A new competition format saw Marist travel up to Te Anau to take on a tough Te Anau team on a warm Fiordland day. The locals came out firing early applying plenty of pressure and asking questions of the Marist defence. It took 20 minutes for the Marist account to be opened, when lock-cum winger Logan Brown crashed over from close range to give Marist a 7 nil lead. Te Anau's strong play was rewarded when they crashed over to make it 7-5. Marist were guilty of too many errors losing the ball in contact on several occasions.

Finally before halftime Marist were able to increase the score when Jack Nally scored from close range and Joe Weatherall dotted down two minutes later from a sweeping move going the length of the field. Halftime score was 21-8. Te Anau came out hard once again after halftime and were unlucky to not score on a couple of occasions.

Centre Javaan Fa'amoe Ioane showed his class to score two second half tries to take the score to 35-8. Te Anau scored near full-time to make it 35-13, Marist showed their willingness to keep playing to the final whistle and were rewarded with one more try to make the full-time score 42-13. Player of the day for Marist was prop Siaki Taualofa who had an outstanding game.

Marist will be at home next week when they meet Midlands. It would be great to see a good crowd down at Miller Street, kick off 3pm. #MFL

Photo credit - Te Anau Rugby Club and Chris Watson PRO Focus Photography

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Article added: Sunday 24 March 2019