College sport: Sport Waitakere's plan to get kids playing

Auckland Girls' Grammar's Foa Samuelu is tackled in her team's 26-0 rugby win over Tamaki College. Photo / Natalie Slade

Concerned at the falling number of students playing sport in their region, Sport Waitakere came up with a plan.

The "8M8" - or eight mates - initiative is aimed at getting students involved in social sporting activities.

"For about six years, Waitakere's participation rate was lowest of all New Zealand secondary school regions," said Sport Waitakere's child and youth adviser Gabrielle Gofton.

"We have raised that by 3 per cent in the last three years, but it is still the lowest." In 2011, just 36 per cent of girls and 39 per cent of boys were involved in school sport compared to the national averages of 49 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

With 34 per cent of teachers involved as coaches, Waitakere were by far the best served of all Auckland schools, boasting double the number for North Harbour schools. And, with 35 per cent of teaching staff involved in sport, Waitakere were a close second behind Auckland's central schools and ahead of North Harbour and Counties Manukau.

"With Waitakere College, Liston College and St Dominics being so close to each other, they formed one module while Avondale College made up the other," said Gofton. "In year two, Henderson High and Sunderland College have come in and we are hoping Kelston Boys' High and Kelston Girls' High will be in the programme by the end of term two.

"The sports have had to be modified to accommodate teams of up to eight, and all games are no longer than 20 minutes, which allows students to participate in two different sports on any given day," said Gofton.

The 8M8 concept was instigated to boost playing numbers and encourage students who previously had shied away from organised sport to become involved, as a step towards playing competitive sport.

The programme will be the subject of on-going debate at next month's inaugural North Island Secondary School Sport Conference in Rotorua.

The June 10-12 conference will combine the traditional Activate, which was held for upper North Island Schools, and Hurricanes region conferences into one high-quality professional development opportunity for secondary school sport co-ordinators and sport directors.

RUGBY

Defending champions St Kentigern, Auckland Grammar and Sacred Heart have all won four-from-four in the 1A championship but are separated at this early stage by bonus points. St Kentigern will face arch rivals Kings this week and AGS play Tamaki; bonus points will almost certainly again play a part in sorting out the order at the top of table after the weekend.

In the fourth round, KBHS bounced back to record their first victory, with a tense 13-5 win over Kings, who dominated territory and created more early scoring chances, but failed to take opportunities. They were left virtually empty-handed despite having their scrum operating better than it had in earlier games.

The first scoring came in the 10th minute when Kelston's lineout dynamo Jovesa Matakasa claimed the ball. Matthew Vaega then weaved through defenders to set up wing Cyruss Payne for a try, converted by Vaega. Kings hit back with an unconverted try to left-wing Dylan Jakicevich for a halftime 7-5 lead for KBHS. Vaega kicked two second half penalty goals.

St Peter's College hosted their first game of the season on the 3G artificial turf against De La Salle - a great advertisement for the all-weather surface resulting in a fast-paced, free-flowing encounter.

The visitors wasted no time in opening the scoring when they made the most of an opportunity presented to them by a St Peter's mistake, with blindside flanker Mose Taupo the benefactor. St Peter's struck back almost immediately with a slick back line move providing winger Shem-Kalvin Tatupu space to score in the corner.

De La Salle were very good at turning pressure into points. Mid-way through the second half they had stretched their lead with two tries from dynamic hooker David Afamasaga and accurate goalkicking from first-five Anthony Paulo.

St Peter's forwards, led by Samiuele Folau and Easton Malietoa-Brown, then began to dominate and provided their backs with some front-foot ball which fullback Nu'u Nu'u made the most of to score a try.

Shem-Kalvin Tatupu crossed the line again shortly after. With both tries converted by Nu'u the game was wide open with eight minutes to play but De La Salle hung on grimly to secure the nail-biting 29-28 victory.

With a number of regular starters on the bench with niggling injuries or sidelined altogether, MAGS began the game with Otahuhu College slowly.

They opened the scoring in the seventh minute when David Halaufia kicked a penalty and Otahuhu replied in a like manner with what proved to be their only points of the match.

A second Halaufia penalty restored MAGS' three point advantage.

The first try was scored after 23 minutes when a strong attack on the left flank and a great run by Elias Goodhue resulted in an excellent try in the corner. The conversion took the score to 13-3.

A second try, scored out wide by George Edwards five minutes later stretched the advantage to 18-3, which was the halftime score.

After the break MAGS' Dylan Lam scored two tries and Ethan Thompson and Leif Schwencke one each. Halaufia converted two for a final 42-3 scoreline.

MAGS now face De La Salle in the match of the round when four plays five at MAGS.

Against Onehunga HS, Sacred Heart won the toss and chose to play with the wind and made the most of it, racing to a 25-0 halftime lead despite a stop-start affair with many penalties.

