Final drought broken for Wanganui

FINALLY: After finishing runners-up two years on end, coach Sean Brown has guided his Wanganui High School mixed touch team to victory in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships. PHOTO/FILE

The Wanganui High School mixed touch team ended a four-year journey in Auckland at the weekend to finally win the New Zealand Secondary Schools National title.

The mission began four years ago when most of today's senior players were junior students. They were groomed to meet the demands of this level of competition by vastly experienced coach Sean Brown.

Brown is the New Zealand mixed team captain and has played at the last three world cup tournaments.

He and his team knew they were getting close to gold after losing the mixed final in 2013 and 2014, so it was a huge relief to finally go one further at Bruce Pulman Park in Manukau this season.

"We have six new players, but the remaining team members have been part of those final losses in the last two years, so they were extremely satisfied with the final result," Brown said yesterday.

"We all worked extremely hard and sacrificed a lot of things to get this result, which started four years ago when most of the senior group were all junior students when the team first participated.

"We started off well beating St Andrews (7-2) and Orewa (8-nil) comfortably. However, we were really tested against Macleans College ending in a draw. But we still finished first seed before cross overs."

The toughest game of the tournament came on day two when WHS met the other River City team to make the finals, Cullinane College. Cullinane have now made the last three finals tournaments without a podium finish.

"It's always a special game and has become a great rivalry, which has helped raise the level of both schools. Cullinane made the top pool after beating last year's champs Mt Albert Grammar on day one."

WHS won that encounter 5-3.

The day three semi-final held its own anxiety.

"We were playing last year's champs boasting several New Zealand reps. We were extremely happy coming through that game (5-3) and once we did we were very confident about performing well in the final," Brown said.

WHS beat Marahani College 5-4 in the final to take the national secondary schools mixed touch title.

Appropriately several of the WHS team made the NZ schools tournament side.

They included Blair Osborne, Mitchell Millar, Harerangi Meihana, and Taniko Tamehana who was also named the tournament's MVP female.

Brown said a new journey could now begin with the focus firmly on retaining the title season after season.