With the trip down to Napier for the 2022 Premier National Tournament after its 2-year hiatus due to COVID, the 1st XI was excited to test themselves against the country's best school teams again.

The first day on Monday saw two games and with a 2-0 win versus Waimea College with goals from Cayden Buitendach and Connor Cloete and a 2-0 win versus St Peters from Auckland, with a double from Liam Jessep, meaning a successful start that we were after had been achieved.

The Tuesday morning saw us play Otago Boys' High School, where a draw would have kept us on top of the pool. A 0-0 draw enabled this to happen.

The cross-over Round of 16 game was the key now to see how far we would go in the tournament. Mount Albert Grammar, coached by one of Mr Scott’s ex-coaches, was a bridge too far. Some dubious decisions in which four penalties were awarded in the game (two to both teams) saw our 1st XI lose 3-1 and out of the running for the top spot. Jafar Ali scored the penalty.

We picked ourselves off the canvas and played the highly favoured Westlake side for the 9th-16th playoff. A better performance ensued, but a 0-0 full-time score saw the game go to penalties. Although goalkeeper Conor Jamieson was valiant and saved a couple, their goalkeeper did the same too, and we lost 4-3 in sudden death.

Fortunately, with the loss, we played for 13th-16th the next day. The reward when we played the number one team in Auckland Sacred Heart was that it would be live-streamed and played on Park Island’s Bluewater Stadium. A well-played game blighted by the non-scoring from us again saw us go to penalties again for the second day in a row. We lost 7-6 in sudden death, again down to their goalkeeper making 1 more save than ours.

Our final game was for 15th place against Macleans College. A spirited performance, but one where both teams struggled for energy, saw us win 2-0 and claim 15th place in the tournament.

Attached are our Tournament Week photos, including one of the 2022 team and one of the new initiatives of having a Pride round at the tournament in which our Captain Latham Magele was photographed with the Macleans goalkeeper.