Another stellar season from the Upper Clutha Rams, going back-to-back in the Central Otago premier rugby competition and once again claiming the Otago Countrywide title.

They’ve also held on to the famous White Horse Cup and secured the Vincent Shield, no small feat in a region steeped in rugby pride.

It’s hard to beat those big crowds at the Wanaka Showgrounds, good voices, strong support, and of course, the traditional sideline boxes of fizz being shared. 

You do wonder, though, how long that will continue, especially in light of some crowd behaviour concerns starting to crop up up north. A ban on sideline alcohol nationwide? That would go down like a warm fish milkshake in this part of the world.

Credit where it’s due: coach Alex Dickson and his crew deserve massive kudos. Not only did they get the Rams up for a hard-fought local final, but they backed it up with another gutsy win over Clutha the following weekend. No doubt there was another classic ‘Mad Monday’ in full swing after that one!

Thinking back to when I arrived in Queenstown in the late ’80s, the rugby landscape looked a little different, but no less intense. 

I remember watching those brutal, stirring battles between Wakatipu and Matakanui. I wasn’t playing Prems at the time, fresh off the plane from a bigger-town comp in Hawke’s Bay, but it was a fierce intro to Central Otago footy. 

The Flannery boys, Father Martin from time to time, and the Duncan lads were like ambling slabs of granite for Matak. Wakatipu fielded names like Stephen Boyd (S-Bend), Graeme “Buckets” Jones, the Colonel Ron Drake, and Spud Murphy.

Those clashes had echoes of Hatfields vs. McCoys, Ali vs. Frazier, or the Battle of Culloden, no quarter given, plenty of blood and teeth left on the paddock. That was country rugby at its raw best. Let’s not forget Gimmerburn-Patearoa, when they were on, it was all on.

These days, Upper Clutha, Wakatipu, Alexandra, and Cromwell have led the way, with the Maggots and Bulls sniffing around too. But dare we dream of a Matakanui Mudfish comeback? A return to that ferocious history I was lucky enough to witness?

Here’s hoping.

That’s my view from the sideline.