Centre Solomone Kata (two, and six for the season) and hooker Sam Thomas all dotted down. Turoa Kamana converted two and kicked two penalties.

Sacred Heart went into the second half with high expectations of at least securing a bonus point try, but they were very flat, making little headway and numerous errors against a dogged Onehunga team who never gave up. Onehunga had the better of the second half, scoring a converted try and a penalty. A sole Kata penalty produced Sacred Heart's only points of the second half.

NORTH HARBOUR

With both Westlake Boys' High School and Rosmini College celebrating their 50th anniversaries, the age-old rivalry was set to the fore with WBHS enjoying the home advantage.

The game kicked off to a thunderous roar from the capacity Westlake crowd but they were soon silenced after the strong lineout drive by Rosmini that almost resulted in a score, and an early penalty kicked by Rosmini's fullback Ben Hyatt-Brown.

However it was WBHS centre Johnny Togiatomai who scored the first try when he split the Rosmini defence to score in the corner. But the hard-working Rosmini forward pack was rewarded shortly after when No 8 Teague McElroy crossed.

More penalties against Westlake allowed Rosmini to put the pressure on eventually resulting in a try to halfback Joseph Hasler from a quick tap. With Ben Hyatt-Brown adding the extras, Rosmini led 17-5 at half-time.

The second half started with Westlake having a complete change in attitude and tactics. The first-five/second-five combination of Callum Law and Curtis Reid chose to take the ball to the line, with Reid scoring after a constant midfield bombardment.

Both teams then exchanged penalties but it was the strong jumping of Westlake lock Josh Fraser at the front of the lineout that gave Westlake the opportunity to attack.

Another break from Reid gave him a second try and after converting his own try, the home team went ahead 22-20 with 10 minutes to play.

The visitors threw everything at WBHS in the dying minutes but without success as the home team held on after a bold second half comeback.

In the other fixtures, Massey escaped with a 17-15 win over gutsy Takapuna, who will rue the late missed penalty; Mahurangi edged an improving Northcote 10-5 and Rangitoto got the bonus point with a 39-9 win over Glenfield.

This week's match of the day will be the clash of last year's finalists Massey v Rosmini.

- Danny Drake

WAIKATO

Hamilton Boys' High shrugged off the demands of the long trek south to beat Feilding High in traditional fixtures.

The HBHS 1st XV won comfortably 44-7 and the 2nd XV was similarly successful, 34-5.

For the 1st XV wing Isaac Te Tamaki scored three smart tries.

With the completion of grading games, the local 1st XV competition got underway with schools grouped in three divisions of six teams who will play each other twice during the season home and away, followed by playoffs.

Cambridge High had the biggest winning margin in division one trouncing Matamata College 80-3 while in division three Putaruru thrashed the Fraser 2nd XV 99-0.

SOCCER

The keenly-anticipated top-of-the-table battle between national champions Sacred Heart and defending Auckland premiers MAGS turned out to be a one-sided affair with Kevin Fallon's MAGS triumphing 6-1 at home over Danny Hay's Sacred Heart.

Inside eight minutes, MAGS took the lead after an excellent save by Matt Lewis fell to Harley Tahau who slotted.

If the MAGS supporters felt another goal was coming, their faith was justified when Connor Stoton was the provider in the 34th minute. Tahau found Stoton, who outsped the Sacred Heart defence and fired a left-foot shot into the roof of the net.

Three minutes later Sacred Heart were back in it when MAGS gave away a freekick 22m from goal. Anthony Civilich stepped forward and blasted low and hard out of the reach of the fully stretched Cameron Hogg in the MAGS goal.

Any joy in the Sacred Heart camp was short lived, however, as the home side immediately responded with a goal to big Cameron Sinclair from a corner and a 3-1 halftime lead.

No changes were made by either coach at halftime and MAGS went out determined to attack their favoured Alberton Avenue end of the ground.

It did not take long for them to continue where they had left off, and while Fallon made a number of substitutions, MAGS put the game to bed with another three goals.

To their credit, Sacred Heart continued to play football and look for something rather than revert to a boring defensive effort, but in the end there was only one team in it.

Fallon was quick to remind his players that "we have to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground. There is a long way to go".

Hay felt his team lacked leadership on the day and missed the fighting qualities of injured player Cameron Martin.

St Kentigern, too, made most of home advantage in beating AGS 3-0. They went ahead in the 20th minute with a creative pass from Matthew Ridenton to Tom Kanusi who made no mistake.

Ten minutes later Ridenton made it 2-0 with a great finish. Shortly before half time the third goal came after Ridenton was brought down in the penalty area and Alex Waimora converted. AGS introduced Rory Turner in the second half and he made an immediate difference.

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