Te Awamutu Sports on world stage at rugby cup
Amateur festival tour party logs first win just 12 hours after disembarking their flight
Te Awamutu Sports French touring party cruised through the pool stages of the Inaugural World Amateur Rugby Festival in Port de Bouc, with a perfect three from three record, dispatching France, Belgium and Uruguay in comfortable fashion.
The games consist of two 20 minute halves and three rounds a match day at various locations across the south of France, with Te Awamutu Sports and the rest of Pool A situated in Port de Bouc.
The tournament opened in a similar fashion to their professional counterparts, with New Zealand (Te Awamutu Sports) taking on French club Rugby Club Dignois just over 12 hours after landing in France.
They earned a hard fought 21-9 victory with tries to pivot Dillon Martin, midfielder Shauncy Waho and hooker Hoani Ham. Martin kicked a perfect three from three off the tee.
Match day two started at 10am
with the first of two fixtures against Belgium’s Rugby Club de Frameries and after an evenly contested first half, leaving the score 0-0 after 13 minutes, Sports put the hammer down and ran away 38-7 victors.
Outside back Elijah Mataira led the way with three tries while Hone Karaka also picked up a double.
Loose forward Niah Church-Jones added the other try, with Martin slotting three conversions.
The second game of match day two had Te Awamutu taking on
Uruguay’s Carrasco Polo Club in the final game of the day.
They wore down the big and physical Uruguay forwards to kick clear 33-5.
Two early, long-range penalty goals to pivot Logan Karl opened up the scoring for Sports before tries to Josh Coffin (2) and Shauncy Waho (2) stretched the lead.
Karl added another penalty goal and three conversions.
Captain Latrell Smiler Ah-Kiong was also rewarded for his scintillating form from fullback on the second day with Pool A’s player of the day.
Sports’ record has booked them a quarter final date with Tonga in the early hours of Friday morning New Zealand time.
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Find match replays and live streams at rugbymondial.tv.