New Zealand Begins Student World Cup with a Record Win

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New Zealand Begins Student World Cup with a Record Win

Wellington, New Zealand, July 5 2013 – To the delight of rugby league statisticians and historians, the New Zealand Universities and Tertiary Students team got off to a superb start with a Student World Cup record 124-0 score over Russia, at Provident Stadium, in Bradford, England this morning (NZ time).

The last Student World Cup was held five years ago in Australia and as a result, the round one Pool A fixture saw all 17 New Zealand playing squad members make their tournament debuts.

Made up of university and tertiary institute students from Auckland to Invercargill, the New Zealand side scored a total of 22 tries and 18 converted goals and in doing so, created two new records, in what is the eighth Student Rugby League World Cup.

• It was the highest score by a New Zealand team, beating their previous best win of 88-0 against Canada in the 1999 Student World Cup.
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• It demolished the highest score made by any one team, overtaking Scotland’s record 90-4 victory over Japan in 1996.
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• Troy Hanley (Auckland University of Technology), Hamiora Mihaka (University of Waikato) and Jon Masaga (Open Polytechnic of New Zealand) each scored three tries; the first time three or more players have gained a hat-trick of tries in the same Student World Cup fixture.
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Before the start of the fixture, New Zealand performed a specially choreographed haka, composed by one of its playing members, Marrin Haggie of the Waikato Institute of Technology.

New Zealand led 62-0 at halftime and put on the same exact points in the second spell as the Russians could do nothing, in what is their first Student World Cup since 1999.

New Zealand coach Trevor Clark was happy with the result, but said the story is likely to be very different in their next fixture on Sunday against defending champions, Australia at South Leeds Stadium in Hunslet.

Like the Kiwi students, the Aussie academics got off to a flying start in the Student World Cup with a comprehensive 96-0 win over Scotland.

“The tour had been a long time coming and the boys have done a lot of hard work to get here, so it’s a big reward for the boys. They deserve it.”

“Nobody is talking about the grand final just yet but at the moment it’s just the old cliché of one game at a time,” Clark said.

The game on Sunday will also be the first occasion that New Zealand will have faced Australia in a Student World Cup match since beating them in the 2005 final and the first time since 2007 they have squared off in a fixture against each other. Australia and New Zealand are the only two nations to win the Student World Cup with the Australians having won it on four occasions and New Zealand, three times in 1986, 1999 and 2005.

A total of eight nations are competing in this Student World Cup with other round one matches from this morning resulting in hosts England thumping Ireland 54-6 and Wales overcoming South Africa 30-10.

New Zealand 124 (Jon Masaga 3, Troy Hanley 3, Hamiora Mihaka 3, Shawn Gielen-Relph 2, Saimon Lomaloma 2, Bernard Gregorious 2, Aaron Jolley 2, Nick Read, Richard Niu, Marrin Haggie, Tyler Schreurs, Carlos Kohu-Martin tries; Jolley 10, Joel Freeman 4, Raynard Haggie 4 goals), Russia 0. Halftime: NZ 62-0.

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