Gutsy choice gives team a win not draw

WHEN your team trails by three points and you are awarded a penalty directly in front of the goalposts with time up, what should you do?

That was the dilemma facing Arrowtown rugby captain Blair Foster in the dying moments of its clash with Cromwell Goats at Jack Reid Park on Saturday.

Settle for a 1717 draw or risk everything in search of a matchwinning try?

‘‘Frankly, I wasn’t sure what to call, but the senior members of the side came to me and said they wanted to go for the win,’’ said Foster, who is comparatively new to the captaincy ranks.

‘‘So that’s what we did and we succeeded. It was gutsy but we made it happen.’’

Lochie Chambers, who was supposed to start at No 8 but finished up wearing the No 7 jersey when Jules Webley strained his hamstring in the warmup, scored the winning try, driven across by his fellow forwards.

Foster admitted to being ‘‘over the moon’’ with the 2117 win.

‘‘They are a key scalp, a team we haven’t beaten since 2019. We had the momentum against them and, frankly, should have had the game in the bag but we missed a lot of good scoring opportunities.’’

It was Cromwell’s distinguished midfielder Hayden Todd, who last season represented North Otago and the New Zealand Heartland team, who kept the Goats in the game. He not only landed four penalty goals but fully tested Arrowtown’s defence with a couple of his trademark breaks.

Arrowtown would have had only themselves to blame had they not escaped at the death.

They set up camp in the Goats’ 22 for much of the first spell, declining ever to kick the ball, but managed just two tries, to highenergy forwards Malcolm Sutherland and Price Imlach, who were dynamic along with the indefatigable Aidan Winter.

Winter has a 40th birthday coming up, but you would never guess. He plays more like two 20yearolds, and remarkably was still firing at the 80th minute when the game was won.

Other major contributors to the win which secures Arrowtown in third place, two points behind Wakatipu (whom they meet in Queenstown next Saturday) and Upper Clutha, were elusive winger Tim Goosey, hardrunning centre Tom Grandiek and prop Tom McKenzie.

Arrowtown played the final quarter with 17yearold Caleb Dixon at halfback.

Maniototo registered its second victory of the season, 1312, against Alexandra at Ranfurly, a relief after the covid outbreak had forced the team to default the previous weekend. Both its tries were scored by No 8 Sam Jopp.

Meanwhile, top teams Wakatipu and Upper Clutha went on tryscoring sprees at the expense of Matakanui Combined and Cromwell Cavaliers, respectively.

Wakatipu ran in nine tries, three to speedy winger Brooke Wilson, while Upper Clutha amassed 13 tries against the Cromwell Cavaliers. Ten of those tries were converted by Brady Kingan, which extended his aggregate in five matches to 66 points.

One of Upper Clutha’s tryscorers was halfback Jai Baxter, whose career appeared finished 12 months ago after he suffered a compound leg fracture.