Senior Results 20^th July:

Upcoming Games:

Saturday 27^th July

Under 85kg Shooters                     vs            University Legends         Colin Maiden #1               1:00pm

WEEKEND WRAP – 20^th July

Premier Development Men:

The fairy tale season for our Premier Development Men continued as they were triumphant at home in the Grand Final against University to win the George Nicholson Cup.

This is now consecutive Championship wins for our Premier Development Team who overcame the loss of several players at the start of the season, a horror injury toll and player unavailability this side showed the resilience and ability to hang tough and must win games.

During the season they won a number of close games on full-time and had a knack of also going out and dominating more fancied sides with their no-nonsense approach and a fair amount of Russell Dobbie niggle.

Well coached by the coaching crew of Josh Loughnan, Malika Liutai and Chad Hopa they developed good tactics that suited their personnel and they coached the team to play to their strengths extremely well and these 3 must take credit for guiding the players expertly through the season.

With a strong tight 5 eager to hoe into the opposition and a tidy loose trio this team was a bunch of workers who worked hard for each other, so it was a real pleasure to see them triumph in the Final.

2^nd 5/8 Joseph Tangulu returned from an off-season overseas and immediately made a massive impact with his strong positional kicking game regularly tearing of huge territory & relieving pressure, while also being a very strong attacking threat and very accurate goal kicker, landing them from long range which was a threat to many ill disciplined oppositions from 50+ metres which invariably led to 3 points.

Spare a thought for PD’s Openside Flanker Patrick Syme who works tirelessly with real grit every week and is a key member of the team but broke his thumb in the semi-final and had to watch from the sidelines and no doubt was nervous from kick off until the full-time whistle.

With so many injuries the team changed regularly but with great attitude and spirit the next man stepped up and showed real character week-in week-out.

The team, Coaches and supporters celebrated in style and enjoyed the night at the Club.

With a real mix of young and some older players it will be exciting to see how many step up to Premier Level next year and we look forward to them doing so.

Congratulations on behalf of the Club for a great season.

Premier Women – T/Birds:

Our T Birds travelled to Eden Park to play the dominant side in the competition this year Marist, who had defeated us twice during the season.

Despite being underdogs, our team trained the house down and backed themselves to reverse the result in the game that mattered most.

With a dominant pack, the T Birds worked hard and Leanne Thompson in her 100^th game for Rifles played a dominant role in the loose carrying strongly and working hard to disrupt at the breakdown.

With teenage sensation Maiakawanakaulani (Maia) Roos dominant at lineout time and heavily involved in all facets of the game we had an edge up front and some good moments in the backs, but the brilliance of Marist captain Mele Hufaga who scored 3 and set up another 2 tries was the difference in this arm-wrestle of a final.

While defeated our T Birds played with real ride, passion and togetherness and were a real credit to our club.

Huge thanks to Coaches Pat Tau, Owen Herbert (both who came in to coach the side at short notice once the season was underway), you guys are life savers and did an awesome job.

With a top management of Casino, Lena & Physio Alex this team worked well with real passion for the club and women’s rugby.

To the ladies from the T Birds and Falcons congratulations & thank you for an excellent season.

Premier Men:

With a huge injury toll there were only 14 fit players from the normal Prems Team available to play against Waitemata for the Jubilee Cup for 5^th Place. 

With our Prem Development playing in their Grand Final we brought up 7 players from the Under 20 side to make up the squad along with Chiefs Super Rugby player Tumua Manu making a cameo for his club after a huge Super Rugby season and before another Mitre 10 Cup season with Auckland.

Losing key player Cameron Suafoa early didn’t help our cause and despite an open game going end to end with high tempo we couldn’t finish the year on a high losing 18-28, but took the opportunity to hand Premier Debuts to some of our best upand coming talent in Patrik Elia (10), Jono Woods (Prop), Dominic Tevao (Lock), Lax Poese (6), Ben Sterritt (7), Cody Mitchell (9) and Max Toailoa (Wing).

In a season where we played intermittent high quality rugby, it was ultimately our defence which let us down at key times and a creaky scrum, both which will need to be fixed to be real contenders in 2020.

The other game of the weekend was our Raiders Under 85kg side who finished their season with a close loss to GTEC Taniwhas.

So, with only our Shooters Under 85kg & CROCS still in action there’s not a lot of rugby to be played on Saturday afternoons but pop into the Club for a beer, talks some Rugby and maybe watch the AB’s vs The Boks – Go Black!!

Bevan Cadwallader – Director of Rugby

Article added: Friday 26 July 2019