The Whangarei Bears won the Taniwha Shield on Saturday, beating Northern Wairoa 17-5 at Waiotemara, while the hosting sub union team secured third place.
Hokianga, which held the Taniwha Shield aloft in the pouring rain at Taipa last year, became the highest finishing Far North side in this year's tournament after beating the Whangarei Grizzlies in the 3rd/ 4th playoffs by 27-19. The victory came from five tries including those by Kees Anderson, John Henry Martin and Carlos Hemara among others. A review of Hokianga's 2012 Taniwha Shield campaign will feature in the near future.
The finals of the week-long, annual tournament were held in fine conditions on Saturday morning. Hokianga was showing off her finest winter colours and the conditions allowed the best young players - aged under 13 and weighing under 55kg - in the province to deliver a state of the art exhibition of primary school rugby.
Tournament co-ordinator George Goodhew watched the Hokianga/ Grizzlies play-off beside veteran Northland campaigner David Holwell (the legendary former first five of the Taniwha remarking despairingly that the Grizzlies hadn't won this event since he had last played for them).
Goodhew went on to describe it as a very successful tournament. "Very good feedback from all the teams who really enjoyed the way we took it around the Hokianga. It's a hard tournament for the kids when you think about it, five back-to-back days of rugby," he said.
Goodhew thanked the small but dedicated crew who organised the week long tournament, Darlene and Thomas Rogers, his wife Maria, Glenis Pavic, Sport Northland's Cheryl Smith and Joel Quitta-Moses, and Robbie Warwick. He also praised the crew of Old Heads who turned out in the "11th hour" to help get the fields at Rawene and Taheke ready to play on.
"Guys just came out of the woodwork. One said, 'This is just payback. We have had our fun with rugby, time to give something back."'
Darlene Rogers, who played a crucial role in ensuring the complex operation ran smoothly throughout, watched the circus leave town on Saturday afternoon before finishing the clean-up in the small hours on Sunday.
"It was good, all the events we had. Each little community got involved, without them it wouldn't have happened. Rawene putting goal-posts up, now the kids there have a football field to play on. It's a really, really long week but we got really, really good feedback." Most importantly, "The kids were all happy."
The prizegiving was held in the Waiotemarama RFC club rooms after the finals at noon on Saturday. There, a number of coaches were given a list of their players - a total of 38 names altogether - wanted to make up the extended Northland Roller Mills side which holds their first training camp in Otiria next Sunday.
Results from the final three days of the 2012 NDSL RICOH Taniwha Shield were as follows (with the standout players from Far North sides only also noted).
Day 3, Thursday was played in pouring rain at Taheke although the ground reportedly stood up well: Mangonui 17 (standout Charlie Lorenz) Whangarei Bears 15, Rodney Otamatea 12 Whangarei Grizzles 10, Northern Wairoa 5 Hokianga 15 (Te Tikanga Atultolu), Bay of Islands 56 (Miles Halvorsen) Presidents 5.
Day 3 completed pool play where rankings were, Pool A: Whangarei Bears 1, Hokianga 2, Mangonui 3, Northern Wairoa 4; Pool B: Rodney Otamatea 1, Whangarei Grizzlies 2, Bay of Islands 3, Presidents 4.
Day 4, Friday, saw the semi-finals played in clearing conditions at Whirinaki: Mangonui 87 (Johnny Rakena) Presidents 0, Bay of Islands (Shyne Fulton) 5 Northern Wairoa 5, Hokianga 0 (Joseph Ngere) Rodney Otamatea 20, Whangarei Bears 25 Whangarei Grizzles 7.
Day 5, Saturday saw the finals held in ideal conditions at Waiotemarama and Waimamaku: 1st/2nd Whangarei Bears 17 Northern Wairoa 5, 3rd/4th: Hokianga 27 (Cannon Barry) Whangarei Grizzlies 19, 5th/6th Mangonui 22 (Muru Rudolph) Northern Wairoa 5, 7th/8th Bay of Islands 91 (Labroc Terei) Presidents 0.
Results from days two and three, Tuesday and Wednesday featured in last Thursday's Age. Whangarei Bears' Taka Makara was named the player of the tournament.