Change at Wellsford helm

The Western Sharks and Hikurangi remain unbeaten on top of the PGG Wrightson Southern Districts premier grade rugby competition after wins on Saturday. But perhaps the biggest news of the weekend was a changing of the guard at Wellsford.
The 2009 champions started the campaign with five straight defeats but turned up to play Marist  with last year's coach Haydn  Ferris in charge.
Ferris stepped down at the end of last season and Mike Farr replaced him, but the new coach didn't inherit the same team and with every defeat, the pressure mounted on the new coach.
"I was talking to the president and after a few phone calls from people expressing their opinions, he wanted to bring Haydn Ferris back to give me some assistance and I told him if they weren't happy with my coaching then it would never happen and I decided to step aside," Farr said.
"Hadyn is a good coach and the team has got a good relationship with him and they'll go forward from here and I've already talked to them and wished them the best for the season," he added.
Ferris had agreed to help Farr out and said he was left with little option but to take over the team after Farr stepped down. He started his new association with the team on Saturday with a narrow 17-26 defeat to Marist but after trailing 18-0 at the break, they managed a good second half performance to narrow the gap.
"I think the guys are a little away from their best at the moment but it was an improvement by all accounts because that was the first game I've seen them play this year," Ferris said.
Marist coach Donny Stevenson said Marist had played one of their better games of the season and he was very pleased with the way his young forward pack fared against the experienced Wellsford forwards.
"That front row we had out there was made up of two 18-year-olds and a 21-year-old and they're all Northland boys and just coming on to the radar now so the future's looking good for Northland," he said.
The Sharks beat Kamo 32-14 and coach Myles Ferris - Haydn's brother - said it was the Sharks defence that won them the game against a talented Kamo side.
"It wasn't a comfortable win at all, we scored two late tries to put it out of their reach but it was the toughest game we've had all year," he said.
Kamo struggled in the scrums - still missing Northland prop Matt Wallis - but competed on an equal footing elsewhere. Kamo led 9-8 at halftime but the turning point in the match came with about 15 minutes to go.
"We were six points up and they had a rolling maul heading towards our line but the boys managed to keep them out and if they'd managed to get that one over and kicked the conversion the outcome might have been quite different," Myles Ferris said.
Hikurangi also had a tough time subduing Old Boys as the competition begins to get tighter. They led 7-3 with less than 10 minutes remaining before also scoring two late tries to win 19-3. They dominated the first spell playing into the wind but were frustrated by solid defence from Old Boys, who then turned the tables on them in the second spell.
"After the break they  gave us a torrid time all over the park but all credit to our defence, we  held out and then managed to get back on top in the final 10 minutes and nail the points with a couple of good tries," coach Stu Cook said.