Waikato won the the 2012 Northern Roller Mills championship title in convincing fashion in beating Auckland East 21-0 as the seven-day competition concluded on Saturday at the Teachers Eastern RFC grounds on Orakei Domain.
Northland, meanwhile, eventually finished in fourth place in the annual tournament for primary school rugby players. However, manager Catherine Stewart said everyone involved with the tour had an absolutely "fabulous" time during the week away in Auckland.
"A really amazing experience. The boys played hard. What an amazing pleasure and experience for the management and coaches this year, we are so proud of this squad of 24," Stewart underlined, before proudly noting four Northland players were selected for the 2012 NRM Tournament Team. In the "paper team" were Benjamin Monaghan, Simon Parker, Rivez Reihana and Kaeo youngster Jodeci Campbell. (For the record, the latter was not the first ever girl to be selected into a NRM tournament team as noted elsewhere; that honour belonged to another lass, Claudia McMeekin Currin who was selected into the Meads XV 2008 tournament team).
Teams in this year's Rollers Mills competition were split into two divisions; section A featuring Thames Valley, Waikato, Northland and Bay of Plenty, King Country; and section B with North Harbour, Auckland West, Auckland East and Counties Manukau.
Northland's results over the week were as follows.
Sunday, September 30: beat King Country 60-7 (Northland tries by S Parker, R Reihana, C Lorenz, M Peters, D Brown, R Cook, N Graham, J Martin; conv; R Reihana 5); Tuesday, October 2: beat Thames Valley 49-14 (tries: H Campbell, K Waa, C Lorenz 2, R Shadbolt, R Windleborn Rawiri, T Pehopa; conv R Reihana 7); Wednesday, October 3: beat Bay of Plenty 21-0 (H Kidd, B Monaghan, S Parker; conv R Reihana 3); Thursday, October 4: lost to Waikato 39-0.
These results placed Northland 2nd in section A, and the side was beaten in the quarter-finals by Auckland East who were 1st in section B by 22-3 (Northland's sole points a penalty by R Shadbolt).
Northland then played Auckland West in the 3rd/ 4th place playoff on the final day and lost 27-22, before Waikato beat Auckland East to claim this year's overall title.
Ironically, the last time Waikato won was in 1991 when the event was also hosted by the Auckland Rugby Union and also played at the Teachers Eastern rugby grounds.
And of Northland's final game, manager Catherine Stewart noted it was an intense one but still full of good clean rugby.
"The boys played with all of their hearts, right to the bitter end. And you can't ask for more than that."
Northland
In other rugby news, the Northland Taniwha were squished 11-56 (ht 6-22) by the Canterbury juggernaut at Toll Stadium on Friday. The match was a crossover between a higher tier prem team, i.e. Canterbury (the current champions having won the ITM Cup for the past four years), and the lower tier championship, in this case Northland.
The result affected neither side overly in regards to standings in the ITM Premiership or Championship; leaving Northland in contention for a semifinal - potentially against Counties Manukau - on October 20. All, no doubt, depending on the final game of the round-robin season this Saturday, when Northland takes on the form team and leaders of the championship, Counties, at Toll Stadium in Whangarei at 2.35pm.