THAMES VALLEY RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION PO BOX 245, PAEROA 3600. PH 07 862 6352 FAX 07 862 7677 TVRFU Weekly Newsletter (6th August 2020) JUNIOR RUGBY Junior Rugby continued over the weekend with the last of the Festival Days taking place. Once again, the feedback was really positive and this is definitely something that will be looked at in the years to come. Witnessing the U8 & U11 Festival Days in Whangamata and Thames respectively, it was great to see packed out sidelines but also the kids mixing and mingling with other teams. Scrum Factory took place yesterday at Waihi Athletic Rugby Club. We didn’t quite get the numbers we were after; however, I have learnt a lot from this and taken a few notes on how we can make these events even better. Thanks to Wok Mathis and Matt Rolston for your assistance I am keen to get out to Junior Clubs and assist coaches & teams where needed. Please get in touch with us if you are keen for this to happen, obviously with a shortened season there is a smaller window for this to happen. The TVRFU are happy for clubs to organise their own ‘friendly’ matches between each other after the 15th August – we understand that not all clubs will be keen on this, but the option is there if you want. Enjoy the weekend of action below: U8s DRAW: Saturday 8th August Waihi Black vs Thames Waihi 1 10.00am Start Saturday 8th August Waihi Red vs Whangamata Waihi 2 10.00am Start Saturday 8th August Hauraki vs Mercury Bay Ngatea 2a 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Paeroa vs Te Aroha Centennial 11.00am Start Park 2a U9s DRAW: Saturday 8th August Coromandel vs Mercury Bay Coromandel 1a 10.30am Start Saturday 8th August Tairua vs Te Aroha Tairua 1a 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Waihi Black vs Paeroa Waihi 1 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Thames vs Waihi Red Rhodes Park 4a 11.00am Start U10s DRAW: Saturday 8th August Mercury Bay vs Waihi Sports Park 3a 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Te Aroha vs Hauraki Boyd Park 4 11.00am Start U11s DRAW: Saturday 8th August Whangamata vs Mercury Bay Whangamata 1 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Waihi Black vs Hauraki Waihi 1 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Te Aroha vs Waihi Red Boyd Park 2 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Coromandel vs Thames Coromandel 1 11.30am Start U13s DRAW: Saturday 8th August Te Aroha vs Mercury Bay Boyd Park 1 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Paeroa vs Hauraki Centennial 11.00am Start Park 1 Saturday 8th August Thames vs Whangamata Rhodes Park 3 11.00am Start Saturday 8th August Waihi vs BYE COLLEGE RUGBY Paeroa College 1st XV got the wood on Hauraki Plains College 2nd XV winning by 57 – 12 at Hauraki Plains College. Whangamata Area School continued their winning run defeating last year’s Alan Fisher Cup winners Waihi College 35 -0, in Whangamata. And finally, Hauraki Plains College 1st XV defended the Provincial Transport Shield defeating Mercury Bay Area School 45 - 0 in Whitianga. Paeroa College Under 15s had a strong win over Thames High School in a high scoring game 47-29. Te Aroha College hosted Whangamata Area School, the teams couldn’t be separated with both teams holding on for a 34-34 draw. Waihi College ran away late in the second half to beat Hauraki Plains College West 43-15. Finally, Mercury Bay Area School travelled to Ngatea to play Hauraki Plains College East and headed home with a 54-5 win. The Girls 1st XV Competition starts this week, please see below the draw and note that they are com- mencing this Thursday 6th August. Good luck for the first round. Girls 1st XV DRAW: Thursday 6th Whangamata vs Mercury Bay Whangamata 4.00pm Start AJ August Area School Area School Hartley Thursday 6th Paeroa vs Hauraki Plains Paeroa 4.00pm Start Dali August College College Tui U15 Boys DRAW: Saturday 8th Mercury Bay vs Hauraki Plains Whitianga 10.15am Start N/A August Area School West Saturday 8th Whangamata vs Paeroa Whangamata 10.15am Start Ryan August Area School College Rogers Saturday 8th Thames High vs Hauraki Plains Thames 10.15am Start N/A August School East Saturday 8th Waihi College vs Te Aroha Waihi 10.15am Start N/A August College 1st XV Boys DRAW: Thursday 6th Hauraki Plains vs Hauraki Plains Hauraki 4.00pm Start Stu August College 1st XV College 2nd XV Plains College Pinny Saturday 8th Whangamata vs Mercury Bay Whangamata 11.30am Start Aaron August Area School Area School Miller Saturday 8th Waihi College vs Paeroa College Waihi 11.30am Start Simon August Craggs CLUB RUGBY Paeroa almost caused the upset of the season with a narrow 17-24 loss to Mercury Park. With the scores 17-17 going into the last moments of the game, Mercury Bay managed to cross the line & steal victory in front