Super sub Brown stars for Otago
Veteran flyhalf Tony Brown came off the bench to help Otago finish the season on a high with a 28-20 victory over Manawatu at the Dunedin Stadium on Tuesday.
With the scored locked at 13-apiece brown came off the bench to kick a penalty and set up two tries and secure Otago's fifth win of the season.
Manawatu looked strong in phases, but lacked the intensity to hold those high standards for the full 80 minutes.
Otago will be pleased with the victory and an excellent performance to end the season, with flank Paul Grant, No.8 Gareth Evans and centre Jayden Spence the other star performers together with Brown.
Otago 28 - 20 Manawatu
Scorers:
For Otago:
Tries: Grant, Manson, Evans, Popoali'i
Con: Brown
Pens: Brown, Parker
For Manawatu:
Tries: Tietjens, Qoiata
Con: Thompson, Cruden
Pens: Thompson 2
Teams:
Otago: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Joe Hill, 13 Ben Atiga, 12 Glenn Dickson, 11 Buxton Popoali'i, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Sean Romans (captain), 8 Gareth Evans, 7 Adam Hill, 6 TJ Ioane, 5 Tom Franklin, 4 Daniel Ramsay, 3 Kees Meeuws, 2 Jason MacDonald, 1 Scott Manson.
Replacements: 16 Liam Coltman, 17 Pieter van der Merwe, 18 Rob Verbakel, 19 Paul Grant, 20 Johnny Legg, 21 Tony Brown, 22 Jayden Spence, 23 James McGougan.
Manawatu: 15 Nehe Milne-Skudder, 14 Casey Stone, 13 Lewis Marshall, 12 Asaeli Tikoirotuma, 11 Waisea Qioata, 10 Isaac Thompson, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Hamish Gosling, 7 Doug Tietjens, 6 Nick Crosswell (captain), 5 Reece Robinson, 4 Fraser Stone, 3 David Te Moana, 2 Rob Foreman, 1 Jared Brock.
Replacements: 16 Bryn Templeman, 17 Grant Polson, 18 Michael Fitzgerald, 19 James Oliver, 20 Karl Bryson, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Junior Tomasi Cama, 23 Ma'afu Fia.
Referee: Vinny Munro