The boys competed in the National Tournament held in Wellington from Thursday 28 August till Sunday 31 August.

After finishing as winners of the North Island regional championship, the boys were very determined to finish higher than last year’s 7th position.

Leaving early on Thursday morning, the bus trip down to Wellington was full of excitement. We were met with typical Wellington weather, but even this couldn’t dampen our spirits. Friday saw us playing two pool games against Mahurangi College and Hutt Valley High School, which we won easily 10 - 0 for both games.

Saturday morning had us playing the rest of our remaining two pool games and some other knockout games. 

The first game against a very strong Wellington College was a 4 all draw. Last pool game was against Nelson College (At this point, they haven’t conceded a point and won all their games by some margins). We scored first. They came back. This continued. Towards the end of the game, we were 3 all again, looking to score. Nelson got a penalty and scored with 5 seconds left.

Gutted we played Mags in the Quarter Finals, winning 5 - 1 to restore some momentum. After almost 11 hours at the pool, we faced Wellington High School in the semi-final. Another team that had no one scored against them. We scored first and held them for a long time. They scored 2 quick goals. With a minute and a half, we had our second goal and equaliser disallowed after a 2 minute discussion from the referees. And that was it. We lost 2 - 1.

Sunday morning, we only had one game. 3/4 place play-off against Glendowie, whom we have beaten before in the Regional competition. Unfortunately, we could repeat that result and lost 2 - 3.

These boys were broken. A team made up of 2 year 9’s, 1 year 10, 1 year 11, 1 year 12, and 2 year 13, were punching way above their weight, effectively competing against teams made up of year 13 and year 12 players. Something to be proud of.

Later in the day, some of the senior boys got some recognition:

• Cruz Perry - Most Valuable Player.

• Ezra Apiti - Boy player of the tournament

• Mattais Nijssen - named in the Tournament team.

Well done, young warriors.