Playing together as a team has earned a year 5/6 rugby team from Tinwald School top honours in the Canterbury Zones Primary Schools Winter Tournament in Christchurch.
Their achievement was celebrated at school assembly.
The 13-strong boys team, coached by parent Dave Hormann and led on-field by captain Hunter Colyer-Lusty, beat West Melton School 6-2 in last week’s final at South Hagley Park.
It followed weeks of training at school, twice each week, as well as team talks.
‘‘We played pretty good, we played as a team,’’ Hunter said.
‘‘A team talk on our last training, we were just talking about how the rucks were going to go, how the back line was going to be set up.
‘‘Then we also got other team mates to talk … and what needed to be sorted out.’’
His fellow team members were Thomas Sargent, Declan Leslie, Heath Hormann, Lucas Hopping, Liam Proctor, Charlie Holland, Riley Todd, Braxton Goodfellow, Jacob Todd, Ashton McKenzie, Jagger Williams and Dana Singh-Pau.
Hunter said when it came to the first game, playing 10-a-side tackle rugby, everything went smoothly,
‘‘The rucks were nice, there were no heads being smacked in there, the backs were pretty good we were always wide.
‘‘It was pretty good, spot on,’’ he said.
He was thankful to coach Hormann and said he enjoyed playing alongside school mates who during the rugby season played for different clubs.
Within the school side there were members of Tinwald, Celtic, Allenton, Southern and Collegiate rugby clubs.
Tinwald, who qualified after winning the Mid Canterbury primary schools winter tournament, won all three of their four pool games; one team withdrew from play. They then faced Knights Stream School in the quarter final, Lincoln Primary School in the semi-final and West Melton School in the final.
Hormann, who coaches the year 6 Tinwald Tigers, said it was ‘‘a fantastic tournament’’ which was represented by 18 school zones.
‘‘The kids went really well, played really well as a team, which was what we practiced,’’ he said.
‘‘I was very proud of them, they all played as a team. If one got knocked down, another one jumped up and stood beside them’’
He said he realised the teams potential after a particularly tough quarter final match against Knight Stream School.
‘‘Once we won (against Knight Stream) – we thought that was like a final to us – I thought ‘We’re in with a chance here’.’’
Hunter agreed.
‘‘The hardest game was probably our quarter final,’’ Hunter said. Tinwald won 2-0.
During that match Thomas Sargent got the wind knocked out of him following a tackle.
‘‘He got tackled really hard. You could literally hear the air come out of him,’’ said one of his team mates who was close by at the time.
They then went on to beat defending champions Lincoln 5-1 in the semi final.
It was during the final, against West Melton, that try scorer Braxton Goodfellow dislodged his knee cap.
‘‘I went for the corner try and I went in for a slide but instead of sliding, my knee got stuck in the hard ground and it ripped it out,’’ he said, sporting a bandage around the badly bruised site.
‘‘But I came out of the ground and it went back in at the same time.’’
Principal Peter Livingstone said it was the first time in his 19-year teaching history in the district he had heard of a Mid Canterbury school taking out the title.
‘‘They were simply the best,’’ Livingstone said.
‘‘We only conceded four tries and won every game, including the final.’’
The team’s victory, where they got bragging rights and a first-place certificate, was celebrated at school assembly where they received the school’s special recognition award in front of their school peers.
