“We expected the kids’ parents to be there but there were a lot more people, Hihi said. “We were all blown away and humbled by the reception, which included hakas.
“It was an awesome experience — from Sunday, when we flew down, to playing, to meeting former All Blacks, to coming home. Obviously the highlight was winning the tournament, the first team from Poverty Bay to do so, but there were so many other highlights.
“But you can’t get this far without everyone doing their job for the team. That's what made our team so special. Everyone had a role to play and they all did their bit. We have work horses, playmakers and finishers, who all came together over the two days.”
Rippa is a non-contact version of rugby, combining elements of rugby and touch. Tackles are made by tearing one of two “flags” from a belt worn by players.
“A lot of comments were made about our style of play — touch style with hard yards leading into a two-pass strike play,” said Hihi. “And we had a lot of support from the other teams when we played in the final.”
Te Wharau qualified for the nationals by winning the Poverty Bay regional tournament. Twenty regional champion schools from a total of around 2400 primary schools throughout the country came together for the nationals finals.
Hihi said Poverty Bay were in the “pool of death” featuring the big three of Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington, along with Wairarapa Bush.
The Poverty Bay representatives sent shock waves through the competition with a pool-opening 55-5 demolition of Wellington (Windley School).
“We then drew 15-all with Auckland (Holy Cross School Papatoetoe), before beating Wairarapa Bush (Douglas Park School) 50-0 and Canterbury (Paparoa Street School) 25-10.”
Auckland topped the pool on points differential from Poverty Bay. It put the Bay into a quarterfinal against South Canterbury (Pleasant Point Primary School), who they beat 50-25.
Poverty Bay booked their place in the final against North Harbour (Campbells Bay School) with a 30-15 semifinal win over Counties Manukau (Roscommon School).
Harbour opened the scoring in the final only for Kahurangi Leach-Waihi, Solomon O’Connor and Payton Wainohu to reply.
Harbour hit back and the Bay went to the break 15-10 ahead.
“After the way we had played over the two days I was quietly confident we could go on to win,” Hihi said.
His confidence was vindicated when Safin Tuwairua-Brown and Leach-Waihi made the score 25-10 before Harbour closed the gap with two late tries.
“I’m so proud of them all,” said Hihi. “I’ve been coaching the boys for four years in different sports but this rippa team came together a few weeks before regionals last term and trained once a week for the past six weeks.
“Prior to the nationals we played Gisborne Intermediate, which really helped us prepare for the tournament.”
“Dwayne Russell (Poverty Bay Heartland assistant coach) and Mana Otai (Bay coach) and some Heartland players came to the school to present a good luck message to our team, which was pretty special.”
