Top four Taniwha Shield placing a real team effort

---

A representative team of Year 7 & 8 rugby players from the Rodney and Otamatea area travelled to Keri Keri in July to compete in a week long tournament against seven other Northland regions for the coveted Taniwha Shield.

The Taniwha Shield is descended from the Cadbury Fry Hudson Trophy, which was contested in the 1930s and is Northland’s most prestigious primary school rugby tournament for players under 13 and weighing under 57kg, and usually their first experience of representative rugby.

Day one saw a hard-fought battle against Hokianga in atrocious weather conditions, the Rodney & Otamatea RhinOs finishing strong with a 22-20 win.

Day two, and another fiercely contested game against Northern Wairoa and through some solid line defence the RhinOs held on to win 22-21.

Day Three resulted in a loss to the mighty Grizzlies but the boys had done enough to see them into the top four.

Competition was tough from that point. The RhinOs were outsized and outnumbered but won the spectators hearts with their never-give-up attitudes and their mighty haka made them crowd favourites till the very end.

The boys were rewarded for their efforts with five members of the team invited to trial for the Northland Primary School team, and currently two are still in the wider training squad hoping to get selected to play in the 2015 Roller Mills Rugby tournament held in Whangarei September 27-October 3.

Prize giving was held at the Kaiwaka Sports Association on August 1. Trophy winners were: Top points scorer Tyrone DeArdenne; Fair play Denzal Peeni; Best back Tremayne Vakatini-Harding; Best forward Jesse Manuell; Players of the tournament Tyrone DeArdenne and Brady Foster.

 

The RhinO’s would like to acknowledge to following people for their donations of goods, services, vouchers and cash: Kaiwaka Sports Association, Nelson Family Trust, Oxford Trust, Paddy and Debbie Thornton, Mike Greenwood, Maungaturoto Op Shop, Matt Oldfield, Whangarei Treatment Providers, First National Real Estate, Maungaturoto Pharmacy, Maungaturoto Auto Centre, Kaiwaka Clothing, Eggs Whangaripo, Te Hana Orchards, Jacques 4Square, Cadbury, St Johns Maungaturoto, Cam Mills, Kyle and Kath Harris, Colin and Karyn Hodgson, Owen Clements, Sanitarium, Neville Westlake, RD1 Wellsford, Farmlands Wellsford, Daniel Butler, John Massey, Wellsford Pharmacy, Wellsford 4Squares (top and bottom), NZ Rugby Union, Kaiwaka Community Cinemas, Mike and Karen Smales, Wyatt Haulage, Rodney/Otamatea JMB, Rodney sub union, Fox Earthmoving and Paparoa Lions.

BATTLE CRY: The Rodney-Otamatea haka was a crowd favourite and spurred the team on to a top four tournament placing. PHOTO/C Peeni

---