Bowers Cup win after six years attempting
A South Waikato club that helped grow some of the best rugby players New Zealand has ever seen seen has taken out the the Bowers Cup.
The Tritons Representative Rugby Club won the Bowers Cup Tournament recently after six years of vying for the title.
Kevin Mealamu, Richard Kahui, Shaun Maitland, Quade Cooper, and Issac Boss, are just some of the big names who have come out of the club in the past.
The tournament is made up players who have been chosen to play rugby at a representative level who are under 45 kilograms from throughout the South Waikato. Most are intermediate age.
Coach Latisha Kelly said she couldn’t be more proud.
‘‘It is a massive achievement, it’s huge because the highest we ever placed before was sixth,’’ she said.
Kelly said the tournament featured 10 games played over five Sundays.
‘‘We lost our first game to Te Awamutu, who we eventually played in the final, seven nil so our goal was to just get in the top four,’’ she said.
‘‘The games are 40 minutes each way and in the final it was 15 all so they had to play an extra 10 minutes each way.
‘‘They scored just before the end of the second half and then we scored and converted so we won by two points.’’
‘‘It was a great game and even [Te Awamutu] said whoever won deserved to. It could have gone either way, they were pretty much evenly matched.’’
She put the team’s win down to hard work and said many of them could make it all the way.
‘‘We did six weeks trailing twice a week and they were really committed , ‘‘she said.
‘‘It was definitely a team win, they were all outstanding, but there is a core group of about eight that I think will go far.
‘‘That is the whole point of Tritons though, to give them an opportunity to be seen.’’
Kelly said everyone was still ‘‘on a high’’ from the win.
‘‘Considering they were from around six different schools they worked really well together and there was no selfishness.
‘‘I would just like to say congratulations. It was such a hard fought tournament but they persisted and did really well.’’
Lotu Misa and Stacy Taylor also coached the team and it was managed by Kathy Mctaggart.