Mid Canterbury Combined’s Sam Ree clears the ball under pressure from the Lincoln Combined defence during his side’s loss on Saturday. Photo Erin TaskeIt was cold, wet and muddy, but Mid Canterbury Combined didn’t mind.

In fact, the young rugby side relished the conditions and produced one of their better performances so far this season, bouncing back from two pretty substantial losses to just go down 17-5 to Lincoln Combined on the Ashburton College field on Saturday.

It meant that the combination side from Ashburton College and Mount Hutt College was still yet to pick up a win in the 2019 Crusaders secondary school region’s UC Championship, but to only lose by 12 to a top six side wasn’t too bad, coach Brent Middleton said.

The week before the Mid Canterbury side had ended up on the wrong end of what looked more like a cricket score, 108-0 against a polished Christchurch Boys’ High School side in Methven, so their latest performance was a step back in the right direction.

Lincoln led 12-0 at halftime, but Mid Canterbury Combined had the better of the second half, Middleton said.

They scored a try through second-five Mark Gabriel, and almost had a second right under the posts, but it was disallowed due to an incorrectly taken tap.

“If you take that try underneath the posts, if that tap was taken correctly, all of a sudden it would’ve been 12-all and anyone’s game,” Middleton said.

Instead, Lincoln scored a late try to seal it.

But Middleton and co-coaches Andrew Morgan and Warren Donald weren’t altogether unhappy.

“At the end of the day we were rapt with the way they played well as a team and stuck to the game plan,” Middleton said.

Persistent rain and a cold wind made life difficult for both sides, with mud and water flying everywhere, and Middleton said having to adjust to those conditions meant that they probably couldn’t spread the ball wide as much as they wanted to.

But, rugby was a winter sport and sometimes conditions were like that.

Middleton said being able to stick with a side like Lincoln, which currently sits in sixth on the UC Championship table, gave Mid Canterbury Combined confidence.

“It was nice to come across a side that was similar in size to us,” Middleton said.

“They have got a big catchment area to call on, players come from Darfield, Ellesmere, Lincoln and Akaroa – it’s not just Lincoln – so it’s quite a big catchment and there’s quite a bit of depth there and that’s why they were quite successful last year, and why they are going pretty well this year.”

Mid Canterbury Combined would now turn their attention to their next match, which is one they are targeting for a win.

This Saturday they host Roncalli College in Ashburton, and the Timaru side is just one spot ahead of Mid Canterbury Combined at the bottom of the leaderboard with one win to their name so far.

Meanwhile, Timaru Boys’ High School moved up a couple of places on the leaderboard on Saturday with their first win of the season against St Thomas, and up the other end of the table the only unbeaten side so far is St Andrew’s College.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 4 June 2019