Travelling to Ohoku just west of Kaiapoi now seems surreal. We left the Wednesday before the Quake.
This was a great tournament for the boys and I feel that as a team they got a lot out of it. They produced some good performances with the first game especially good for the win by 25 – 0 over St Kevin’s and for showing some fine forward play that would be used to good extent later on in the competition.
The rain set in at 1:30pm and we played at 2pm. The fields were a mess and looked like porridge. These were the conditions for the remaining games.
By being together for a period of time and working on refining tactics the boys played better at times and got immediate feedback which help development very quickly. We managed to score 9 tries in the tournament. Our final game hurt as we played well and the kicking of Rangiora was the difference in very trying conditions.
Other schools played were Mount Aspiring, Grey High School, Blue Mountain and Rangiora.
Many thanks goes to Ben Winders (Coach) Allan and Spencer Marshall for their technical input which helped develop the team. A special thanks must go to the boys who were not only a credit to themselves but also to their parents. A very pleasurable 4 days.
Mark Scobie
