TAIRAWHITI TALENT: Lytton High School student Kelsey Teneti, 16, was named in the Condor Sevens tournament team. Picture by Liam Clayton
RUGBY SEVENS
GISBORNE 16-year-old Kelsey Teneti is looking forward to playing rugby sevens for New Zealand in an international schools tournament next week.
She has been named in the New Zealand under-18 squad for the World School Sevens event in Auckland on December 13 and 14.
Other teams in the tournament will include New Zealand Maori, Australia, Indigenous Australia, NZ Dutch, Fiji, Cook Islands, Canada, Japan and Samoa Barbarians.
Teneti said she was looking forward to getting together with her teammates and contributing alongside players who were in other teams at the Condor Sevens.
Teneti played for Lytton High School in the open girls’ grade at the Condor Sevens in Auckland.
Lytton had a fair tournament and ended up losing the bowl final for ninth place.
“We had a lot of young players and they got some good experience,” Teneti said.
She was named in the tournament team.
Teneti can play on the wing, using her power and pace, but she also enjoys more of a playmaker role in the middle of the park.
She has played at halfback and centre in the 15s game and shone for Poverty Bay at the Hurricanes regional u18 tournament in October. She was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
At the Poverty Bay rugby awards last month, Teneti was named both the Turanganui a Kiwa Maori player of the year and the u18 girls’ player of the year.
Her selection for the New Zealand sevens side for the world schools tournament also took into account her form at last month’s Ignite7 event, where she co-captained the Bolt team who played in the final.
Teneti said they had beaten Inferno in pool play but couldn’t get over them in the final. Being coached by former Black Fern Anna Richards and playing alongside “inspirational athletes of many codes” were other highlights from Ignite7.
Teneti said rugby coaches Trish Hina and Amoe Tarsau were influential in developing her game in past seasons.
Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union game development manager Dwayne Russell said Teneti had been a consistent performer in recent seasons.
Russell said she was one of the youngest competitors at Ignite7 and showed her mettle, doing well in the fitness, strength and skills tests.
Teneti had leadership qualities and a great work ethic, he said.
“She can be seen tracking well, transitioning into a tackle and getting to her feet and ‘jackling’ over the ball to turn possession over numerous times for her team.”
Russell said she could make the transition to power forward, as there would not be many who could stay with her and match her power and strength.
Teneti is also a world champion in waka ama and one of the region’s best young hockey players.
She was part of the Tairawhiti women’s hockey team that finished runners-up at the national Maori hockey tournament in Gisborne in October and was named in the New Zealand Maori u21 women’s side. She has made that side three years in a row.
Teneti was part of the Horouta Puhi Kaiariki J16 waka ama crew who won gold in the W6 500 metres and W6 1000m at the Va’a World Sprint Championships in Tahiti in August last year.
She won gold with the J19 Hinetoa New Zealand team at the waka ama long-distance worlds on the Sunshine Coast in Australia in August this year. They were finalists for sports team at the Aotearoa Maori Sports Awards.
Teneti is going into camp for the New Zealand Condors team ahead of the World School Sevens next weekend. Sky Sport will televise the two-day tournament.
Other players from Tairawhiti or with Gisborne roots will also be at the world schools event.
Stuart Leach, from Rotorua Boys’ High School, was named in the New Zealand u18 boys’ team. He stood out for the Paikea Whalers rugby league team in the Tairawhiti competition this year.
Kaipo Olsen-Baker, a former student of Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne Girls’ High School, made the Condor open girls’ tournament team.
Now attending Palmerston North’s Manukura school, she has chosen to play for New Zealand Maori at the World School Sevens.
Gisborne’s Shaniqua Kepa-Casey, Temikah Jo and Kaden Moeke will play for the Cook Islands.
Russell said Kepa-Casey had “bolted in” through consistent performances.
“We are happy for all these girls, as our region has provided them with a baseline to be who they are today.”