A real and genuine display of a strong community

On a stunning Christchurch winter morning Suburbs RFC and Hillmorton HS had their combined Rugby Club Day at Hoon Hay Park on Saturday 3rd July. In the first two games of the day the Suburbs U17 Girls had a very successful win against a competitive Kaiapoi/North Canterbury team. The girls defended superbly, led by Skye Collins as they managed to keep the opposition scoreless. Again Binky Muamua and Morita Duane were outstanding on attack. The Hillmorton Tigers U12 team played a strong Sumner team yet they applied pressure in the first half with strong defence and some well executed backline plays to be up 3 tries to nil at halftime. Although Sumner came back in the second half the Tigers remained in front and finished victorious. In the later games both the U14 and U15 Hillmorton HS teams played two very competitive boys schools teams - Christchurch Boys and St Andrews. The U14s had a number of scoring opportunities but were unable to finish and on two occasions CBHS turned the ball over and scored a couple of break away tries. The U14s went down 32 - 14. The U15s were up against a St Andrews team who had recently come down from Div 1 and had involvement from the Crusaders coach Scott Robertson from the sideline. The U15s scored first with a well executed backline play. Unfortunately that was to be the last time they scored as St Andrews played with greater vigour utilising their strong and fast backline to score a number of tries. Overall it was a successful Club Day with massive support from both club, school and the community. It was fantastic to see a number of parents, grandparents, ex-pupils and staff supporting all teams in a respectful manner. Thanks to the supporters, coaches, managers, officials and all those people behind the scenes that made the day possible. It was a real and genuine display of a strong community. Huge shout out to Robbie Fruean who came down to training after club day to give the boys a talk on the importance of being proud of where you come from, the importance of the people around you and working hard at training. His encouraging words were very timely for both teams.