Southland touch reps named in NZ team

More Southland touch players have received national recognition recently.

Trisha Hopcroft and Kate Day were selected for the New Zealand Touch Blacks women’s team to face Australia at the 2017 Open Trans Tasman to be held on the Sunshine Coast from May 10 to 14, after impressing during recent national trials in Auckland.

Hopcroft will get a chance to add to her experience with the NZ team at senior level, after making the NZ women’s team for matches against Japan and Australia in 2016.

Southland’s Ben McKerchar, who also attended the trials, was named as a non-travelling reserve for the New Zealand men’s team.

Meanwhile, five members of the New Zealand Touch National Championships winning Southland under-18 mixed side - Amy du Plessis, Prue Buckingham, Brad Kooman, Dom Ririnui-Sipa, and Kaleb Talamahina - have all been selected to attend Touch New Zealand training camps later this year.

While du Plessis, Kooman, Ririnui-Sipa and Talamahina have attended the national trials and played for New Zealand at junior level before, this is the first time that Southland Girls’ High School’s Buckingham will attend the trials.

James Hargest College student Madi Grieve will also be at the national trials for the first time after making an impression with the Southland under-16 girls’ team at the national championships.