Sacred Heart's Seamus Dawson-Myers challenges Kelston's P. Park during their premier college soccer clash at Sacred Heart College on Saturday. Photo / Greg Bowker
Wesley College take a proud rugby history into this week's Top Four tournament in Rotorua as they seek to add a sixth to their already-record five titles.
With the sought-after Barbarian and Moascar Cups at stake, the four finalists, Wesley, KBHS, Napier BHS and St Bede's College have plenty to play for.
In some ways though, KBHS and Wesley are a little lucky to have won through after failing to win their respective secondary schools' championships.
Wesley were beaten 7-5 earlier this month by Manurewa in the Counties Manukau final - Wesley's first such defeat after claiming the honours for the past 17 years - and KBHS went down in the Auckland final to St Kentigern.
But, with St Kentigern and Manurewa High opting, in May, to chase co-ed honours, rather than the major championship in Rotorua, KBHS and Wesley were thrown a lifeline.
Wesley's loss to Manurewa was their first since losing pre-season to Rotorua BHS. That loss was one of a number in the build-up to the season. One of their only two wins, in eight pre-season games, was, tellingly, 7-5 over KBHS. They then won 11 straight in the CMSS championship before losing the final to Manurewa who they had beaten 20-0 and 21-3 in the regular season.
The South Auckland school has a roll of just 250 boys and 30 girls and has only 90 senior boys from which to select their rugby teams.
Wesley are back in Top Four action, as the representative from the Chiefs franchise, for the first time since 2005. They claimed the title outright in 1990, 1993, 1997, 2001 and shared it with Christchurch BHS in 2004. With five wins, Wesley are the most successful team in the championship's history.
Kelston BHS are four-time winners - their last in 1999 - while St Bedes and Napier BHS have yet to get their name on the trophy.
In Friday's opening round, Wesley will play St Bedes and KBHS meet Napier BHS. The final will be played on Sunday.
GOLF
Cambridge's St Peter's School edged to a five-shot win over St Bedes (Christchurch) to claim the NZSS title at the Tauranga Golf Club.
The St Peter's team of Troy Scott, Compton Pikari, Matt Morris and Agni Bhokar held a one-shot lead at the halfway stage and handled the pressure well in the afternoon round to extend that lead and score a memorable win with a team total of 423 from two rounds.
The consistency of Scott, who led his team from the front with rounds of 68 and 70, was influential.
"The team had a bit of experience coming from last year so it was good to win the title as it's my last year at school," said Scott. "I played well all day, I just didn't hole the putts but I hit the ball really well."
Coach Simon Thomas was pleased to see his team finally win the title after contending regularly the past few years.
"This year we had the same four players as last year and I think that was the key."
St Bede's comfortably claimed second place by nine shots from WBHS who finished third.
Luke Brown, from Whangarei BHS, claimed the individual honours with two-under-par rounds of 68 for a 136 total by one shot with Jordan Bakermans (St Bede's) runner-up with rounds of 66 and 71.
New Zealand representative Cecilia Cho (Pakuranga) claimed a share of third place alongside winning captain Scott.
HOCKEY
Diocesan headed to this week's Federation Cup tournament full of confidence after beating arch rivals St Cuthbert's 2-0 in the final of the Auckland grade one inter-city championship.
The victory continued Diocesan's strong season in which they have scored 43 goals while conceding just one. Their tight defence was again on display in the final, leaving the St Cuthbert's attack with no answer to their strong, well-organised backline backed superbly by Holly McKinley's diving theatrics in goal.
Diocesan's first goal came courtesy of an athletic piece of work from Arabella Nelson. They added their second 16 minutes into the second half with a well-hit sweep shot from Frances Steel.
Despite some tidy passing between St Cuthbert's Liz Thompson and Abigail Stuart, and a late penalty corner opportunity, Diocesan maintained their clean sheet.
Pukekohe and Macleans played out a spirited 2-2 draw in the grade one boys' play-off for fifth and sixth.
NETBALL
MAGS retained their premier title with a 29-24 win over EGGS in a thrilling final at the AMI Auckland Netball centre.
Even before the first centre pass, the atmosphere was electric as supporters from both schools raged their off-court screaming battles with the MAGS boys singing the school song and the EGGS girls loudly cheering in their attempt to drown them out.
On the court, MAGS, led by Tera-maria Amani, were determined to silence the enthusiastic EGGS supporters.
MAGS led 9-6 at the end of the first quarter and stretched that to 14-9 by halftime.
EGGS fought back to close the gap to four goals heading into the final quarter but the defending champions rallied and went on to win by five.
Just as exciting was the preceding Senior A final with MAGS up against AGGS and hoping to lay the foundation for the double.
MAGS started strongly to take a seven-goal lead into the halftime break.
In the third quarter AGGS rallied, played some outstanding netball and got back to 19-19 to set up a thrilling final quarter.
After a very exciting last quarter AGGS stunned the favourites to win by five goals.
RUGBY
Two places in the BNZ Condor Sevens are up for grabs in the Auckland SS Sevens today.
Defending national champions KBHS and old rivals MAGS are the top two seeds for the 16-team tournament to be played at the Marist club's Mt Wellington grounds.
