On the 31st of August, the 1st XV Rugby Team travelled up to Palmerston North for the NZSS National Top 4 Rugby Tournament.

We managed to place 3rd in the whole of New Zealand after an amazing weekend. This trip was a fun and emotional one for our Year 13's as we played our last season of 15-a-side rugby for the school. We flew into Wellington and then travelled to Palmerston North by bus. The views in Wellington were beautiful - the buildings, the blue water, everything just looked stunning. Once we had arrived in Palmerston North we checked in to our accommodation, settled in, and had some chilled-out time before the captains run. We walked down to the field just down the road to go through moves to prepare ourselves for our semi-finals against Manukura the next day.

What an emotional day it was, our girls played extremely well. All of our girls gave it their all, they kept fighting until the end and never gave up. We shed a few tears at the end of the game, which showed how much it meant to us, even though we didn’t get the results we wanted. Our girls stayed strong and lifted each other up and the team bounced back well from our loss in the semi-final and everyone was very determined to win the 3/4th playoff.

We had a dinner where both boys and girls rugby teams competing at top 4 got to sit together in their jersey number. This was an opportunity for us to meet others in our positions from different schools across the country, and learn about each other's high school rugby experiences.

On our day off we had a few study periods, which ended up being movie time together in Miss Sisifa’s room. We had a few recovery sessions with Tom and did some stretches at the park followed by Miss Sisifa giving us some Zumba lessons at the pool. We then entered the exciting part of the pool session (free time), where Kelera and Fes begged our coach Livo to let us girls on the water slides. All the girls enjoyed the slides and unleashed our competitive sides - racing each other down the slides. We were then lucky enough to have the opportunity to hear from some NZ rugby staff and gain some insight into career pathways to becoming a professional women's rugby player in New Zealand.

After an emotional and heartfelt jersey presentation alongside our family and supporters on Saturday night, Sunday rolled around and we fueled up for a big game. In the morning we took on Mount Albert Grammar School from Auckland and managed to secure the win with a score of 15 - 5. We took our last photos, shed a couple more tears, and were proud and happy to finish the year on a high.

Thank you to Livo, Miss Sisifa, Mrs Daly, Tom, and Nicole for fostering an amazing rugby and support system for us girls - we all had an awesome weekend and it wouldn’t be the same without you all.