15, Woodlands 13
Wakatipu 43, Ohai-Nightcaps-Otautau 36
Te Anau 27, Waiau Star 21
Drummond-Limehills-Star 10, Central Pirates
Midlands 105, Wrights Bush 7
Bluff 25, Mossburn 22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First five-eighth Sam Mustchin was again one of Star\u2019s best in the 29-5 win over Marist on Saturday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-661116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}