During winter tournament week of 2019 the Roncalli Under 15 Colts rugby team travelled to Tai Tapu, near Christchurch, to participate in the annual Co-Ed South Island Under 15 Rural Livestock Rugby tournament. This year saw 23 teams from across the island competing in two pools.

The Roncalli team, competing in section 1 of the competition, started the first day well, very nearly causing an upset against the highly rated Dunstan High School team. After leading 6-0 with 4 minutes to play the team was unlucky in conceding two tries, the last one well into injury time, to go down 10-6 to the eventual finalists. The second game was against Gore High School, who had a big size advantage. After being tied 12-12 at halftime Roncalli fell away in the second half, going down 31-12 in a very physical encounter.

Day two saw two tough games against South Otago High School and Rolleston College. Roncalli lost 19-5 against South Otago first up and then produced a great game of running rugby against Rolleston, trailing 21-19 at halftime before letting in 3 late tries.

The final day saw two 20 minute games. Roncalli drew 14-14 with Ashburton after a tit-for-tat game that saw the lead change hands multiple times. Our final game of the tournament was against Rangiora, which we lost 12-5 in another tight match up.

Our young team competed well throughout the tournament, showing plenty of heart, often against older and bigger teams, and with the majority of the side still eligible next year they will be much better for the experience of this year.

A huge thank you to coaches Simon Richards and Dan Gallagher, and to our managers Maria Clark and Jo King, for giving up their time to help with this team and for doing such a great job in their various roles.

Also a big congratulations to William Laing and Petelo Faha who were named in the overall tournament team. This is an excellent accomplishment and a good acknowledgement of the perseverance, spirit and ability that our team showed throughout the tournament. William Laing was also named as the Roncalli College MVP for the tournament.

Team List: James Atwill, Harry Boston, George Clark, Patrick Divan, Mac Eaton, Petelo Faha, Alimau Fiso, Joshua Gallagher, Reagan Jamieson, Tyson John, Sam Jones, Cody Kereopa, Cameron King, William Laing, Maika Mason, Noah Oudemans, Ashton Piner, Oliver Richards, Homai Tamaiparea, Kahu Tuite (c), Luca Tyler-De Har, Josh van Emmenis