Alexandra fired out a warning to Central Otago front-runners Upper Clutha and Wakatipu with a heroic performance against Cromwell at Molyneux Park on Saturday.
Alexandra assured themselves the third qualifying spot with a memorable 35-24 victory against the team that had thumped them 26-5 earlier in the season.
Not only did they overwhelm Cromwell with their wholehearted attacking play, they did not concede any points when they had not one, but two, players despatched to the sin bin.
They were ahead 17-12 nine minutes into the second half when first five Cyress Hutchinson was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-down.
Two minutes later, with Alexandra still on a referee’s warning that the next offence would bring a sin-binning, halfback Ryan O’Neill joined him for being offside.
Coach Lee Wilson said later the "man management" that followed made him immensely proud.
Flanker Taura Wilson took over at halfback while midfielder Michael Murtagh-Loader moved into first five.
And captain and centre Tyler Ford once again donned his Superman cloak.
While seemingly having the game at their mercy, Cromwell could not get their hands on the ball.
Alexandra had it and they were not it giving it away.
Incredibly, the only points scored while 13 played 15 came from a Ford penalty that advanced the score to 20-12.
A deflated Cromwell then put their restart out on the full, conceding possession to Alexandra, who, now 14 strong, stormed on to attack from where prop William Holdom scored. That made it 27-12.
Before Cromwell had recovered from that setback, Ford pulled off a scorching break in midfield to put fullback Nathan Hook across for yet another try.
For good measure, Ford added a late penalty, giving him 15 points for the game, and 98 for the season.
Cromwell’s chances of qualifying for the play-offs are now extremely slim as their remaining game is against pacemakers Upper Clutha.
They are equal on points with Maniototo who accounted for Matakanui Combined at Omakau on Saturday 38-7 and whose final qualifying game is against sixth-placed Arrowtown.
Upper Clutha guaranteed themselves top spot for the playoffs with a convincing 48-24 victory over Arrowtown at Jack Reid Park on Friday.
The final score provides a deceptive indication of how the game unfolded, because most of the Arrowtown players did not switch their batteries on until well into the second half.
Arrowtown, fresh from a stirring 43-47 performance against Cromwell, could not have started worse.
They dropped the first three high balls, scarcely won a first-half lineout and missed a stack of tackles.
Upper Clutha were coasting at 27-5 at halftime, which became 48-5 with just over 20 minutes to play. It was all doom and gloom for the home fans.
But Arrowtown captain and first five Ryan Egerton had not given up.
He implored his team to up their game, which they did, dramatically so, winning the final quarter 19-0.
However, the heroes of the day, Egerton apart, were Upper Clutha players Ben McKeich, the powerhouse prop who retired injured after scoring his eighth try of the season, locks Lachlan Garrick and Andrew Horne, No 8 Jake Burtenshaw, halfback Brady Kingan and outside backs Oliver Sterling, Sean Murray and Tomas Jarman.
— Bob Howitt
