Rugby: WCC beat the odds to take out champs

The Wanganui City College 1st XV beat the odds and a humorous sightly derogatory nickname after winning the Manawatu Premier 1 Rugby Championship this season.

The team struggled to come together pre-season to form more than a 10-aside team and right up until the first game of the season coaches Tony Purvis and Greg Proctor were unsure if they would have enough players to field a team.

However, as the season continued the team grew and became a cohesive group of determined young men, led by their captain Presley Madams and vice captains Jona Nareki and Bobby Lambert.

This determination saw the team through to the semifinals and into the finals as the underdogs, playing the unbeaten Feilding High School 2nd XV.

Against all odds the WCC, lovingly nicknamed "Cool Runnings" (like the Jamaican Bobsled team) by director of rugby, Aaron Chadwick, were victorious against FHS winning 17-15, having played very clever and level-headed rugby.

"We left it right to the end pre-season to decide which competition to play in," Purvis said yesterday. "In the end there was nothing for us in the Wanganui Secondary Schools competition, so we opted to enter the Manawatu Premier 1 comp. We really struggled early to field a 15-aside team. Fortunately, we had a core group of committed players and they really did help attract and keep what eventually became a cohesive side.

"Sometimes we went into games with just 16 players and others rarely more than 20 throughout the season. Our objective all season was to play smart as a team. We had a good team of individuals, but to their credit they knuckled down and played as a team and that's what got us through," Purvis said.

Earlier in the season the FHS seconds beat WCC 29-19, but they certainly bounced back from that defeat to reverse the outcome in the game that mattered - the final.

"We beat them 17-15 in the final and it was a tremendous end to a very hard-fought season. We and all who supported them this season are very proud," Purvis said.