A rugby pass for each of 18,804km
The All Blacks will be passing the ball around a fair few times over the weekend but they’ve got nothing on one Lower Hutt primary school.
More than 190 students and staff from a school in Wainuiomata, Wellington took to the courts on a chilly Friday morning to make the last of 18,804 rugby passes.
Konini Primary School’s ’Pass the Ball’ idea started a few months ago with teacher Matt Pegg. He got in touch with staff at Larmenier and Sacred Heart Primary School in Hammersmith, London and proposed a plan.
The students in London would pass a rugby ball 18,804 times – the distance between London and Wellington in kilometres. Then, the ball would make its way to New Zealand where students would make 18,804 passes of their own, symbolising the distance travelled by the Lions rugby team and its fans.
Larmenier and Sacred Heart students finished their part off in the first week of June and signed a commemorative ball.
Three Lions supporters put their hands up to bring the ball over to New Zealand and safeguard its travel to the school.
Throughout the week, the Konini students have been passing balls around to push their number of passes up.
On Friday morning, the Lions supporters and the commemorative ball were welcomed to the school with a powhiri, before the final passes were finished.
Principal Andrea Scanlan said the kids had been having a lot of fun and a few parents had been involved as well. ‘‘[The students] know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.’’
Between 11.30am and 12.30pm, roughly 11,000 passes were made.
Videos and photos of the final passes would be sent to the school in the UK, Pegg said.
‘‘It’s good for the school to see that we have actually done it.’’
Once the passes were all wrapped up, the ball would be off on its way again.
‘‘[The Lions fans] will get to take the ball back to the UK, symbolising the Lions losing 3-0, hopefully,’’ Pegg said.