The Rodney-Otamatea Taniwha Cup rugby team edged out the other nominees in the 2006 Noel Radd Shield awards held recently at the Kaiwaka Sports Association.
The team was the first Otamatea team to win the cup since 1990 - which was a great achievement and one that helped it win the Noel Radd Shield.
The Year Seven and Eight students were the first combined Rodney-Otamatea team to ever win the title.
The Taniwha Cup competition was held in the Hokianga this year, with teams contesting from Whangarei, Hokianga, Bay of Islands, Mangonui and Northern Wairoa. Rodney-Otamatea were a convincing winner during the tournament, with only 10 points scored against them.
The team were placed fourth last year and put in a huge effort to be prepared for this week long tournament on and off the field.
They practiced twice a week on top of their own club trainings and games, trained during school holidays and sold raffle tickets to fully fund their trip which also included several recreational outings.
The other nominees were all junior netball teams and included Kaiwaka Netball Club Team 1, Maungaturoto Netball Club Team 3 and the Otamatea High School Netball Team 5.
It was the first time the Noel Radd Shield awards were held out of Maungaturoto since its inception in 1993 and whilst winning is the not the key criteria, judges were looking for regularity to trainings, ambassadors for the region, sportsmanship, improvement and fair play.
Northland rugby team hooker Tim Dow was the guest speaker and congratulated the various teams for their efforts throughout the season.
Taniwha Cup coach Donald Riddle, was also congratulated for being a finalist in the Northland Watties Volunteer Coach of the year awards.
More than 300 nominations were made in Northland and of those 206 coaches were nominated. Riddle and Otamatea High School Cricket team's coach John Bruce finished among Northland's top 12 coaches.
JUNIOR RUGBY - Taniwha team wins top award
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