Kaitaia College fields three touch teams
Kaitaia College entered three teams into the Northland secondary school touch championships in Kaikohe last Friday and all three performed with distinction.
The KC junior team had some strong results in pool play, narrowly missing out on their final as a result of a countback before going on to win the 3rd/ 4th playoff.
The development team progressed through the day unbeaten, thanks to dynamic play from the starting middles, Khalan Clyde and Cliffy Armstrong, and strong contributions by the rest of the team allowing the team to convincingly win its final by five tries.
The senior mixed team won four games en route to the final, where it lost an intensely contested see-saw game to Bay of Islands College 7-5. The Bay came from being down 4-2 at half time thanks to an outstanding spell of play where they scored three unanswered tries to snatch the lead. Kaitaia drew level with five minutes to play before two last minute tries to the Kawakawa kura sealed the deal.
The mixed team still managed to secure one of the two qualifying positions to this weekend’s zone tournament in Auckland where Northland’s best will seek to qualify for the nationals against the top school teams from North Harbour and West Auckland. Principal Jack Saxon noted the school was in the enviable position of being able to field three full teams — a total of 36 players — at the event, which was evidence the sport of touch was continuing to enjoy growth in the area.
“The strong play from this unit has got to make the school feel positive about the future where the players will grow into leading senior players.”