West Coast Rugby Sevens

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On Tuesday, 14 John Paul II students competed in the West Coast Rugby Sevens Mini-Tournament. Held at Marist grounds in Karoro, the Boys' team took on Greymouth High and Buller High, while our girls combined with Greymouth High to take on Buller High.

The boys started strong against Greymouth High school, playing expansive rugby and keeping the ball alive through offloads, cuts, passing, and stretching the defense. Payton made three clean breaks in the first half alone, scoring two himself. A five-try romp, including some well worked team tries finished off by Jack and Eddie, had them winning 31-7, before a closely contested game against Buller that they probably deserved to lose if a Buller player didn't lose the ball in the act of scoring what should have been the winning try.

Mia Brake and Grace Motu, combining with the Greymouth High girls and two South Westland players, played a much more structured and aggressive style of rugby. Breakdowns were hotly contested with plenty of counter-rucking and attacking the fringes, testing the defense. Both teams had to work for any line breaks, often coming after six or more phases of sustained pressure. It was telling that the only serious injury of the day came from the girls' game - a nasty head knock between two defenders both crushing an attacking player into touch. A 15-10 victory over Buller in the first game, followed by a 17-10 repeat, was a fair reflection of the closeness between the two sides.

In the final games of the day, five different try scorers went over in a 34-10 thumping of Greymouth High School by the boys' team, before the team came up against a determined Buller side for what would decide the top team. The boys, remembering the remonstration they received from their supporters after a disappointing second game, started strongly with Reece, Matty, and Liam all scoring in the first half, before Payton and Liam both scored from distance in the second half to cruise to a more complete 29-17 win to seal the tournament.

The girls in their final game had a back-and-forth battle with Buller High. What started as a battle up front shifted to some more enterprising rugby out wide, with Mia running a nice line to bamboozle a defender and go in for the try that would seal the victory 26-17.

Special thanks to Maddy Crawford from Greymouth High for organising the day, in conjunction with Rob Maitland, the Rugby Development Officer for the West Coast, who was also one of the referees.