On Tuesday, 27 November our Junior Touch teams headed off to Bruce Pulman Park to compete at the Auckland Secondary Schools Touch Junior Championships. They qualified as a result of finishing in the top 2 of the Western Zone Competition.  We had a cast of 24 students represent the mighty Kotuku on a cloudy, warm summer’s day.

We arrived early and made quick use of the empty pitches to warm up and perfect our last minute tactics. During the course of the day, the teams had developed their skills and techniques to come through with some pleasing results. It was great to see not only individual players develop their skills but it was very pleasing to see the positive effect this had on the team’s attitude. The standard of play on the day was extremely high and although both teams faced some difficult defeats, this did not stop their fight and determination in the playoff finals. The girls faced Otahuhu in the final game of the day. Walking onto the field confident after a win over James Cook, the girls were poised and ready for the game. They fought hard but on the day it was Otahuhu who claimed the victory 3-1.

The boys faced Rosmini in the last game of the day. After a tough day of games, the boys did not stop there. They displayed some excellent set plays that made it difficult for Rosmini to hit the try line. In the end they managed to squeeze through the Rutherford defence and denied Rutherford the win.

Both teams thoroughly enjoyed the experience and had a really enjoyable day all round and were happy with their success, they looked great and set a really good example of how we do things at Rutherford College. A huge thank you to Mollie Tagaloa, Mr Gibbons, Ms Lehndorf and Ana Aramoana for all your time and effort throughout the touch season – you are wonderful!