Finally the North and South met in the semis, both male and female. The South came out on top for the Ladies while it was the North who took the honours for the Men.
Skåne Ladies proved far too strong for Enköping, 50 – 6, while Göteborg sprang something of a surprise by beating Exiles in Stockholm 21 – 12. So now the veterans from Göteborg have to make one more trip to Skåne for the final.
I have maintained all season that only one team in the South was of Allsvensk standard, i e Pingvin, while the others at best were 50 points away from that level. This was to some extent confirmed when Troján beat Göteborg by 55 – 10 and Exiles after the long trip down South had a struggle to beat Pingvin 18 – 11. This means that Exiles will reach their 21st SM-final in a row and still have a chance of winning 10 in a row. Various twists and turns have meant that the single final will now be played in Stockholm when Exiles and Troján will meet for the second year in a row.
Göteborg shaped up quite well with ball in hand, but their defence was not up to the required standard.
Referees had been brought in from abroad and Exiles started off by conceding four penalties in 8 minutes and going 6 – 0 down. The kicker, Campbell, was off the field after a further few minutes when attempting to stop Theo Karlsson and this caused the Pingvin back division problems thereafter. Exiles came back with a pushover try by Beso and a couple of penalties by Ushka. Instead of kicking the ball dead and taking a 6 – 13 lead into half-time they chose to open it out, blundered, and allowed the Pingvin fullback to get in at the corner. For the next half-hour the score remained at 11 – 13 with both teams creating chances until flanker Sean Burke got what proved to be the winner with 10 minutes to go. This is the second team in a row whose ambitions have been crushed by Exiles in the last couple of weeks. We´ll see if they can make it three when Troján come to Gubbängen next week.