Mid Canterbury Combined’s Taurangi Te Ara Daniel gets caught in a Christ’s College tackle during his side’s loss in the latest round of rugby’s UC Championships.Schoolboy rugby challenges in Canterbury don’t come much tougher than playing Christ’s College one week followed by Christchurch Boys’ High School (CBHS) the next.

But that’s the reality for Mid Canterbury Combined. On Saturday they played Christ’s College and lost 69-3 and this weekend they’re up against a CBHS side fresh off a shock loss to St Thomas of Canterbury on Saturday.

Mid Canterbury Combined coach Brent Middleton said his players knew they’d be up against it for the second week running when they host CBHS at the Methven Domain this weekend.

“They’re coming off a loss and the other motivation for them will be this game against us is their last game before they play their big college clash against Christ’s College, so they won’t be putting their B team out against us,” Middleton said.

The Christ’s College side that came to Ashburton on Saturday was coached by ex-All Black Rueben Thorne and they were just too big and too slick for the home side.

“We were proud of the way they went. They showed great heart and they didn’t give up and they kept trying,” Middleton said.

“It was a classic case of they were up against a massive forward pack – they were big kids and they were simply bigger and stronger than us.

“They scored some easy tries through their big, strong ball runners but our guys, they weren’t scared or anything like that, they were up competing with them, but it was just a case of the big guys were better than the little guys, really.”

Mid Canterbury will again be the smaller team on the field on Saturday when they play CBHS.

“We are going to be looking down both barrels of the shotgun I reckon,” Middleton said.

“They will be pretty annoyed at getting beaten by St Thomas last Saturday.”

Middleton said Mid Canterbury Combined had a game plan of how to compete with the big boys and were focused on getting the basics right so that when opportunities did arise, they could capitalise on them.

The problem against some of the big sides in the competition was getting your hands on decent ball, so you had opportunities to do something with it, Middleton said.

But, in rugby, the favourite didn’t always win. CBHS were favourites to beat St Thomas last weekend, just as Lincoln Combined would have been before their loss to Timaru’s Roncalli College on Saturday.

Every one out there had two arms, and two legs, and anything was possible, Middleton said.

Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 23 May 2019