RUGBY League Year in Review
Canterbury Ruby Football League 9 aside
Year 7&8
Year 9&10
In a huge effort St Thomas of Canterbury
College retained their title, winning the Canterbury Secondary School Junior
Rugby League 9 aside for the second year in a row. Undefeated in pool play St
Thomas came up against a Linwood College team who weren't going to give an
inch. The game went into two periods of golden point - sudden death before St
Thomas forced a goal line drop out that Linwood put out on the full. Kicking to
win the game from directly in front, the kick deflected of the post, however
quick ball movement resulted in a try in the corner.
Having effectively played an extra game St
Thomas went into the final against a large
Shirley Boys High School team that had steamrolled their opposition. Some great tactical kicking and aggressive defence saw STCC quickly go three tries up, and some great defence shut SBHS out, until Elisara Vaifale sealed the win with a runaway try right on the fulltime hooter.
Shirley Boys High School team that had steamrolled their opposition. Some great tactical kicking and aggressive defence saw STCC quickly go three tries up, and some great defence shut SBHS out, until Elisara Vaifale sealed the win with a runaway try right on the fulltime hooter.
Seniors
The year started with the Canterbury Rugby
Football League 9 Aside tourney and with 5 senior players away it was going to
be a big ask to repeat last years victory and so it proved. A first up loss to
Aranui High School was repeated in the final with our boys going down to the
Aranui academy side in the final 10-6. Some moments of great defence and
attack, and when we put it all together, we were awesome.
For the first time St Thomas was in the Premier
grade at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rugby League Tournament, and drawn
into what had been dubbed the “pool of death”. Apart from our first match against
Westlake BHS (3rd place) 12-34, our largest losing margin was 6
points. Inexperience, and perhaps a lack of self belief meant we couldn’t close
several matches and went down to Tamaki College (5th place)16-22,
Avondale College 20-22 (10th place), Papatoetoe (13th
place) 16-17, before thumping Manukura, and placing 15th.
Most of our players will be back next year, and
believe we can make the semis, so bring it on!
Other highlights of the year were 14 students
attending the Warriors South Island trial - Jalen Tangiiti-Turner, Seth
Tauamiti, Brodie Floris, Sua Aiiloilo, Tahemaka Nui, Klayton Waikato Domanyc Fidow-Kele,
Malyche Tafili, Caius Faatili, Zach Amituanai, Elisara Vaifale, Jordan
Mehlhopt, Josh Vaifale, Josh Reihana.
Later Domanyc Fidow-Kele and Zinzan Martin were
selected to attend the 2016 NZRL National Performance Camp in Rotorua. This
camp culminated in NZ 16’s and 18's trials.
A special thanks to Paul Ruri and sir Peter
Leitch for their generous donations to our raffle, and to Paul for taking the
time out and coming over from Australia to assist us with training, to Shanna
Taula for a massive fundraising effort, to Rugby League Coaching Manuals for
their sponsorship, and to Brendan Biggs, Brian Roughan, Moresby Peseta and
Delane Luke for helping run our senior side at National Tourney.
Representative
honours
South Island
Scorpions 17’s
Jalen Tangiiti-Turner,Seth Tauamiti, Brodie
Floris, Sua Aiiloilo, Tahemaka Nui, Keanau Newson, Domanyc Fidow-Kele, Malyche
Tafili, Zinzan Martin
South Island
Scorpions 15’s
Caius Faatili C, Zach Amituanai, Tuhaka Pooley
and Elisara Vaifale VC
Canterbury 13s
Felix Faatili, Finley Esera, Eruera
Keelan-Jackson, Tyler Bruce, Mekhye Wiparata
Canterbury 12s
Jacob Nyman, Cooper Te Hau, Felix Faatili and
Finley Esera
Canterbury Maori
Jalen Tangiiti-Turner, Seth Tauamiti, Brodie
Floris Tahemaka Nui, Keanau Newson, Cameron Brody Greig,
Canterbury
Secondary Schools
Amani Ah Kuoi, Jordan Mehlhopt, Joshua Vaifale,
Sebastian Pelenato, Taani Taufa, TJ Belford
Looking Ahead
Next year we will be looking at matches for junior
and senior sides against West Coast and Otago sides, 2 tours by North Island
School teams, a possible South island Tournament, and returning and making our
mark on the premier grade at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Tournament. Roll
on 2017!
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