First XV rugby is back - and so is the Herald's weekly look at the top teams and the players to watch. Today, Reuben Mama profiles Dilworth School.
Dilworth School may be one of the smaller schools in the Auckland 1A 1st XV competition, but their lofty ambitions have filledtheir student-athletes with belief they can foot it with their larger competitors.
"That game there started the journey,"Truman said. "I was only going to do it for three years, but as things played out it kept evolving and I love it and am really passionate about it. I like seeing the guys develop and the importance of rugby at the school and seeing boys grow not just on the rugby field, but classroom activities and in terms of life."
Dilworth finished 11th on the ladder last year and while they only have around 100 students that play rugby throughout the school, they've taken action to try and grow their rugby programme by creating a new director of rugby role which will be filled by Gareth Pickering at the beginning of next term.
First XV Rugby Union Auckland Boys Promotion / Relegation match. Dilworth v One Tree Hill. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
"I think the director role fosters a thorough development programme for the school across those year groups. In an ideal situation you've got kids from years 5,6,7 and 8, so to look at how we best develop those guys and get them interested in rugby and then move that through to year 9 to 13 level as well." Truman explains.
Dilworth lock John Vatikani. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
While the school values of respect, excellence, integrity, service and compassion are prevalent in how the team holds itself, it's their surroundings that remind them of the collective journey they're on.
"We've got a mountain next door to us called Titikopuke or Mount Saint John and there's a saying within the team where we don't leave anybody up the mountain, so we try to use the school values to bring that to reality in a rugby context." said Truman.
This year's team is captained by lock turned number eight Edward Whyte, who Truman admires for his leadership qualities.
Dilworth players celebrate a try. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
"He's a leader that understands the game and is able to communicate that effectively amongst players. He's quite thoughtful and gets alongside the leadership group and stimulates a pretty good conversation about what he thinks needs to happen and he's able to communicate that pretty freely with coaches and management. When he's on the field he leads by example in terms of how he plays."
Prop Jemarn Taipaleti and midfielder Henry Teutau are two players that will be vital to Dilworth's success.
"Jemarn is one of those props who absolutely love scrummaging. His big game is trying to win that scrum contest, but also across the park he offers a good ability to carry the ball and get us across the gain line. Henry is a year 11 student and is a barnstorming runner who is able to break tackles and offload effectively. He's a very big promise for the future and I know there's a number of league scouts hanging around, so it's great he's still playing rugby." Truman said.
After achieving their first goal of remaining in the 1A competition and picking up a maiden win of the season in round two against Liston College, Truman says Dilworth's next target is gradually ascending to be competitive at the peak of the competition ladder.
"We're trying to build each week to get better and foot it against the bigger and more established rugby schools and try to take some of those scalps along the way as well. It's something we're endeavouring to do so that one day we could potentially be a top four school. "
