Northern Swords – National Competition Draw

To view a full set of photographs go to the Northern Swords Facebook page.

The Swords 15s and 17s preparation for the NZRL National Tournament at the end of September has seen a busy couple of weeks during the July School Holidays.

In the first week of the holidays they attended a two day camp.  The first day saw them stay at the Ngunguru Marae where they underwent a number of team building activities including presentations from NorthTec around careers, Waka Ama and field work.  In the evening Phil Pakea from the “Its not Ok” Group talked with the teams around anti-violence and what means to be a responsible boy growing into a man.

The second day of the camp saw the boys go to the ASB Stadium in Whangarei.  The day was run in partnership between NZRL and RLN with the help of NorthTec. Attending the Camp were, Brent Gemmel – NZRL High Performance Manager, Dean Watkins – NZRL Talent Manager, Joe Harawira NZRL Welfare Manager and Duane Mann – NZ Warriors Development Manager.  Duane Mann and Joe Harawira ran presentations around player development and player welfare, while Dean Watkins, Brent Gemmel and Duane Mann ran skills sessions.  All the players also went through a comprehensive fitness testing program run by NorthTec and their Fitness Lab Technicians.

On the final week of the holidays the 15s and 17s travelled down to Rotorua for the annual 15s and 17s Upper Central Zone Tournament against Coastline, Bay of Plenty and Waikato.  On the first day both the 15s and 17s defeated Coastline, while the 15s lost in the last minute to Bay of Plenty and the 17s lost to Waikato.  On day two both the 15s and 17s went down in close hard fought games, the 15s to Waikato and the 17s to Bay of Plenty.  The 17s then went on to win against Coastline to seal 3^rd place, while the 15s went down to Coastline to finish 4^th.

Both squads grew throughout the tournament and are now working in preparation for the Nationals in late September.

For the 15s, Quintin Taimu, Paul Turner and Rawiri Leach made the Tournament team with Paul Turner being named Back of the Tournament.

In the 17s, Kingi Tane and Brody Tamarua made the Tournament Team.

Adding to an already busy tournament Brody Tamaraua, Te Kahi Nathan (U16s both from Muriwhenua) and Caleb Aekins (U18s – Hikurangi) attended the NZRL 16s 18s National Performance Camp to trial for a Kiwi Jersey. Click here to read the NZRL news story.