A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
The “system” put in place in the Turanga Wāhine squad has immediately shown its worth.
Turanga had a 31-15 victory over Thames Valley Vixens in their opening game of the inaugural North Island Women’s Heartland Championship in Te Aroha on Saturday.
To a player, the team stepped up to get Tūranga’s campaign off to a victorious start, assistant coach Aporo Ruru said.
Head coach Len Ferris and Ruru have been developing a system within the team they already feel the players are reaping the benefits of, and it showed on Saturday.
Defence was key to the win while their set-pieces were taking shape and they had quickly built a strong team unity.
The Vixens struck first when co-captain and first-five Cory Middleton found the try line.
From there, Tūranga applied pressure and at the 15-minute mark flanker Kaylah Winiata-Clarke drove over the line from a pick-and-go to score under the posts.
Prop Paku Hiko sent the conversion over for a 7-5 lead as the visitors took control.
From a penalty 10 metres out, Tūranga took a quick tap and a charge by Tūranga prop Katerina Puketapu was rewarded with a try under the sticks.
The conversion attempt, however, missed and Tūranga went into the break 12-5 up.
They continued from where they left off in the second spell.
Having worked their way towards the try line, halfback Kashmia Shelford quickly sent the ball from a ruck to first-five Amanda Reynolds, who passed to lock Chardonnay Brown on the run and she smash through the defence to score between the posts.
Hiko converted to extend their lead to 19-5.
The Vixens breached a staunch Tūranga defence in the 50th minute — winger Ruby Hodgson making her way through traffic to score for 19-10.
But Tūranga came powering back. Prop Terianna Watene steam-rollered her way to a five-pointer — converted by Winiata Clarke — and hooker and co-captain Sharn Down put it beyond doubt with a try in the closing five minutes.
The Vixens had the last say with a try to fullback Natasha Forsythe.
Ruru, a former Poverty Bay (2013, 2015) player who was influential in the rise of Premier men’s club side Waikohu, said Tūranga had been working particularly hard on their defence and would be upping their time on attack in training.
“We have been concentrating on ‘the system’ but now the ladies have it pretty much sorted, I will start to work with them on attack .”
The unity the squad had built was already showing.
“They work hard for each other and that’s what counts,” he said. “We have a strong team because of the connection they have on and off the field.
Hiko was among the standouts.
She made big yards during the game and had also taken a leading role among the forwards.
“She works hard for the team,” Ruru said. “All the forwards did well to stick to our game plan and defended well, too.
All players stepped up from the young ones to the more experienced.
The Turanga-Vixens match was the curtain-raiser to the Heartland men’s Week 2 match between Thames Valley and Poverty Bay Wekas.
Tūranga earned five points for the win and are sitting second on the table on points differential behind Wairarapa Bush, who beat Ngāti Porou Hamoterangi 46-12.
Tūranga are at home to King Country on Saturday. The game kicks off at 2.30pm at the Oval on Saturday.
Poverty Bay under-18 girls play Thames Valley u18s in the curtain-raiser at 12.30.
Poverty Bay u18 boys play Thames Valley at the Rectory at 10.30am.