reserves were talented, resolute and reliable". Josh Kronfeld said: I was just stoked by the result, stoked to see a successful end." 2001 Second place in National Provincial Championship Otago played in the round-robin stage of the 2001 National Provincial Championship defeating Northland 37-19 in Whangarei; Southland 53-20; losing to Counties-Manukau 14-11 away and Canterbury 62-19 at home before defeating Auckland in a very close game 23-22 at home. A loss against Waikato 33-20 before a big victories over Bay of Plenty 62-15; Taranaki 64-19 and Wellington 28-10. Otago faced North Harbour in the semifinal at Albany after finishing fourth in the round robin winning 37-10. The Otago team, coached by Laurie Mains, had a good first half in the final against Canterbury. Tony Brown was playing well until an ankle injury forced him off after 27 minutes. Bryon Kelleher was causing the Canterbury team problems at scrum time. Otago scored first just before halftime. Brendan Laney, playing his last game for Otago scored the only try for Otago. Otago lead at half time 16-6. In the second half, penalties kicked by Andrew Mehrtens and tries to Justin Marshall and Nathan Mauger took Canterbury to the full time score of 30-19. The 10,000 Otago supporters who travelled north to Christchurch to watch the final were left disappointed by the result especially as they lost to Canterbury twice in the 2001 season. 2003 Finished first in the round robin section of the National Provincial Championship The Otago team coached by Greg Cooper had success in the round robin stage. They finished first after winning seven games and losing three games. The team, captained by Kevin Middleton, defeated Auckland first up at Carisbrook in a very low scoring game (6-3). This was despite Otago spending 22 minutes of the match inside the Auckland 22. They were unable to turn this territorial advantage into points. Otago played Auckland in the semi-finals at Carisbrook losing 32-39. Josh Blackie scored two tries and Carl Hayman and Neil Brew each scoring one try in the semi final lose for Otago. 2005 Second place in National Provincial Championship The Otago team, coached by Wayne Graham, had a strong forward pack in 2005 with Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver and Carl Hoeft in the front row. Nick Evans was in form playing at first five. Otago finished the round robin games in fourth place with six wins from nine