{"id":374781,"date":"2026-04-11T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:42:15","slug":"front-runners-emerge-in-dunedin-premier-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374781\/","title":{"rendered":"Front-runners emerge in Dunedin premier rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Harbour beat a Highlanders-laden Dunedin side 36-19 at Watson Park to join the likes of Green Island and University as the early front-runners in the Dunedin division 1 competition.<\/p>\n<p>The Sharks\u2019 ranks were bolstered by the likes of front rowers Rohan Wingham, Soane Vikena, fullback Andrew Knewstubb and former All Black halfback Folau Fakatava.<\/p>\n<p>They had an impact, just not as much as you might have expected.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks scrum was under pressure, but they were hungrier at the ruck and grabbed a series of turnovers.<\/p>\n<p>Hawks openside flanker Toni Taufa was abrasive, and No 8 Taylor Dale grabbed some crucial lineout steals and produced another gutsy effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bFakatava failed to shine for Dunedin, but Knewstubb did look dangerous when he got the ball in space.<\/p>\n<p>But the Hawks&#8217; first five, Rique Miln, who was limping around the field on a dodgy knee, outshone the professionals.<\/p>\n<p>He bagged two tries, drilled four conversions and a penalty for a haul of 21 points.<\/p>\n<p>Green Island turned a 22-12 lead against Southern into a monster 62-24 win at Bathgate Park.<\/p>\n<p>The Grizzlies missed the playoffs last season, but they are unbeaten in three rounds so far.<\/p>\n<p>University is also unbeaten. They pulled away to beat Zingari-Richmond 43-24 at Logan Park, while Kaikorai eased to a 56-19 win against Alhambra-Union at Bishopscourt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harbour beat a Highlanders-laden Dunedin side 36-19 at Watson Park to join the likes of Green Island and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-374781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}