Whangarei BHS (Northland), Napier BHS (Hawkes Bay), NPBHS (Taranaki), Feilding HS (Manawatu) and Rosmini (North Harbour) have already qualified for the finals of the 25th BNZ Condor Sevens to be played in Auckland on December 4.
KBHS, beaten by St Kentigern in the recent Auckland 1A final, have had to turn to players from their 2nd XV for today's tournament as their leading players are in Rotorua preparing for the Top Four championship.
Hahona Uitime-Parahi is the sole survivor from the Kelston team who beat MAGS to win the Condor Cup a year ago and his experience will be crucial for the team coached by teacher Brett Kingstone.
Other players to watch will be MAGS captain Dillan Halaholo, Otahuhu's Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Onehunga High playmaker Calvary Fonoti and AGS's Braxton Stanley.
Stanley, Halaholo, Tuivasa-Sheck and Fonoti were members of the Blues under-18 side who won last month's regional secondary schools tournament with their 36-12 win over the Chiefs.
Third seed AGS and De La Salle College (fourth seed) are among the 16 schools from the 1A, 1B and 2B grades expected to push hard for places in the final.
With a new IRB Sevens World Series less than 100 days away, today's tournament is a golden opportunity for schoolboy players to impress Gordon Tietjens and take the first steps towards the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, where rugby sevens makes its debut.
Former New Zealand Sevens captain Karl Te Nana, who is assisting the AGS team, says the Olympics is the pinnacle for any athlete.
"There is no bigger feather in anyone's cap than an Olympic medal," he says.
NORTH HARBOUR: Northcote and Kaipara booked their chance to play on the big stage with wins in their respective semifinals earning them the right to square off at North Harbour Stadium in Friday's 1B final - to be played as the curtainraiser to North Harbour's ITM Cup clash with Wellington.
Northcote reversed their earlier 16-6 loss to Orewa by making most of home advantage in winning 30-12 - three tries to two - while Kaipara were on the wrong end of the same try count but still got home 22-18 at Glenfield College.
Goalkicking proved to be the difference in both games with David Halaufia landing two penalties and two conversions for Northcote and first-five Billy May landing four penalties - and scoring a try - for Kaipara.
In the 1B division 5th/6th play-off Long Bay beat Whangaparaoa 22-0 after they had drawn 17-17 in their previous encounter.
In the 1C division, WBHS 2nd XV beat Massey 2nd XV 15-10, KingsWay beat Kristin 17-14 and Birkenhead thumped Hato Petera 56-5. In Saturday's 1C semifinals WBHS 2nd XV will play Albany Senior High and Massey 2nd XV entertain Kristin.
The 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th A grade finals will be held at Windsor Park, also on Saturday, with the B and C grade finals to be played at the top-ranked school.
SOCCER
In a hectic end-of-season schedule, Danny Hay's Sacred Heart overcame the odds to win their Knockout Cup semifinal but then lost their final league game of the season before heading to Napier for this week's Lotto Premier tournament.
With nothing to play for in the league, the focus was on the cup semifinal away to St Kentigern - a team who had beaten them 5-1 a month earlier in the league.
On a day when snow threatened large parts of Auckland, Sacred Heart didn't turn up for the first half and fell 0-2 behind inside 25 minutes. The Michael Ridenton-coached hosts were still ahead by that margin at the break.
After what Hay later described as "a bit of a rollicking" at halftime, the visitors set about turning things around. They took the game to the home side but for the first quarter of an hour seemed unable to buy a goal and when it became apparent something special was required it came in the form of a sensational Tim Payne individual effort. He cut in from the left, eluded would-be tacklers and slotted an excellent low drive past the goalkeeper.
Spirits noticeably lifted and, barely three minutes later, Steven Carmichael sent in a speculative cross that looped over the goalkeeper into the top of the net for 2-2.
Sacred Heart sniffed an unlikely victory and goals from Michael Durkin and then Payne sealed the win and booked a place in the September 3 final against MAGS.
In last round league games, and with teams having an eye firmly on tournament week, already-crowned champions MAGS lost 1-0 at Westlake which ensured another season in the premiers for WBHS; Sacred Heart lost 3-1 at home to KBHS who ensured they would get the chance of surviving and St Peter's lost 2-0 at St Kentigern to say good bye to the premier league for the 2012 season.
The game between AGS and Rangitoto was not played and will be fitted in some time after the tournament.
TGS won 2-1 at Macleans to claim the A2 title and with it promotion to the premier league while Glendowie won 5-1 at home over Rosmini to make certain of second place and a play-off with KBHS for a place in the big time next year.
TABLE TENNIS
Led by New Zealand open men's singles champion Roger Rao, AGS wrapped up the Auckland SS inter-school premier A winter championship with a 5-2 win over Macleans.
The 10-week competition produced some close play. Rao led the AGS team of Xu Ning, Bill Xie and Taichi Akaoka to victory over St Kentigern who pipped Macleans A for second.
AGS have the chance to add the national schools crown to their haul when the NZ SSS championships end in Palmerston North today.
ON THE WEB
The move comes after Burling and Team New Zealand parted ways earlier this year.