Central Otago club rugby’s prized White Horse Trophy does not move around a lot, but it found a new owner on Saturday when a fired-up Wakatipu team outplayed Upper Clutha at the Wanaka Domain, winning 35-20.
Upper Clutha had been in possession of the trophy, which dates to 1926, since April of last year and before that it sat resplendent in Cromwell’s trophy cabinet for three seasons.
Given that Upper Clutha had pieced together 13 straight victories last season before coming unstuck in the grand final against Alexandra, and put together another seven convincing wins this year with an average winning score of 41-12, few expected things to change on Saturday.
But Upper Clutha was outmuscled and eventually outsmarted by a Wakatipu lineup that scored five cracking tries, although the home team hung in doggedly until the second half, largely because of woeful goalkicking by Wakatipu.
Losing hooker Fergus Smith to the sin bin six minutes into the second half was costly for Upper Clutha and while he was absent Wakatipu went ahead 23-13.
A cracking try by winger Tomas Jarman, his seventh of the season, briefly gave the Upper Clutha fans hope as the score closed to 20-23.
Almost immediately the Wakatipu backs shredded Upper Clultha’s defence, producing a stunning try by standout midfielder Rube Peina, which he converted from the touchline.
Upper Clutha tried valiantly to respond but turned the ball over and, in a flash, the Wakatipu backs made light of the home defence yet again for their fifth try, this one to replacement winger Xavier Sadler.
There were many heroes for the challengers, but those who caused Upper Clutha the most grief were halfback James Valentine, midfielders Peina and Laitia Rogorogoivalu, winger James Natapu and flanker Thomas Ria.
Loose forward Raf Tuhura came on as a sub to make his 150th appearance, having first worn the Wakatipu jersey in 2012.
Coach Jordan Manihera was over the moon with his team’s performance.
"We genuinely believed we could win the famous trophy," he said.
"We’d trained the house down, knew what specific skills were required and put them into play."
There was drama at Arrowtown, too.
The home team, 33-34 behind Matakanui Combined with only seconds remaining, managed a last-gasp try to halfback Rhodri Gerrard to win 40-34.
And at Anderson Park, Cromwell crashed from 22-nil up at halftime against Maniototo to be 22-24 behind with 18 minutes to play.
That is how it remained until Cromwell’s standout back Rhys Harrold landed a close-range penalty in the 79th minute for a 25-24 victory.
When they met in the first round, Maniototo won 29-27.
Cromwell manager Russell Decke drolly observed that after starting Saturday in fifth place, Cromwell won and now sits sixth.
"Arrowtown has edged ahead of us through taking a bonus point," but it’s an intriguing competition behind the first two, with only two points covering the third and sixth teams," he said.
A notable contributor to Arrowtown’s victory was fullback Blair Foster, back home after a season in Europe. He converted five of his team’s six tries.
The Central Otago competition has week off for King’s Birthday Weekend and will resume again on June 8 when Wakatipu will defend the White Horse Trophy against Arrowtown in a grand local derby.
By Bob Howitt
