Everyone was in agreement; it was a beautiful day for rugby in the Wakatipu and both our local premier grade rugby teams took full advantage of the favourable conditions, notching up important home-ground victories in the Central Otago Championship.
Arrowtown flew out of the changing sheds at Jack Reid Park, getting off to a perfect start, up 8-nil against Matakanui after 10 minutes thanks to a Kane Dodds penalty and Rhys Chamberlain try.
But Matakanui players have been big improvers in 2011 and before too long had a try of their own under the sticks, narrowing Arrowtown's lead to just a point.
While the rest of the first half was all one-way traffic on the score card in Arrowtown's favour, it was not so on the field.
Matakanui had its chances and blew them, whereas Arrowtown made every opportunity pay dividends to lead 23-7 at halftime.
Loose forwards Dan Iosefo and Aidan Winter both touched down, with Iosefo in tremendous form both on defence and with ball in hand.
In the second half, Arrowtown could hardly get out of its own half as Matakanui dominated territory and possession.
Resolute defence kept the White Horse Cup in Arrowtown with bootlace tackles snuffing out certain tries and heavy hits dislodging Matakanui ball at crucial times.
After battering away at the Arrowtown line for 30 minutes, Matakanui finally crossed to make the final 10 minutes interesting, but another last-minute try was not enough to overtake Arrowtown's first-half lead.
The final score was 23-17.
Meanwhile Matt Summerall produced a man-of-the-match performance in what was a fine team effort as Wakatipu beat Alexandra 32-7 at the Queenstown Rec Ground.
The win keeps Wakatipu firmly in the hunt for a semifinal spot in the Central Otago Championship. It will probably need to win at least two of its next three games to keep the dream alive, the most difficult playing top-of-the-table Maniototo.
