Arrowtown Bulls “just switched off”

Two losses, two very different reactions.

Both the Arrowtown and Wakatipu Premiers rugby sides lost last weekend, the former beaten 26-13 at home by Cromwell, the latter losing away to Alexandra, 3-0.

However, while Arrowtown coach Simon Harper was disappointed, his Wakatipu counterpart hailed an entertaining game despite the ridiculously-low points score.

Harper — himself a former Cromwell coach — was annoyed with his side’s lack of application, saying ‘‘we just switched off’’ after scoring an early try.

With Cromwell losing seven players to Covid, he agrees they were there for the taking.

‘‘Unfortunately, a few of the boys knew that, and I think that was on their mind.

‘‘But Cromwell, they’re a tight-knit bunch of boys who’ve been playing together a long time, they’re all going to play for each other, and we sort of haven’t developed that yet, at a consistent level.’’

Harper says they were missing three key players, ‘‘but it’s no excuse, the boys just needed to step up, and they didn’t’’.

Having now played seven games for only two wins — and an unlucky draw — today’s away game against Matakanui Combined is ‘‘just a must-win’’.

‘‘I think they’re all must-wins from here on in.’’

Meanwhile, despite their narrow loss to Alex, whom they also lost 11-10 to, in their season-opener, Wakatipu weren’t too disheartened.

Halfback James Valentine says ‘‘it was one of those games you come off at the end, and even though it was a loss you kind of went, ‘wow, we actually threw the kitchen sink at that’’’.

Coach Brett Anderson says 3-0 might sound like a boring game, ‘‘but it actually was a really entertaining game to watch, even for me, and it went right down to the last minute’’.

He adds the Southland referee, Joshua Hamill, was ‘‘outstanding’’.

‘‘It just contributed to it being a really enjoyable game to watch, and the boys enjoyed playing it even though we didn’t quite get the result.’’

Anderson says they’re looking forward to a bye this weekend before the return derby against Arrowtown at King’s Birthday Weekend.

‘‘I think [the break’s] come at the perfect time for us, we’re starting to struggle to get 23 players together each week.’’

Meanwhile, the Wakatipu High 1st XV, who lost 55-10 to Southland Boys’ last weekend, played at home this afternoon, against Oamaru’s Waitaki Boys’ — the result determining which of the two teams stays in the Otago School Rugby Championship’s top-six division for round two.

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