That’s Wakatipu Premiers rugby coach Jordan Manihera reflecting on three bonus wins to start the season, including a surprisingly-convincing 48-19 White Horse Cup win over Arrowtown last weekend — in glorious weather and in front of an impassioned Queenstown crowd.
Saturday’s game also marked winger Xavier Sadler’s 50th for the side.
"He’s an awesome man off the field and his family’s a massive part of our club," Manihera says.
"He’s a consistent performer and he doesn’t have the word ‘no’ in his vocabulary — he’s played halfback for us, midfield, outsides, and he’s just a great guy to have as part of our team.
"A lot of the emphasis was on the silverware on the day, but I think what got us to put out the performance we did was based on one of our brothers having such a milestone and achievement for the club."
Another story was big Alex Epati being called into training last Thursday, due to a prop shortage, and then scoring a bullocking try in reply to Arrowtown’s early five-pointer.
"Funny fact, he actually trained in bare feet because he lost his size-14 boots.
"We were really happy with the impact Alex gave the team and the commitment he showed.
"He’ll be fantastic if he got a bit fitter and ate a bit cleaner, but there’s always work-ons with big boys like that."
Fleet-footed fullback Conner Hamlin, who scored three tries, was Manihera’s player of the day.
"The crowd can see when people are scoring tries and doing cool passes and stuff, but it’s the work off the ball no one sees and the double actions we like.
"Conner is just a consistent player at a very high level who deserves, actually, a higher opportunity, hopefully this year.
"So, yeah, really happy with him to be part of not only the squad, but also part of our leadership group this year."
The comp breaks for Easter, during when Manihera’s getting married.
However, he adds the team still has work-ons if they’re going to get further than last season when they lost in the semis.
Meanwhile, Wakatipu Wanderers, whom Mataura defaulted to last weekend, play Mossburn away tonight.
Wakatipu Ladies, who lost 51-22 away to Gore’s Pioneer last Saturday, have a bye this weekend.
