INDEPENDENT NEWS

Finalists Found For Secondary Schools Rugby League

Published: Thu 6 Sep 2012 03:20 PM
Finalists Found For Secondary Schools Rugby League Tournament
After three days of pool play and a full day of semi's, the finalists have been found and in a repeat of last year’s championship final, Otahuhu College will play St Paul’s College. In the Developing Pool competition, Auckland Grammar will play local favourites Papakura High School for the pools top honours.
Across the park there was some great football played with all the teams doing their best to progress to the Champs, Cup, Plate and Bowl finals if possible.
Auckland Grammar played some very entertaining rugby league including using the ‘mousetrap’ play close enough to the line that they fooled their opposition and scored a great try. They used it a few plays later to give themselves some room to run and continued their good form throughout the game winning 30 – 12 over St John’s College. A number of NRL scouts watched this Developing Pool game with great interest.
Otahuhu College, who had played their first game on a field which was partially under water, played their final pool game on the well prepared number one field in front of a large crowd. Both teams started well, with Otahuhu scoring first and Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate replying almost immediately. Sir Edmund received a number of penalties but were unable to convert their possession into points with their last play options letting them down and as soon as Otahuhu received a penalty they took advantage and scored two converted tries and lead 16 – 6 at half time.
It was more of the same in the second half with Otahuhu making the most of their opportunities while Sir Edmund Hillary’s handling let them down. Communication between the Otahuhu players was audible from the sideline as they called players into place and as a result of some great runs from dummy half and the work of their number 9 Kalolo Saitaua they lead 28 – 6 with only minutes to go. Sir Edmund Hillary to their credit didn’t give up and scored the final try. Final score 28 – 12 to Otahuhu College who make the grand final of the tournament for the second year in a row.
Other highlights of the day included Aranui High School getting their first win for the tournament, a young girl (aged 10) who got up on the stage and sang a lovely song right through, too shy to give her name she received a prize from Ruben Wiki as a thank you, which brought her to tears.
Vodafone Warriors players including Simon Mannering, Michael Luck, Lewis Brown came out and helped with the ball wall passing challenge. Tournament players took a number of items of Warriors clothing from the boys including a clean pair of socks!
Tonight some of the schools will visit the Vodafone Warriors HQ for a behind the scenes look at their facilities, and then all the players will attend a formal awards function in the East Stand Function Centre at Mt Smart Stadium before tomorrows finals.
Crowds are getting bigger as the weather improves and tomorrow is the last chance to get out and see some amazing rugby league played by our games future stars, we hope to see you there. To see details of all the finals visit the website here.
Developing Schools Final - Auckland Grammar v Papakura High School 11.20am
Premiership Schools Final - Otahuhu College v St Paul's Collegiate 12.45pm
Thursdays Results
Otahuhu College 28 v Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate 12
St Paul's College 24 v Kelston Boys High School 16
Papatoetoe High 18 v Mount Albert Grammar 10
Manurewa High 28 v Southern Cross Campus 16
Taita College 20 v Mount Roskill Grammar 16
Whangarei Boys High 14 v Tokoroa High School 28
Aorere College 4 v Aranui High School 18
James Cook High School 12 v Tangaroa College 22
St John's College 12 v Auckland Grammar 30
Papakura High 28 v Tamaki College 18
Howick College 44 v Fraser High School 4
Kamo High 32 v Central Southland College 0
Scores are updated on-line daily, for a quick summary visit the website here. For detailed results and reports please visit the National Secondary Schools Fixtures/Results page. Photos will be loaded to facebook www.facebook.com/NZLeague

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