24-22 to the good guys and yet again, we had a dreamlike first half which turned into a nightmare in the second half. The first half an hour, we were running Southland ragged. 3 nice tries scored, lots of great handling and Ruki Tipuna cutting capers. Grumpy Jimmy Cowan snatched one back just before the half hour and after a bright start to the 2nd half saw us reach 24-10, we hardly ventured out of our own half for the rest of the game.

The lineout fell to pieces, high kicks weren't being caught and the defensive line was looking shaky. Luckily the spirit of the lads was there in bucket loads so there was often someone to save the day. Not to mention Southland dropped a lot of ball on a perfect night for handling.

The backline seemed to hum far better tonight when we could get our hands on the ball and Hona and MacDonald had some good runs. Tipuna was a star while as ever King, Latimer and Bourke were very good.

So presuming Canterbury do their job and tip over Hawke's Bay and Southland, we play off next week against the other Bay for the 3rd/4th finish. We should therefore finish up playing Southland or Taranaki at home in the quarter-finals. We know we can beat either of those sides. Go the mighty Bay Steamers and well done to Kevin Schuler and the team for their achievements to date.