Ahead of the Wakatipu Premiers rugby side’s home semi against defending champs Alexandra this Saturday, halfback James Valentine doesn’t think too much can be read into their 27-0 thrashing of the same team in Alex last Saturday.
"We know finals footy is a lot different to the classic round robin [rugby], and, if anything, that [result] will kind of galvanise them a wee bit," he says.
"They’ll be coming back pretty fired up to come and try to do a job on us on our home ground."
Coach Jordan Manihera says Alexandra made a lot of errors Wakatipu capitalised on last Saturday, "so if you take those errors out of the game, it’s going to be a hell of a match this Saturday".
Regardless of the fact nothing was riding on last weekend’s game — Wakatipu and Alex were going to qualify for the finals in No 2 and No 3 positions, respectively, regardless of the result — Manihera was happy they kept Alexandra scoreless.
"Coming into finals footy now, defence wins championships, and keeping a side scoreless that we’ve got again this weekend was a pretty good accolade."
Another reason for Wakatipu not being complacent this Saturday is what happened last year, when Alex beat two teams in the finals — Cromwell, then Upper Clutha — they’d lost to earlier in the season.
Meanwhile, Valentine says the team’s enjoying a great environment this year.
"The coaches [Manihera and assistant Kapa Te Rangi Moeke] sat us down at the start of the year, they asked us, ‘what do you guys want to achieve this year?’
"So it was really player-led but facilitated by the coaches, and I think that’s led into this really good feeling in camp.
"We’re all working together towards a common goal of trying to do something pretty cool this season."
Winning the White Horse Cup was "a nice to have", Valentine says "but the real thing for us is to get through this week and finish the job in a couple of weeks’ time."
