‘Awesome experience’ despite loss

Tuwairua-Brown playing for Paikea Whalers in a Gisborne Tairawhiti club game against YMP. Picture by Liam Clayton

WAI-COA-BAY under-18s were no match for the Warriors Invitation side in the opening game of the Ruben Wiki Challenge Cup tournament, going down 46-16 in Rotorua at the weekend. But Paikea Whalers player Rylan Tuwairua Brown — who has retained his place in the side for this Friday’s night game against Akarana in Hamilton — said it was “an awesome experience”.

“I enjoyed the experience as much as you can when you lose 46-16, and hopefully getting picked will open the door for other league players to get the chance to play in future tournaments,” said the Gisborne Boys’ High School student, who is keeping his options open.

“I want to finish school first and then decide on what I want to study and, if possible, I’d like to combine that with a career either in league or union. I’ve played a couple of games for the school first 15 and when their games finished I played league for the Whalers, which obviously helped me make the Wai-Coa-Bay team."

Tuwairua Brown was one of three Gisborne players to trial for the Wai-Coa-Bay team.

Coach Paniora Daniels said Jeremy David and Apirana Toheriri-Hallett would also have made the cut but David is attending Unicol while Toheriri-Hallett has joined the navy.

“It would have been great if all three of us had played,” said Tuwairua Brown, who played 45 minutes at centre before coming back on for the last 10 in the second row.

“We had a bad first 10 minutes . . . letting them break us up the middle to score tries under the posts. They got on a roll but after that we played better. We didn’t get enough ball but it was a good learning curve. It was a lot faster than playing for the Whalers but not as physical. Hopefully we can improve for the rest of the tournament.”

Tuwairua-Brown did not lack for vocal support, with 20 whanau and friends from Gisborne there to encourage him.

“That was humbling,” said proud mother Wanita. “Gisborne Tairawhiti Rugby League (GTRL) have been awesome and have contributed to some of the financial demands."

She also praised recently-appointed Upper Central zone general manager Mel Bennett.

“Mel has been instrumental in keeping GTRL in the loop with everything involving league. We don’t feel as left out like we have been in the past. Our aim now is to get more boys in all age groups in the Wai-Coa-Bay teams next year. So a big drive on this year’s agenda is to encourage tamariki to come and give rugby league a go.

“Upper Central are running a tournament in Tokomaru Bay for East Coast primary schools, which is exciting.”

The Wai-Coa-Bay u16s went down 42-18 to their Warriors counterparts. Both games were watched by Warriors recruitment officer and former Kiwi Tony Iro.