Over the weekend of 19th and 20th November our Head Boy, Orlando Tuhega-Vaitupu and his brother Jeremiah Tuhega-Vaitupu (Year 10), flew up to Auckland to play in the Pacific Nations Touch Competition and represent their mothers heritage by playing for Niue in the U16 Boys team (Jeremiah) and Open Men’s team (Orlando and Jeremiah). 

This was a tournament that saw games against other Pacific nations, Tonga, Cook Islands, Samoa and NZ Māori. The standard of Touch was high. 

Friday was the day for the juniors from U12-U16 teams. Jeremiah played in the U16 Boys team and was instrumental in providing wins against Tonga 10-4, and Cook Islands 6-5, but narrowly losing to Samoa 5-6. Jeremiah was named MVP for the Niuean U16 Boys team at the end of the tournament, with his leadership and strategic play by understanding the defence and manipulating them to his advantage.

Saturday was the Opens Men’s and Women’s day where both boys played. Orlando and Jeremiah were against the odds, noting they had not played with a lot of the players in their team. They first played Cook Islands, which were a team with high calibre players going down 6-10 to them. 

Second game was against the NZ Māori who had plenty of NZ Open reps and some classy players, and coached by 'Mr Touch' – Peter Walters. 

Both boys showed class and were able to match their opposition, with Orlando grabbing a few tries but in the end went down 5-8. The next two games were against Samoa and Tonga. The Samoa game started well, but the weather had turned from just being overcast to lightening, thunder and torrential heavy rain. For the safety of all players, they called the tournament off.

It was a great display of talent on offer over the weekend, and great for Orlando and Jeremiah to be a part of, with pacific flare and culture all around them. This is an annual tournament which strives to provide Pacific children avenues to play.