Otago have managed their first successful Ranfurly Shield defence of the 2019 Mitre 10 Cup season with a 41-22 thrashing over Southland.
They bounced back from their poor opening match against the Bay of Plenty last week with a good performance under the roof at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Jona Nareki opened the scoring for the home side after just four minutes - after he threw a dummy and fended a defender to score the first try.
Marty McKenzie got the visitors on the scoreboard with a 23rd-minute penalty kick.
Both sides played sloppy throughout the rest of the opening half until a driving maul from Otago saw Slade McDowall go over and take the lead to 17-3 at the break.
Southland came out of the sheds looking willing to throw the ball around and try to create a scoring opportunity - but it was the blue and gold who scored first, Dylan Nel crossing in the 47th to make the score 24-3.
Josh Moorby sliced through the hosts' defence to score Southland's first try with half an hour to go, but any signs of a comeback were quashed a minute later when Nareki crossed for his second of the night to take the score to 29-10.
From there, the Shield holders opened the floodgates to insure the Log o' Wood stays in Dunedin for at least another fortnight - lock Josh Dickson scoring under the posts to inflate the score to 36-10.
Charles Alaimalo scored for the challengers with 17 minutes to go and took the score to 36-17 and the Stags were pushing for more points as they tried to get back into the match but Otago responded well, Rowan Rouws scoring their sixth try of the night.
The visitors got the final try of the night off the back of the scrum drive it was Bill Fukofuka who scored but it wasn't enough as the Stags fell to their 23rd straight loss.
Otago will put the Shield up against Manawatu on Friday, August 30.
Newshub.
