The Girls' team were runners-up in the Wednesday Canterbury Secondary Schools' competition this year.
The Girls Rugby Team in 2017 again played as a combined team with Rangi Ruru. It was a successful season, ending with the girls being runners-up in the final against Christchurch GHS. The team’s overall record for the season was 9 wins and 3 losses. No. 8 Hille Janssen from Germany was the team captain, with the International Rugby Programme contributing a total of eight players to the team.
The local (Burnside) girls who made the most progress during the season were scrum-half Rico Kumagai and utility Irene Tugaga, with consistent performances from first-five Freya Aldridge and props Latai Kaufusi and Rosa Samuelu. Eva Daly also shows promise moving into 2018.
From the International Rugby Programme, in addition to Hille Janssen from Germany, Marlene Jahn from Austria and Anezka Sladkova from the Czech Republic, there were five Japanese girls, all of whom contributed admirably to the team’s success. They were Yui Obata (12), Haruka Kawabe (14), Wakana Miyata (13), Nanami Sugimoto (10/12), and Asuka Shinozaki (7). Hille Janssen, Anezka Sladkova and Rico Kumagai were all given awards for their efforts during the season.
The team was coached by John Mills and Brad Hemapo from Rangi Ruru and Mark Ealey from Burnside High, with occasional and very welcome assistance from Warwick Taylor. Dr. Sohei Takamori provided marvelous support as team doctor and video analyst, with Shuta Komai running the video cameras using a roster of boys from the International Rugby Programme. Janette Frier from Rangi Ruru was again a very effective manager.