Challenge Cup tourney a pathway to league career

Rylan Tuwairua-Brown

PAIKEA Whalers young gun Rylan Tuwairua-Brown has made the Wai-Coa-Bay under-18 team to play the Warriors Invitation side in the opening game of the Ruben Wiki Challenge Cup tournament, which starts in Rotorua tomorrow afternoon.

Tuwairua Brown, son of Whalers player-coach Chris and Nga Hau e Wha premier netballer Wanita Tuwairua-Brown, was one of three Whalers players in contention for the 19-man squad after impressing coaches in three training camps.

Wai-Coa-Bay coach Paniora Daniels told The Herald last night that Jeremy David and Apriana Toheriri-Hallett would also have made the cut but David had started Unicol and Toheriri-Hallett has joined the navy.

“All three Gisborne boys put their hands up with their attitude, fitness and skills,” said Daniels, who is employed by New Zealand Rugby League as the development officer for the SportsForce programme throughout Waikato.

“This is a huge opportunity for all the boys in each of the five teams (of the Challenge Cup competition). You don’t know who will be watching but there will be people from the Warriors. Traditionally they have drawn their players from the wider Auckland areas but this is the chance for players from Waikato, Coastland and Gisborne to make a good impression.

“Obviously we’d love to win the tournament — the top two teams meet in the grand final after round-robin play — but the main goal is to develop young players and show them a pathway to a potential career in league.”

Rylan has been named at centre, where his job “will be to create space and set up his wingers”, says coach Daniels.

“Rylan, like Jeremy and Apirana, not only travelled from Gisborne by car, along with Rylan’s father, to attend the training sessions, they also showed us they are talented young players with a lot of resilence. It was a three-to-four-hour drive to the training sessions. They trained really hard and then got back into the car and drove all the way back to Gisborne.”

After taking on Warriors Invitation, Wai-Coa-Bay play Akana, Northland, Counties Manukau and Auckland Vulcans.

“We have a wider squad of 30 for the tournament, with 17 to be named for each of the remaining four matches.”