Arrowtown pays for midmatch mistakes
TOPQUALITY teams are usually at their most dangerous immediately before and after halftime.
Central Otago club champion Cromwell Goats gave a classic demonstration of this in beating arch rival Arrowtown 3317 when the club competition kicked off on Saturday.
Two minutes before halftime, Cromwell, with first use of the breeze, led just 1110 at home and was struggling to establish any authority in the game.
But from a scrum 30m out and near the touchline the home side uncorked one of those stunning manoeuvres for which the Highlanders are becoming famous.
An inpass to leftwinger Charlie Tiko so flummoxed the Arrowtown defenders he bolted through to the goalposts without a hand being laid on him, which allowed the Goats to go to the break leading 1810.
It still seemed anyone’s game, but in a nightmarish three minutes shortly after halftime Arrowtown’s winning hopes completely vanished.
First, an awful handling lapses inside its 22 presented the Goats with a gift try, which was compounded from the restart when a hopeful long pass was intercepted by firstfive eighth Rhys Harrold, arguably player of the day, who sprinted 70m to touch down beside the posts.
Ben Maxwell’s conversion made it 3010, meaning Arrowtown had conceded 19 points in nine minutes, and that was that.
Arrowtown outscored Cromwell 73 over the final 33 minutes but was left lamenting its costly errors before and after halftime. Although the team has lost several key players, its scrum and lineout strengths will ensure it remains competitive.
The result means the White Horse Trophy remains in the Cromwell trophy cabinet and, on Saturday’s performance, it is hard to see any challenger seizing it this season.
Next Saturday the Cromwell Goats travel to Queenstown to tackle Wakatipu.
The Cavaliers made it a memorable day for Cromwell by clawing back from 2313 to draw 2323 with Maniototo in the Anderson Park curtainraiser. A notable try scorer for the Cavaliers was 40yearold captain and prop Mike Driscoll.
Each team scored four tries and a penalty goal, but neither could manage a conversion.
The Upper Clutha players turned it on for new coach Garry Hape, scoring nine tries in swamping Matakanui Combined 510 at Wanaka, while Wakatipu scored five tries in beating a plucky Alexandra team 317 at Queenstown after leading 147 at the break.
Man of the match for Wakatipu was Jake McEwan, with strong performances from midfielder Rube Peina and fullback Chris Talanoa.