Gisborne Intermediate win for third time in row

THREE-TIME WINNERS: Gisborne Intermediate won the Bay of Plenty/Poverty Bay/Hawke’s Bay Lightweight Rugby Festival last week for the third year in a row. They are, back (from left): Barry Huhu (co-coach), Kalani Ensor, Quaydon Chaffey-Kora, Logan Bruce, Maia Campbell, Api Kirkpatrick and Brendon Hart (co-coach and deputy principal). Front: Maxwell Kennedy, Frazor Wainohu, Wade Perrett, Sol O’Connor and Jonah Whitley. Absent: Liam Beattie and Jacob Scholefield. Pictures by Liam Clayton

Gisborne Intermediate won the Bay of Plenty/Poverty Bay/Hawke’s Bay Lightweight Rugby Festival last Friday for the third year in a row.

Ten teams from nine intermediate schools played six 14-minute games on the one day, from 9am till 2.30pm.

Gisborne Intermediate finished the round-robin and cross-over games unbeaten, and defeated Taupo Intermediate 25-0 in the final, scoring five tries; conversions are not taken in this competition.

Gisborne Intermediate Development and Ilminster Intermediate were the other local teams taking part.

Outside schools represented were Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Taradale, Te Puke, Mokoia (Rotorua), Taupo and Heretaunga (Hastings) intermediates.

Squads of 12 played 10-a-side full-contact rugby on three-quarter-size fields, and rolling substitutes were allowed.

Players had to be under 48 kilograms to qualify for the “lightweight” tournament, nicknamed “skinny rugby”.

This was the fifth year of the tournament. Gisborne Intermediate has always hosted it as part of the Bay of Plenty/Poverty Bay Super 11 sports competitions contested by 11 intermediate schools in the two districts. A total of 25 sporting codes are played in the competitions.

Deputy principal and team co-coach Brendon Hart said the lightweight rugby tournament was one of the “four or five” codes Gisborne Intermediate hosted every year to “spread the load”.

Other schools hosted other codes on a regular basis.

For the lightweight rugby, though, the net was spread further to take in Hawke’s Bay intermediate schools to increase the competition.

Tauranga Intermediate won the first two tournaments, and Gisborne Intermediate had won the three since.

About 130 students aged from 11 to 13 took part in the lightweight rugby, and Gisborne Intermediate families billeted teams from five schools — 60-plus children.

Hart said the Super 11 sports competitions were popular among the students.

“It’s good fun.”