A 24-18 win against St Kevin’s College at home in Wanaka on Saturday 20 July means the Mt Aspiring College First XV have finished in sixth place in the first round of the Otago Premier Schools competition. With both teams in the hunt for a place in the middle four bracket of the 12-team competition, it was a hard-fought battle right to the final whistle.

“It was an ugly win, we made it hard for ourselves but we’ll take it,” said co-coach Craig Read. “We took a few wrong options. When a team’s putting pressure on you, you do tend to make those wrong options.”

Feeling the pressure in the first ten minutes, MAC gave away the first points, opening up an opportunity for St Kevin’s to take a penalty kick. Once they got their hands back on the ball, there were two slick tries to Fergus Read — then Jack East came as a good confidence boost for the Wanaka side.

It took a strong defensive effort to contain the big ball runners on the St Kevin’s team but the MAC players gelled well and didn’t shy away from the big tackles. St Kevin’s managed to get two tries over the line but a try to MAC’s Milan Martinovich put the home team six points ahead at 19-13 at half time.

With everything still to play for, the second half turned into a slugfest, MAC battling hard for their fourth try only to have it answered by an opposition try minutes later. The sideline supporters were feeling the nerves as the clock ticked down, but the MAC players kept their cool, keeping the ball in close and denying the opposition any opportunity for last-minute points and retaining a six-point lead at the end.

“It’s great to get the win; the boys thoroughly deserve to get in to the middle four,” said co-coach Craig Read. “It was a great all-round team effort.”

MAC will now face three very evenly matched games in round two of the competition, coming up against fifth placed Dunstan High School next week (Saturday July 27) in Alexandra, Waitaki Boys (eighth place) in Wanaka on August 3 and Otago Boys High Seconds (seventh place) in Dunedin on August 10.

At the end of yesterday’s match Fergus Read and Lachie MacDonald received their caps for their twentieth games for the MAC First XV.