AG Challenge Wanganui Under-16 went toe-to-toe with the favourites of the Hurricanes B competition and went down swinging in a 27-24 thriller with Wellington Development in the final at Levin's Playford Park yesterday morning.
After a stirring prematch haka, of which the video is currently doing the rounds on socialmedia, Wanganui trailed 15-14 at halftime, with the teams then doing tit-for-tat scoring and making every opportunity count - Wellington barely holding the ascendancy 22-19 and then the final scoreline.
Wanganui's Shaiden Daniels scored two tries, while Cody Edwards and loose forward CJ Church got the others, Church adding two conversions.
Daniels finished with six tries from three games.
"They tackled, and the passion and desire to play for each other," said Matt Boult, father of centre Adam Boult.
Adam Boult set up two tries and was a standout, along with Church and halfback Griffen Culver - who did a lot of covering work and was the sole member of the squad named in the tournament team.
The efforts of this Wanganui U16 unit must be recognised considering previous incarnations have at times suffered heavy defeats at this tournament, whereas the John Church-coached side comfortably won their pool matches and went so close against the bigger Wellington side, selected from a catchment of players which cannot even be compared in terms of size.
