Tennis juniors play rep rugby
All five members of one of Southland’s junior tennis teams have been donning representative rugby jerseys this season.
Southland under-12 tennis stars Riley Smith, Tim Willans, Aaron Withy, Tom Nicholson and Jack Hazlett were in the same team at the Southern Districts teams events in 2016, but have switched their tennis sneakers for footy boots in the winter season.
Smith, Willans and Withy recently played for the Southland under-48kg team, Nicholson was in the under-38kg Southland Country team, while Hazlett played for the Otago Country under-38kg side.
While it is relatively common for top level rugby players to be good tennis players, including the likes of Andrew Mehrtens and Matthew Ridge, it is a novelty having all five members of the one tennis team all playing representative rugby.
According to Tennis Southland regional coaching and tournament coordinator, Tracy Simpson, this is a rare achievement.
‘‘This is an example of how skills can be transferred between codes, in this case it’s a summer and winter sport,’’ she said.
Simpson believes that a recent Tennis Southland nutrition workshop with Aimee Burns as part of the development squad programme has contributed to the players performances in both sports.
‘‘The focus was on what to eat, and drink, the timing as well as the difference between training and competing,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, in other tennis action, a Southland and North Otago composite team competed in a Super Vets competition in Dunedin recently.
The combined team finished third in the hotly contested event.
They beat Otago 13-3 and Southern Lakes 10-6, but their other matches were much tighter.
They drew with Canterbury 8-8 and lost on countback 110 games to 106, before defeating South Canterbury on countback 114–109 after it was also tied at 8-8.
The combination lost their final fixture against Canterbury Country 9-7 after losing the last match of the tie.
The team was competitive right through the ranks as Ian Mockford and Errol Morton won most of their bottom doubles matches and Barbara Johnston and Lyn McLeod also chalked up some wins too.