The Upper Clutha Rugby Club premier team (the Rams) will play Wakatipu this weekend in the preliminary final of the Central Otago Rugby Championship, after a 41-24 win over Maniototo in Wanaka on Saturday (June 26).

The Rams scored seven tries against Maniototo with long periods of possession and territorial dominance, however their performance was once again marked by some poor discipline and concentration lapses.

The Rams started the match well, jumping out to a 29-7 lead - scoring at almost a point a minute - in a period of play marked by enterprising attack, forward dominance, and bruising defence. 

However, as has often been the case this season, the Rams failed to maintain their standard and Maniototo exploited some poor defence to score either side of halftime and then add a penalty to close the gap to 29-24.

A Ram’s push over try led to a dominant final quarter for the home team with top try scorer Henry Schikker picking up his seventh try of the season late in the match.

Rams fullback Henry Schikker scored his seventh try of the season against Maniototo on Saturday.

“One big thing with us is we fall into this rut of complacency and that’s around guys being happy enough with how we’re playing and not expecting the opposition to get back up”, Ram’s head coach Garry-John Hape said.

“This weekend everyone has to show up, everyone has a job to do and we can’t take our foot off the pedal.”

In recent weeks the Rams have played Wakatipu twice, losing on both occasions; 13-0 on May 29 and 17-15 on June 19. 

In both matches the Ram’s showed they can match it with the Queenstown based side but they will require a complete eighty minute effort if they are to win a place in the grand final and compete for the championship. The match will be played in Queenstown on Saturday (July 3).

In the other preliminary final Arrowtown ended Alexandra’s season with a 27-3 win. Arrowtown will play the unbeaten Cromwell Goats this weekend in Cromwell, with the winner progressing to the grand final.

Rams point scorers:

Tries: Brady Kingan, Tiare Murray, Scott Cuningham, Matthew Templeton, Sean Murray, Tom Hudson, Henry Schikker.

Conversions: Brady Kingan (3)

PHOTOS: Wanaka App