Sport News

As the Western Zone Touch competition was set up as a one-day tournament, we decided to enter our Junior Mixed Touch team into a seasonal competition as well. Therefore, we entered into the North Harbour competition for the season. Our games were every Tuesday at Hato Petera College in Northcote. The team was scheduled for four pool games over that period and came out of the round robin undefeated with 18 tries for and only 3 against. This placed us in good stead heading into the final vs Takapuna Grammar that was played on Tuesday, 24 November. Thanks to the…

Over the last few weeks, we have had a group of boys involved in a Waitakere Composite Cricket team. As we have not had sufficient numbers to enter our own Rutherford College team this season, these boys have taken the opportunity to gel with a few others from Waitakere and Liston to compete in the Junior A T20 Central / West competition. Playing under the coaching of Ben Brain’s father Philip throughout this Term 4 season, the team has performed very well, finishing with a 2 – 2 record. The wins have been emphatic, and the losses have been very…

Year 13 student Lucas Alabastro is the New Zealand champion in Grappling following his wins against two semi-finalists at the national championships held recently in Auckland. Lucas defeated Tumukai Ikifitu on points and Sean Maguire by submission at the Barfoot and Thompson Stadium in Kohimaramara on 21 November. Grappling is a version of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Lucas won the gold medal in the White Belt Juvenile division. Lucas has been training at the Oliver MMA gym in New Lynn for 3-4 hours each day, under the guidance of his coaches Nick Thornton, Karlo Witana, Kyle Murtagh and others. Their coaching…

On Wednesday, 25 November 2020, the Turangawaewae Unit & mainstream students Cade Morpeth & Josh Lockhead represented Rutherford College in the Annual FIFA Football Event at Pulman Arena. A great day was had by everyone and all our students got really involved in the games. The competition amongst all the competing schools was of a really high standard. We look forward to representing Rutherford again at the 2021 event.

It was decided that we would take the junior girls volleyball team to compete in the Auckland Championships this year but not the boys. The girls just seemed more ready and the depth from both the Year 9 and Year 10 teams seemed good. As always, the first round of games were grading games. According to the seedings, we were supposed to lose more than we won in this first round. As it turns out, this was exactly what happened. To be honest, we should have won a few games that seemed to slip away from us in the final…

On Saturday, 7 November the evening saw our very own Odessa Lawson participate in the Secondary School girls’ basketball Battle of the Bridge that was held at St Mary’s College. She was part of the eventual winning City team that beat the Shore team 81 – 64. There was a good crowd in attendance for what will hopefully become an annual celebration of girl’s high school basketball. As a run-down on the game, the Shore team jumped out to a double-figure lead at the mid-point of the first quarter, however, City worked their way back into the contest at the…

On Wednesday, 28 October we were fortunate to celebrate the school’s Senior Excellence Awards 2020. With the disruptions of this year, it was pleasing to acknowledge the resilience of our students, staff and community volunteers that have been involved with the school. The School Hall looked a vision with the poster size photos of our students, performing their skills, garnishing the walls. The lighting and table arrangements setting the scene, and finally the award winners and their families in attendance. This evening was created to recognise, as best as possible, a number of great contributions and achievements of our senior…

The weather overhead was threatening throughout the day, but ultimately no precipitation and very warm. This made for a pleasant day for our Junior Boys and Girls teams competing at the Junior Zone Tournament held at Hato Petera College fields. The day was colourful and entertaining with some real athletes from all the schools on show. A number of very good tries were scored for and against our teams. The skills and knowledge of the game definitely got better as the day progressed, even though it was a very demanding day. Our teams navigated their way through their respective draws.…

During week 2 of Term 4, we have been lucky enough to have two external providers come in and offer our junior students an opportunity to participate in some new sports and games. On 19-20 October, we had Garton from Auckland Handball come in and teach our students the basics of Olympic Handball. On the 22-23 October, we had Carlo from Hungerball come in and introduce the fun and fitness side of this new game. The students were fully engaged in these sessions and thoroughly enjoyed the experiences. The PE department would like to thank our Sports Director, Gill Bloxham,…

Over the past few years, Rutherford has made a name for itself with the West Auckland primary schools for its Ki-o-Rahi tournament, including winning the Sport New Zealand Initiative award in 2019. On Wednesday, 14 October, Rutherford hosted the primary schools to the Ki- o- Rahi tournament. The tournament consisted of teams from Tirimoana, Rutherford, Flanshaw, Peninsula and Freyberg Primary schools. This year we extended our invitation out to also include the local intermediate schools with Te Atatu and Rangeview attending. Ki-o-Rahi, being a new sport to most of the primary school students, the Mahi-ā-Toi students facilitated Ki-o-Rahi coaching sessions…