Northern Swords – Premiers Home Games

This week sees the launch of Rugby League Northland’s club 16s and 18s junior division, Friday night football. It is with great enthusiasm that RLN follows on from the hugely successful Adam Blair Cup, which saw 11 northland secondary schools compete for bragging rights, with Whangarei Boys High School the eventual winners against a very strong Kaitaia college.

RLN has built up some really strong relationships across Northland in schools, clubs and communities. The concept behind the Friday night football has stemmed from a club concept that caters for all the needs of our young players. RLN has identified that some players want to play both rugby league and rugby and this initiative suits that desire. It’s also packaged in such a way as to cater for an exciting night out for friends and whanau as there are two games played under flood lights.

The standard of Rugby league in the North, particularly in the junior grades, is very good and makes for an exciting spectacle. With so many young players from the North realising that Rugby League has a much more achievable pathway to the NRL, lots of players including rugby players, are now deciding Rugby League is not just an exciting game, but a career for those who put in the hard work.

With the cancellation of 1st XV rugby due to numbers, Rugby league through its strong involvement within the community, is starting to make some really strong gains. So get along to a venue near you to watch the fast action-packed game. The Whangarei games are played at Hikurangi, the mid-North games are played at Moerewa and the Far North games are played at Ahipara. All 16s age grade games are played at 6pm and the 18s age grade games are played at 7pm. All draws are on the Rugby League Northland website [www.rln.co.nz] and Facebook pages, as well as published in the Northern Advocate every Thursday.

These grades are the breeding ground for the Northern Swords 15s and 17s, which will hold its first round of trials in the inaugural Hapu 9s competition, to be held in Kaikohe on Saturday the 30th of May. The Swords are fast becoming recognised as a new talent pond, with the latest recruitment of James Dean Fisher-Harris who signed for the Penrith Panthers and made his recent debut for the Junior Kiwis. Not to mention the likes of Adam Blair, Elijah Taylor and Sam McKendry who are all ex-Swords players.

The Swords players will be selected from the 16s and 18s junior club completion and will be involved in high performance camps which will be facilitated by various trained professionals and it will also see the players represent their province at the Upper Zone and National age group championships, to be held in Rotorua later in the year.

Click here to view all draws.

Nicky Stroebel, Corporate Services Team Leader at Sport Northland draws the winning tickets for the Northern Swords 13s Raffle. Congratulations to all our winners.  1st Prize Darryl Cooper. 2nd Prize Grant Mitchell. 3rd Prize Logan Ashford. 4th Prize Shar Duke. 5th Prize Taana Rihari.  Please contact rln@nzrl.co.nz.