Upper Clutha’s chance to get one back on Wakatipu

COMPETITION leader Upper Clutha gets the chance to rectify the only blemish on its perfect record when it hosts Wakatipu at Wanaka tomorrow in the latest round of the Central Otago Premier Rugby competition.

The two sides have been at each other since round one vying for top spot and it was a good oldfashioned dingdong battle when the two met in round five way back on April 28.

It took a lastgasp try in the corner to Angus MacCallum to break the deadlock and give Wakatipu the 83 win.

These two sides have a good buffer on the chasing pack; Upper Clutha (49) leads Wakatipu (47) by two points with three roundrobin fixtures remaining in the competition.

Cromwell (38) travels to Ranfurly to take on Maniototo (31) and will be hellbent on putting the events of last weekend behind it.

Cromwell no longer has the White Horse Cup, so the team only has competition points to worry about now.

Two weeks ago, Cromwell tipped up Wakatipu, thereby proving it is capable of beating anyone on its day, However, its team members will need to be on their toes to come away with a win tomorrow.

Maniototo is still in the hunt for a topfour finish and completed a good win over Alexandra last week. Cromwell will be a step up for the Ranfurlybased side that went down 1612 in the round five clash.

Arrowtown (37) will have its first defence of the White Horse Cup when cellar dweller Alexandra (6) comes to town. Arrowtown was too good for Cromwell last week and will be keen to stamp its mark on the latest chapter of the prestigious competition.

Arrowtown should be too big up front and too fast out wide for an Alexandra side that has shown glimpses of its capabilities this season but this is the White Horse Cup and all form goes out the door.

Alexandra has nothing to lose and this contest will be closer than some pundits are predicting.

Clyde Earnscleugh (12) hosts Matakanui Combined (6) at the Clyde Domain in what will be a good contest between these two proud clubs.

Both sides have had frontrow number problems during the season, forcing them to default games that would have taken place had the rules been worded slightly differently.

There is plenty of talent scattered throughout both sides, such as Dean Sinnamon, Baylee Sloss and Harry Wilding for Matakanui Combined and Tom Dougherty and Matt Griffiths for Clyde Earnscleugh to ensure this will be a good contest.