CHRISTCHURCH TERROR ATTACK Warriors on a mission
Warriors utility Jazz Tevaga hopes the club can raise spirits in Christchurch when they play Manly in the city on March 30.
Tevaga, who was born in Christchurch, was one of the key players in the team’s 40-6 NRL win over the Bulldogs on Saturday, an emotional occasion for the nearly 19,000 people at Mt Smart Stadium.
For a couple of hours, it gave people a relief from Friday’s terrorist attack and Tevaga hopes something similar can happen in a fortnight.
‘‘Obviously we’ve got next week first [away to the Tigers], but it would be good to put some smiles on faces down there too,’’ Tevaga said.
At least in the win by the Warriors, for a brief period, some people were able to smile again.
‘‘I was pretty emotional hearing the news,’’ Tevaga said.
‘‘I’ve got a lot of family down there, so my heart was very heavy yesterday and today waking up to the news.
‘‘I just really didn’t want to believe that something like that could happen in New Zealand, somewhere where you’d never think something like that would happen – it was heartbreaking.’’
Tevaga said he told Warriors coach Stephen Kearney how upset he was by what had happened and the team rallied around him. ‘‘We went into camp [on Friday night] around dinner time,’’ Tevaga said.
‘‘We had dinner and I spoke to Mooks [Kearney] and was saying I feel real heavy, just in my heart.
‘‘I thought it was appropriate we got all the boys together and have a few words, because I know we were all feeling it.
‘‘We could feel that the vibe and energy in the team was very heavy. We wanted to pay our respects, so Fus [David Fusitu’a] led us in a prayer and we came together to pay our respects.’’
‘‘It would be good to put some smiles on faces down there [Christchurch].’’
Jazz Tevaga