St Mary’s revel in sevens victory
A trip to Japan will need to be planned now that St Mary’s College are national sevens champions.
The team became the first Wellington school to win the girls’ title at the Condor sevens when they beat Hamilton Girls’ High School 19-17 in the final on Sunday.
It means they will be off to Sanix International Schools Rugby Festival in Japan in April next year, which their coach, Tuga Mativa, said was a massive achievement.
‘‘It will be awesome girls.
‘‘They knew it was a possibility before the tournament, but it never popped up at training, the girls just focused and worked really hard.
‘‘Condors was the main focus and last year we made top eight, which was a bloody good experience and helped us this year.’’
Having been seeded eighth for the tournament based on last year’s results, St Mary’s went through this year’s tournament unbeaten. A 12-12 draw against Tauranga Girls’ College in their final pool match was the only blemish on their record.
In a quirk of the draw, they met Tauranga in their quarterfinal on Sunday and were quick to avenge Saturday’s result.
‘‘We were lucky enough to face Tauranga the next day in the quarters and we beat them 41-0, so
"I guess you have to set some high goals next year because the girls know what they can do now. We kind of have to up the ante a bit." Tuga Mativa
for the we were stoked,’’ Mativa said. ’’A few of the girls must have gone home and slept on a few of the things that they needed to do.’’
In the semifinals they met Southland Girls’ High School, the team which beat them in the national top-four XVs final earlier in the year.
Mativa said thas lost provided motivation to get revenge.
‘‘I think at the back of their minds they did have motivation to make up for that. We did want to beat them and the girls found the fire within to go through and get the result.’’
They won that match 19-7 on the back of some bruising defence, setting up another blockbuster clash with perennial powerhouse Hamilton Girls’ High School, who they beat in the semifinals of the topfour XVs tournament.
Mativa said he had a good feeling they were going to win the final.
‘‘From the warmup I knew the girls were ready for it, they just seemed switched on. Hamilton were the heavyweights of the competition and it was awesome to get a second win over them.’’
Hamilton opened the scoring in that match, but St Mary’s captain Monica Tagoia powered over to put them up 7-5.
More punishing defence and tries to Lyric Faleafaga and Ivana Samani had them on course for what looked like a comfortable victory up 19-5, but Hamilton showed great fight to grab two late tries of their own.
It was not enough and St Mary’s were crowned champions.
Togoai, Cheyne Copeland, Ainsleyana Puleiata, as well as Lyric and Dhys Faleafaga, were all named in the tournament team, but Mativa said it had been a team effort all year long.
‘‘We’ve always said it’s a team game.
‘‘If we’re playing XVs then it takes 22 players to win, if it’s sevens then it takes 12. We always reminded them it’s not the seven that start it’s the 12 that train throughout the year.’’
With one national trophy in the bag, Mativa said they would be looking to add the top-four title next year with only year 13 Togoai leaving the team.
‘‘I guess you have to set some high goals next year because the girls know what they can do now and we can’t stay at that broad level of ‘look, we’ll just keep doing this’, we kind of have to up the ante a bit.’’
‘‘It was overwhelming to win it, because I did it for my grandparents who recently passed.
‘‘They’ve had my back since I was little, they were the ones that got me into throwing. My granddad was a thrower, he did a little bit of shot put. He didn’t do that well, but he got me into it because he wanted me to do a lot of sport so I didn’t get into any mischief.’’
The special moment came after he threw 52.12 metres on his third throw of the competition, but the drama didn’t end there with Whangarei Boys’ High School’s Scott Gregory throwing within a metre of that mark with his next throw to keep the pressure on.
Ahnau held on for the win, before also winning what he said was a surprise bronze medal in the senior boys shot put.
The year 13 credits his coach, Shaka Sola, for his remarkable rise to winning his first senior secondary schools title.
‘‘Shaka saw me throwing at one of the interclubs [three years ago] and he liked what he saw, so he told me to come along to one of his trainings. Shaka has taken me from throwing 20 metres to now into the 50s.’’
Ahnau is also an accomplished rugby league and union player, earning a trial with Australian rugby league club the Cronulla Sharks, while playing for the Town first XV and the Wellington Samoans team.
But throwing will get most of his attention over the next 12 months at least.
‘‘I was thinking of playing league [next winter], but Shaka is really telling me to get into some winter training for throwing.
‘‘My main goal is the Commonwealth Games [on the Gold Coast in 2018].’’
In other results, Hutt Valley High School’s Nick Smith completed an impressive sprint double, winning the senior boys 100m and 200m.
There were also gold medals for Wellington College’s Isaac MillerJose in the senior high jump, Wairarapa College’s Mikael Starzynski in the junior boys 400m and Roderick Solo (Scots College) in the junior boys 100m hurdles and long jump.