The victorious WHS Mixed Touch team with their second national secondary schools title in two years.
A five year journey for a special group of Whanganui High School touch players, who started as juniors and became seasoned seniors finally culminated on Sunday with back-to-back titles at the New Zealand Secondary School championships.
The WHS squad made their fourth consecutive mixed grade final and defeated Paeroa College 9-5 to retain their 2015 championship at Bruce Pulman Park in Papakura, having also been narrow runnersup in 2013-14.
Cullinane College entered the mixed competition and went through to the consolation playoffs, while a new look WHS girls team entered their grade and were eliminated in the plate semifinals.
The very successful WHS mixed touch squad was made up almost entirely of departing Year 13 students, who have been honed by their coach and New Zealand representative Sean Brown ever since they were fresh faced Year 9's.
"Four years in the finals is a massive achievement, and to go out on top," he said.
Brown had sweated on the core female players in the team coming through the previous weekend's Condor Sevens rugby tournament in one piece, where WHS entered the women's grade for the first time.
"It was always a risky tournament - we had five injuries going into it.
"We were fortunate with the experience that we had."
WHS would top Pool C on Day 1 of the competition on Friday, starting with a big 15-2 win over Motueka, followed by an 11-11 draw with Taupo Nui a Tia, then accounting for Alfriston 7-2 with WHS's 18+ points differential keeping them ahead of Taupo (8+).
Moving into Saturday's cross section play, WHS kept it going with wins over MacLeans (9-5), Rangitoto (12-5), and Mahurangi (8-6) to set up a tense Sunday semifinal with Kapiti, who had beaten them during the Central region qualifying tournament this year.
"We had to pick it up a gear," Brown said.
"It was almost like a rematch from the Central team.
"We managed to take it away in the last quarter."
Winning the semifinal 10-7, WHS were facing first time finalists Paeroa College, with WHS's big game players stepping up one last time.
WHS scored first in the corner through De Ann Tyrell, and then got another out wide for 2-0.
Paeroa hit back for their opening try, before WHS's Blair Osborne showed his elusive step to take the team to 3-1.
The underdogs lifted a gear to score twice and tie the scores, but WHS kept composure with Osborne adding his second right before the halftime hooter.
Used to the pressure, WHS's veterans immediately turned it up a notch at the resumption, scoring on their first set of touches, then adding rapid points to blow out to 8-3.
Paeroa managed to grind out another score but WHS hit back straight from the tap off, now safe at 9-4, with Paeroa managing a consolation score right near fulltime.
"We felt pretty comfortable, come that final quarter, that we had it in the bag by then," Brown said.
He praised the collective strength of the girls in the squad, while pointing to the handful of boy players who have had the x-factor.
The talented Osborne was named tournament male MVP, while captain Mitchell Millar made his last NZSS event one to remember.
Twin brothers Tyrone and Kelly Houltham had a great weekend, with Kelly making the tournament team.
Having literally built WHS's touch development programme from the ground up, Brown will now look to expand beyond the mixed competition by trying to qualify new look individual girls and boys squads for next year's nationals.
The girls team have already taken their first steps as the squad that went to Papakura were Year 9-10 players.
"It was the start of their journey, while the mixed team, that was the end of an era," Brown said.
WHS girls had some tough competition in Pool D, beaten by St Margarets (7-2), Rotorua Girls (9-5) and Westlake Girls (12-4).
It was similar in the cross section against Kaipara (9-3), AGS (6-5) and Howick College (12-1), before a narrow 4-3 loss to St Margarets in the plate semifinal, and finally a 6-5 defeat against AGS in the playoff for 15th.
A competitive Cullinane were unlucky in Pool D of the mixed grade, as a 10-4 win over Rangiora was followed by narrow losses to eventual finalists Paeroa (9-8) and then Mahurangi (7-6).
Going into cross section, Cullinane lost to Lincoln (10-6), defeated Waitakere (12-5) and finished with a 5-5 draw against Taupo.
In the Division 2 semifinals, they were beaten 9-8 by Mt Albert Grammar, before losing the playoff for 11th to Alfriston 9-8.
The full WHS Mixed Touch team was
Kelly Houltham, Mairangi Tamehana, Mitchell Millar, Dylan Bowater, Jordan Cohen, Tyrone Houltham, Blair Osborne, Treye Patea, Ayzak Bennett, De Ann Tyrell, Te Miringa Parkes, Mahinarangi Millar-Potaka, Kahurangi Sturmey, Ruhia Tamati.