Term 2 Wrap Up
Term 2 has been a challenging and exciting time for St Paul's sport. With poor weather, short days, winter sickness and rolling strikes - our students, our coaches have been challenged regularly to reach their goals.
We have made the jump into Auckland's 1A 1st XV Rugby competition, a huge step up for our young men and coaching staff. Whilst results haven't gone our way, the team has never given up, never feigned commitment and constantly worked to improve to the levels required of this demanding competition. Whilst it has been a tough season so far, I'm very confident that with our continued efforts to improve, and for many, learn a new code whilst playing at the highest level, we will get there eventually. Hang in there gentlemen, the entire school community is behind you and that will never change. Our 2nd XVs, our U15 and U14 teams have all recorded impressive wins as we continue to build our rugby union program from the bottom up.
Our rugby league program has thrived but also at times had to work very hard to earn victories. Our under 15 blue team, largely made up of Year 9 students won an impressive victory last week versus Westlake Boys, who were last year's grand final winners and long considered a benchmark in under 15 rugby league. Our under 15 maroon team's biggest challenge of the season so far was ironically our under 15 blue team - a sign that the future is bright. Our Premier 1st XIII team has not been without its challenges, with a close home game versus MAGS recently, where many debutants rallied to record a memorable 20-12 win.
Our football program has gone from strength to strength, only to suffer a narrow 5-4 loss last week versus Mt Roskill Grammar. With many students new to the code, there are still many, many learnings for this playing group, especially as they progress into higher grades. This team of Year 9 and 10 students is our future 1st XI, where they end up will be determined by how hard they want to work.
Our badminton teams have had tough losses and finished their season at the lower end of the table. Despite this, commitment, enthusiasm and passion has never subsided. This is commendable and a reflection of the resilience of these students.
Our basketball program has improved every week from Years 7-13. A tough start to the season with many lop-sided scorelines in opposition favour, we have had to work hard, train hard, improve our weaknesses and move forwards to the next game. This is paying off and over the last few weeks our basketball results have completely flipped, with nearly all teams recording big wins.
Thank you to all our volunteer coaches, managers and supporters. Thank you for giving up your time, driving all across Auckland in the colder, darker months to support our sports teams - in rain, in fog, on muddy fields and cold mornings. Thank you to our coaches who take time out from work and their own families to upskill our students and give them the opportunity to represent the College. We are sincerely grateful for the collective support wrapped around our sport program and the way it brings our community together.
Draws, Results & Tables
Here are some useful links for draws, results and tables of our sports teams:
College Sport Auckland: drawsresults.sportsrunner.net
ARU School's Rugby Union: www.aucklandrugby.co.nz
Basketball: drawsresults.sportsrunner.net
Football: drawsresults.sportsrunner.net
Rugby Union: www.aucklandrugby.co.nz
Rugby League: drawsresults.sportsrunner.net
All Premier sport teams upcoming games are listed on the Kamar portal.
1st XV vs Auckland Grammar School Match Report
The 1st XV played their third home game of the season against Auckland Grammar School on Saturday 24 June. A game that saw members of the 1st XV Old Boys of 1963 team gather to remember the last time St Paul's beat AGS 6-3 at home. This game was always going to be a tough encounter against a clinical Auckland Grammar team who currently sit fifth on the 1A table.
The first ten minutes of the game was a start to forget with St Paul's College allowing a charge down try within two minutes and three minutes later a poor read on defence allowed Grammar in for another easy try. Within the first ten minutes of the game the score read 14-0 to Grammar with St Paul's still stuck in first gear. In very heavy conditions the St Paul's forwards finally started to build momentum through their direct running and pick and goes lead by powerful hooker Noah Hetutu-Davis who proved unstoppable with ball in hand. Malachi Filipo showed his class in the lineouts allowing loose forwards Sifa Teisi, Maselino Va'auli and pocket rocket John Matini to carry the ball strongly in heavy conditions.
The second half saw the home side St Paul's College dominate early possession through a strong kicking game by replacement 1st 5/8 Tyrone Hurt-Pickering and half back Ben Tohi. For St Paul's 2nd 5/8 Atapana Su'a showed his strength with some strong carries while centre Jeriko Filipi-Talisau again had a strong game. Auckland Grammar showed their class in the second half by scoring first but the home team never stopped trying and were awarded a well earned try to powerful workhorse lock forward Waka Tate and converted by Tyrone Hurt-Pickering. Another Year 11, Ezekiel Davidson Faaiuaso, also made his debut for the 1st XV coming on late in the second half.
The final score was 24-7 to Auckland Grammar School who proved their class on the day by scoring 4 tries to St Paul's 1 try. The team now shift their focus to the last four games of the season. This weekend sees our 1st XV line up against local neighbours Mt Albert Grammar School, definitely a winnable game for St Paul's if they can get off to a good start and build early momentum to post early points.
