Good time for comp break

• Published date: 20 May 2021
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

Arrowtown’s Dan Eyles says the break will allow his side to get over a ‘‘heartbreaking’’ loss to Upper Clutha, while Wakatipu’s Brett Anderson says it gives more time for four frontliners to recover from injury.

Arrowtown were on the way to beating Upper Clutha for the sixth time in a row last Saturday before conceding a last-minute penalty to lose 27-25.

‘‘It’s a disappointing one to probably let slip, it felt like we were in control for most of the game,’’ Eyles says.

‘‘We just probably let ourselves down with a few handling errors and then some crucial penalties at the wrong time.

‘‘I guess that’s just rugby, isn’t it?’’

However, he says the side can take a lot out of it, considering they were playing what he believes is the comp’s top side on their home turf in Wanaka.

‘‘It just shows we’re there, or thereabouts.’’

Having now lost three of their first five games doesn’t help their position on the points table, however Eyles says they could be helped by the new NRL-style finals format which gives lower-placed sides a chance of qualifying.

Wakatipu, meanwhile, recovered from their loss to Maniototo by convincingly beating Matakanui 43-8 at home last Saturday.

The score, however, belies the fact Matakanui were 8-0 up after 20 minutes.

After that, Anderson says his players ‘‘started realising why the game plan was there, and when we started applying...