Southland beat Wallabies 10-7 in 1978.......

Steve Harper and Geoff Crosswell on the run in curtain raiser...

​What a brillant display of 15 man rugby by Southland to beat Australia 10-7 in 1978 at Rugby Park.  All 16,500 spectators were given a thrill of a life time, and willing the team to hold on till full time.  It was a great tactic to use the backs to their potential as Southland is known for their great rugged forward play and expertise in scrummaging, rucking and mauling.  
It was up to the loose trio of Sam Anderson, Leicester Rutledge, and Ash McGregor to ensure the backs got as much good ball as they could give them.
Down 7-0 Southland got its act together and they drove the Australians back time after time with every player involved. Dave Saunders, Kevin Duke and Phil Butt tied the ball up in the tight.  
It was the constant pressure on the Australians that resulted in the first try 28 minutes into the second half.  As the tight forwards secured the ball for the loose they then put it out to the back line where Steven Pokere executed a perfect grubber kick and it was his Invercargill club-mate, Ian Donaldson that scored the try.  Donaldson was clever enough to shield the bouncing ball instead of catching it and when it went over the try line he dived on it.
Bob Barber and Fergus Dermody did everything that was asked of a lock with Barber was strong with ball in hand and Dermody was relentless in chasing the ball all day.  
Halfback Terry Butson sent clean ball to his first five eight, Brian McKechnie and did timely box kicks that found the Australian team wanting.
Gardiner was safe running into the backline and the Australian team tested him on many occasions with high up and unders.  Gary Bennetts got involved as much as possible and tried to take any opportunity that came his way.  He showed his pace often and had the Australian team scrambling.  Bennetts often teamed up with Wayne Boynton and would come bursting on to the ball and one move saw him go 50 metres up field.
Southland can be proud of themselves in the way that you could not single out any one player which meant that everyone was giving it their all and watching out for each other.

Reference:  The Southland Times August 1978

The Curtain- raiser
The Curtain-raiser was between Southland Under 18 against Pirates U23 team.  The Southland team had to with-hold some heavy pressure from the bigger and more expereienced Pirates team.  Southland U18 won 9-3

The teams were: Southland; Kevin Burns, Craig Puller, Steven Jackson, Kevin O'Neill, Grant Stirling, J. McClutchie, R. Steedman, Shaun Flynn, Doug Templar, Neil Smith, Paul Radka, Matthew Smellie, A. Clark, Shane Harvey, J. France. G. Brown, I. Russell, R. Gibson, I. Welsh, Mark Crowther, Mark Kidd, L. Dickison.
Pirates U 23: Riki Puki, Geoff Crosswell, Lyall McKenzie, Reid Boynton, Alan Hughes, Steve Harper, Terry Bellew, Frank Spencer, Mervyn Eade, Tony Bennett, Stu Baker, George Robertson, Trev Popham, Kimble Davis, Geoff Rodger, Huia August, Grant McDermott, Wayne Hamilton.
The Pirates team was the winners of the James Ballantyne Cup for the U23 Competition where they played 17 games, Won 16 and Lost 1.  Points for 477, Against 79.  This was an extremely talented team who were coached by Rex Williams and Chris Smyth.  The Pirates Rugby Club would have been looking forward to these players reaching senior status.

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