He might be whiling away his rugby talents in Awanui, but Whiria Meltzer is a teenager being billed as the next Walter Little.
Meltzer,17, scored two first-half tries in Northland's convincing win over Central North Island yesterday in the New Zealand Area Schools Sports Tournament held in Whangarei this week.
Northland Rugby
Union development manager Hector Davies was spotting future talent, and said Meltzer was a shoe-in for his under-18 squad set to be named shortly.
Meltzer missed the Northland Area Schools Sports Tournament held in May, because Davies had invited him to train with the Blues development squad in Auckland.
"He's a bit like Walter Little in that his speed off the mark is really good," Davies said.
"And a lot of players want to just run when they've got that speed, but he's got vision and is a good distributor."
Davies made reference to Northland's first second-half try, in which second-five Meltzer offloaded to the right-winger about 5m from the goal-line.
"See, he could have scored that himself, probably, but didn't."
Meltzer said his time in Auckland was eye-opening, and he's grateful for the experience.
"It was really hard, but I learnt heaps."
He's now got the drive to continue working towards his goal of making the New Zealand Maori team. "I've just got to keep training, and see what happens."
Northland's coach Tony Cook, who also coaches Awanui's Under-18 team, said the tournament was the big moment of the year for area school sportspeople.
"It's their time to shine, but what's important is that there's a sense of whanau there. And if they get selected for the New Zealand team, they get to wear a fern on their chest [in today's New Zealand selection games]."
As for his team's win, Cook said they did well for having spent only four days together.
The tournament was threatened last month when Sport and Recreation New Zealand pulled $12,000 used by schools to travel to the tournament.
SPARC has since reinstated the funding.
Sport Northland secondary schools director Grant Harrison said the tournament meant a lot to area schools and he was thrilled the SPARC funding was back.
More than 200 students from as far away as Roxburgh in Central Otago are competing in rugby, netball, basketball, volleyball, golf and futsal (indoor soccer).
