South New Zealand have pulled off the upset of the season so far, beating premiers Melbourne 11-9 in the final match of ARTTSL First Division Round 2.
With the Big Peter Jackson revving up the crowd, South New Zealand pulled out a narrow lead early, but Melbourne clawed back. Two pivotal points towards the end made the game memorable and gave South New Zealand their edge: The first case was where a point was replayed as the referees and touch judges all admitted they did not see whether a Melbourne shot hit the table before or after crossing the net. A video replay clearly showed the ball fell short. The situation raises again the question of whether ARTTSL should consider implementing a video referee, however Director Bernard Elksteine has been firmly against such a proposal.
The second memorable point was where Melbourne captain Camrahn Smythe allowed a South New Zealand serve that clipped the net through, having forgotten the let rul was aboloshed as at the end of Round 1.
In other matches, Gold Coast-Tweed thrashed Illawarra 11-2, Sunshine Coast racked up their second win 13-11 over Canberra, Brisbane narrowly pushed out Sydney 12-10 (leaving Sydney at the bottom of the table), Singapore join Sydney on zero points after going down to Perth on Perth's long-awaited new home table, while Newcastle join Sunshine Coast on four points at the top of the table after beating North New Zealand 11-5 in Auckland.
ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Gold Coast-Tweed 11 d Illawarra 2 (at Gold Coast)
Sunshine Coast 13 d Canberra 11 (at Sunshine Coast)
Brisbane 12 d Sydney 10 (at Sydney)
Perth 11 d Singapore 9 (at Perth)
Newcastle 11 d North New Zealand 5 (at Auckland)
South New Zealand 11 d Melbourne 9 (at Christchurch)
ROUND 3 DRAW:
Singapore v Brisbane (at Singapore)
North New Zealand v Sunshine Coast (at Wellington)
Newcastle v Illawarra (at Newcastle)
Perth v South New Zealand (at Perth)
Melbourne v Canberra (at Melbourne)
Gold Coast-Tweed v Sydney (at Tweed Heads)
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