of a large Paeroa crowd. As mentioned, this young Paeroa team were always going to hit their straps, good luck for the next couple of weeks. Mercury Bay 24 Tries (Dane Matthew, Fraser Robinson, Jayden Tegg) Conversions (Jayden Tegg x2) Paeroa 17 Tries (Cameron Bell, Niral McCrae, Bryson Williams-Oka) Conversions (Brendan Firth x1) Waihi Athletic provided an almighty scare against the COBRAS, ending in a 29-29 draw. Leading for large chunks of the match, Waihi couldn't seem to finish off a determined COBRAS side and made some poor decisions in the later part of the match which possibly could of swung the result their way. This ends Waihi’s chances of a Top 4 spot, however they will be looking to spoil Whangamata’s party this week away from home. Waihi 29 Tries (Dylan Horne x2, Tayla Turnbull) Conversions/Penalties (Reuben Meares 1 con, 4 pen) COBRAS 29 Tries (Sireli Kuruduadua, Ben Stephens, Leroy Neels x3) Conversions (Zac Stephens x2) Hauraki North ended their two match losing streak, gutsing out a 19-10 victory against Waihou. This ends Waihou’s hope of making a Semi Final this year, but now gives Hauraki North a sniff of a home semi- final—however they will need to beat an ever improving Paeroa this weekend for that to happen. Hauraki North 19 Tries (Brook Campbell, Jason Laurich x2) Conversions (Brook Campbell x1) Waihou 10 Tries (Keegan Lewis, Patrick Aislabie) Whangamata cemented themselves in the Top 4 of the Senior A Competition after a big 43-0 victory over Thames. With the scores still even at the 25 minute mark, the superior fitness and width of the Whangamata attack came through running in 7 tries. Standouts for Thames were hard running ball carriers Fred Kei and Sione To’a, whilst fullback Taylor Donald also ran some good attacking lines. For Whangamata, Elias Manihera, Kirtis McNaughten and Pedro Garces all played well. Whangamata 43 (Tries) Pedro Garces, Zach Clarke, Tui Hall, Kirtis McNaughten, Joel Taylor, Tiaontin Roaren x2) Conversions (Tiaontin Roaren x4) Thames 0 In the Senior B Competition, it was yet another win for table toppers Coromandel against a gutsy Ngatea. Coromandel got themselves into a good first half lead, however Ngatea got into their work and got themselves back into the match. Unfortunately, a serious injury to a Coromandel player meant the game would finish slightly early with the score at 22-7, we hope the player is recovering well. Tairua took no prisoners when they hosted Mercury Bay, winning 70-0. This will bode well for them moving forward in to the 1vs2 play-off this weekend, however playing away up in Coromandel may be a different kettle of fish. And finally, Hauraki North booked themselves a home qualifying Semi-Final with a close 22-17 win over the COBRAS at Boyd Park. This match will be repeated this week in Waitakaruru, with Hauraki North having the obvious mental advantage going into the match. Points Tables Round 7: Senior A DRAW: Saturday 8th August Waihou vs COBRAS Te Aroha 2.00pm Start Sam Oates Saturday 8th August Whangamata vs Waihi Whangamata 2.00pm Start James Higgins Saturday 8th August Paeroa vs Hauraki Paeroa 2.00pm Start Wayne North Berry Saturday 8th August Mercury Bay vs Thames Whitianga 2.00pm Start Miah Williams Senior B DRAW: (Qualifying Semis—1vs 2 & 3vs4) Saturday 8th August Coromandel vs Tairua Coromandel 2.00pm Start AJ Hartley Saturday 8th August Hauraki vs COBRAS Waitakaruru 2.00pm Start Glyn North Jones OTHER NEWS Friday Morning Rugby Chat: Live on our Facebook at 9.05am every Friday talking everything Rugby! This weeks chat is a ‘Doctor Dunn’ special. Thames Valley Rugby on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ thamesvalleyrugbydevelopment/ Scrum Factory: Awesome morning at Waihi Athletic Rugby Club upskilling our young upcoming players how to scrummage safely and strong. A big thank you to Matt Rolston, Wok Mathis and Evan Crawford for coming and assisting with the session. After a successful start, we will look at building more of these into our programme next year UPCOMING EVENTS Club Finals Day: Saturday 22nd August, Rhodes Park, Thames. Secondary School Finals Day: Saturday 19th September, Paeroa Domain. PHOTOS OF THE WEEK If any of our Thames Valley Rugby supporters have a photo that they think could be worthy of our ‘photo of the week’ for the Rugby newsletter – please send it to [email protected]. Photo: We always love going and visiting schools around the region. These two groups were fantastic to work with—always listening to ‘ instructions & wanting to learn. Left—Te Puru Primary Year 7&8 Girls Right—Mercury Bay Area School Year 7&8 Boys TOP TRY/POINTS SCORERS SWAMPY’S PICKS Round 8: SENIOR A: (Derby Round) Waihou by 5 Waihi by 3 Thames by 1 Paeroa by 4 SENIOR B: (Qualifying Semis) Tairua by 4 Hauraki North by 3 ‘’Keeping Rugby in The Valley stronger together’’ .