The Wrap
Is it my imagination or is the comp tightening up? No blowout scores, with the biggest margin being seven points. Dunedin had enough ball and territory to win three games up at Bastion Point but Zingari defended like the Boers at Rorke's Drift - well they may have been English - but I digress.
Suffice it to say Zingers were tough. GI went over Saddle Hill to the Eelpit and with 10 to go the upset was on over Taieri. But alas Taieri scored twice late, the clincher a howler of an error on full-time.
Thus the Eels registered their first win. Is Alhambra-Union becoming the Lee Westwood (last week I'd have gone with Sergio!) of club rugby?
So near yet so far! It just can't get it done and at the weekend the Magpies scored well after the final whistle to dash its hopes once again. Kaik bounced back from its big loss to the Sharks and at Seahorse Stadium looked the winner over Harbour.
But it was not to be and Harbour, on the back of two late tries, claimed its third straight win. The top four of Dunedin, Southern, Varsity and Harbour have a 10 point gap on the rest, but it is very early days and it's a long season.
Des's Diary
Overworked president extraordinaire Des Smith had another busy week on the road. In fact I think I'll approach one of our key sponsors, Don Harvey from RD Petroleum, and get him to flick the big guy a fuel card, he's doing so many kilometres.
He was at Hancock Park for a school kids rugby morning, then poked his nose into Peter Johnstone Park where all the Taieri and GI teams played, starting at 10am - wonderful initiative, by the way.
Then out into the sticks to watch West Taieri (it finally got a game after the Kaik default) give Pirates a bit of a towelling in the Prem II game.
Worrying signs for Pirates' only male senior side as it has given up 110 points in the first two weeks. On a more poignant note, Des found time to make it to the funeral of Jenna Craig and Tom Evans, in Balclutha. They were the young couple involved in the tragic microlight accident. Tom was a prop for the Owaka side. May they rest in peace.
Just When You Thought I'd Finished!
Now last week I had a rant about Portsmouth Drive, but before you get to that minefield, have you tried to get out of Every St for the last six months?
Before you say ''what has this got to do with rugby?'', well, it makes me late every Saturday and doing a Speight's/ODT Rugby Chat from my car is like A Nightmare on Elm Street!
Last October, with GigaTown rattling around our ears, they ripped up Every St and it was closed for three or four weeks - fair enough. They then resealed it and left but then the water and drainlayer boys stormed in and ripped it up again. Then it was closed through to Christmas.
Then they resealed it and we thought we had our street back. How silly we were to think that. Mid-January they're back and ripped the street up again and it is still closed today. The word is they will be finished what they are doing (and God knows what that is!) by the end of May. That's just eight months.
Questions: 1. Have they heard of co-ordination? 2. How much is this costing, considering the hourly rate of plumbers and drainlayers is just behind heart surgeons (Dick Bunton assures me they are ahead of surgeons!)? 3. Do we have to do this to every street (excuse the pun) in Dunedin? A word of advice, do South Dunedin last, as it will be under water by then! Who is running this asylum?
Country Rugby
No rugby in Central Otago this weekend, because with the demise of Roxburgh they don't need to play at Easter. Wakatipu could be the mover and shaker up there, after comfortably dispatching defending Premiers Cromwell by 20 to remain unbeaten. Arrowtown tripped up at Clyde and Maniototo lost again at home, this time to the Wanaka boys. Where does coach Hore go from here? Bring back Charlie, problem solved!
No rugby in South Otago either, mainly because they are very religious down that way! But the big game is coming up the following week, when the two unbeaten teams go at it, Crescent and Clutha. Remember, last year the Kai boys inflicted the only loss for the season on the Steamers and they declared a six week national holiday in Kai!
All the silverware is up for grabs, the Speight's Cup and the McKintosh Cup, as Crescent took them off Lawrence two weeks ago. There are so many going down for the clash, most people will have to park in Balclutha and walk because there are only three car parks in Kai!
They'll be playing banjos in the street, have finger and toe counting and possibly the Topp Twins. It will be big, mark my words - Mayor Bryan Cadogan is contemplating putting an extra lane on the highway to cope with the traffic.
Speaking of the McKintosh Cup, it was sitting in Lawrence's bulging trophy cabinet over summer and Big Willis Paterson (who is not the sharpest tool in the shed) saw it and thought mistakenly Clutha actually held it and sent it back to Balclutha. Clutha knew it wasn't theirs but sent it off to the engravers! Luckily Willis was alerted to the error in time and rescued said trophy.
They are playing over Easter in North Otago, with probably unbeaten Excelsior v Maheno the big game. Maheno was thrashed last weekend by beaten finalist Old Boys but it had a few out and the imports haven't arrived yet.
The word is Jacko (CEO) has got so many imports coming in he's hired his own 747 and he's just waiting for the airport extension to be finalised.
There is a bit of eyebrow-raising going on in schools rugby up there though - to be fair, mainly Waitaki eyebrows. St Kevin's has a youngster in Folau Tokai who is playing premier rugby for the Athies and will only play for St Kevin's in the interschool games. Interesting ...
Snippets
Waisake Naholo was going to be turning out for Harbour tonight against the Sharks at Kettle Park. Abramovich (Lance Spence) must have come on as a major sponsor of the Highlanders to get his hands on Naholo and Tevita Li!
Big Eric V must have thought justice had been done when GI could smell the upset over the Eels at the weekend. If you recall, Eric was unbelievably sacked from the Eels mid season last year and has been helping out Dean Moeahu at GI this year. I'm reliably informed they have five coaches at the Spannerheads. Dean, isn't that slight overkill?
I also hear Otago Boys had four players named in the Highlanders Under-18 sevens team to go to Aussie for a tourney recently and Coach Martin pulled them to play in a pre-season game - slightly draconian.
