Saturday saw us hit the road again on the last bus trip of the season to Nightcaps to Play Ohai - Nightcaps. Our 3 previous bus trips had seen victories over Tokanui, Balfour - Lumsden and Pioneer so making it 4 out of 4 was a priority for the boys.

The ground at Nightcaps was in good condition and an open cast coal mine operating in the background made for an impressive setting. The game kicked off and both teams got stuck into it. POB carried on their good form from the Pioneer game and scored 2 early tries to Buskey & birthday boy Ash.

Jibba went off for a blood bin 20 minutes into the first 1/2 (sorry Jibba - no touch judges in Div2 rugby) which saw Dennis go to 10 and Oscar slot into 1/2 back. POB kept up the momentum and further tries were scored by Jako, Dennis and Lennon. 

Lennon was awarded his try much to the dismay of the local crowd after the ref waited for a couple of players who had tackled Lennon to get off him before he was able to check the grounding.  Jak Sharland took over the kicking duties from Oscar and managed one conversion which made the 1/2 time score 27 0 to POB.
 
Injury and illness saw Ben and Rolly replaced in the backline in the 2nd half by a prop (Lennon) and a hooker (Hayden) which along with Sams recent conversion to 2nd five made 11 of the team forwards which suited the 2nd half conditions.

Ohai - Nightcaps started off the second 1/2 determined to get some points on the board and scored first with an unconverted try. The second 40 was a good even battle 2 further tries were scored by Jako and Dennis along with
another conversion. Another try was bombed after Lennon failed to run in his brother Cody for a simple try which caused some discussion between them. Maybe some backyard passing practice as youngsters would have helped.

A feature of our recent games has been some minor sledging of opposition players based on hair colour. Ohai Nightcaps turned the tables on us this week with Shrimpy being called a woolly headed git due to some over vigorous play during the 1st half. 

The final score was 39 - 5. Hard to single players out from such a good team effort but the good performances in recent weeks have been the result of some good work by the tight 5 in the scrum and lineout work complemented by
the loose forwards which has given the backline some front foot ball to work with.

Ohai Nightcaps were excellent hosts, they have a long history as a club and the photos on the wall show they have always been a strong team in their sub union and have produced a number of Southland reps. 

Dress code for the trip back to Vegas was brown leather jackets, singlet and trackpants with optional Old Boys (1980s era) powder blue dress jerseys that Johnsy had found stashed away at the clubrooms.

A couple of guys played their last game for the season on Sat:  Dupree who played his first full game (after popping his dislocated thumb back in) is off to work in a gulag for a month or so. Shrimpy who has been on top of his game in recent weeks is moving away to work up in Canterbury, his experience and leadership will be a big loss.

The next two weeks see us at home for games against Star and Marist.

The team hit the road to Gore on Sat for bus trip #3 of the year. We were playing the early game at the Gore showgrounds as a curtain raiser to the Barbarians v Woodlands game. You might be able to catch it on ILT Club Rugby on CUE TV during the week.

Pioneer have had a pretty good season to date and were in 5th place on the competition ladder behind Wyndham so were always going to be a big challenge especially on their home turf. 

A feature of the POB backline was the lightweight inside back combo of Jamie Harvey and Oscar Jenkins, this was offset by the heavyweight midfield combo of Daniel Rolton and Sam Samu with an estimated combined of weight of 250 kgs POB took a positive attitude into the game and scored an early try thru Hayden Pearce (who started the game at hooker and ended the game on the left wing). Further tries to Oscar and Rolly saw POB ahead at half time 15 8.

Pioneer scored a converted try early in the 2nd half to make it 15 all and the game turned into an arm wrestle. 
Some scrambling defence shut down a number of breaks by the Pioneer backs, penalties were exchanged to take the score to 18 all then going into the last 15 minutes Pioneer scored another 3 points to lead 21 - 18. The injection of the Hiko brothers and both coaches from the bench gave the team some added spark and a Dennis Thompson short ball to big Sam saw him crash over under the posts to make the score 23 - 18 to POB (yes we missed the conversion).

With 5 minutes to go play went from end to end as Pioneer tried to score the winning points but the boys held on for a much deserved win which is a testament to the Shane Harvey coaching manual - when playing a better team drag them down to your level.

Player of the day was Spencer Marshall and Shrimpy was named the Lone Star player of the day by Tom Conroy. Tom had given the player of the day award to the Pioneer left wing but had to change his decision after the winger got yellow carded after having an altercation with Shrimpy. 

Jamie Harvey was awarded the green jacket due his masterful display of bounce passing and missing the conversion in front of the sticks. To balance the ledger Jamie put in some good work on the track and displayed his mongrel Harvey genes by rucking a Pioneer player at the back of a ruck which started some fisticuffs and ended up with a player from each side getting 10 minutes in the bin.

Ben Alsop managed to turn up for the game this week and put in a good contribution after replacing Jamie Clark. Cody Gavan and Jonno Dennision also put in good 80 minute efforts.

All in all a good team effort with a number of guys playing out of position but still giving their best. 

The boys are 3 from 3 from their bus trip games this year and hope to make it 4 from 4 when we travel out to the wild west this Saturday to play Ohai-Nightcaps.

Hospitality at the Pioneer clubrooms was excellent and they have got the best fireplace in Southland.

Well done to the Cs and Prems for their good wins.