2011 U14 & U15 Squads
29th November 2011 11:21AM
The Waikato Rugby Union facilitated two Development Camps during the first week of the October school holidays. On Monday 10th & Tuesday 11th, 42 players attended the U/14 Camp and on Wednesday 12th & Thursday 13th, 45 players attended the U/15 Camp.
The players were put through their paces over two long and intense days of training. The Camp provided players with the opportunity to improve and sharpen their core skills of catch & pass, tackle, breakdown and running lines. The Decision Making Activities provided the boys with an opportunity to apply their learning from the Core Skills. They were also privileged to receive some very sound Nutritional advice from Waikato ITM Cup Trainer, Todd Barker.
Day 2 of the Camp provided the players with specific Coaching for their respective position. This led into the Unit work and Team Organisation preparatory to their Trial Game.
The Camps were a huge success for the WRU, as far as up-skilling players, viewing our up and coming young talent, ranking players and identifying the depth of rugby here in our Province.
A huge Thank You to Matangi Hillcrest RFC for allowing us to use their grounds and facilities, to all the parents and care-givers who transported players to and from the Camps and especially the RDO’s & Nicola for all their hard work organising and running the Camps.
At the conclusion of Camp two squads were selected to play a one off game against the Bay of Plenty U/14 & U/15 Teams. Congratulations to the following young men who were selected to play against Bay of Plenty;
Waikato U/14 Squad
Coaches: Alan Pike & Darin Perrott
Alex Mitchell Cambridge High
Liam Foley HBHS
Drew Bolli HBHS
Adam Ballantyne St Pauls
Jermayne Maika ( C ) HBHS
Josh Reynolds Te Awamutu
Liam Fisher HBHS
Zane Croswell St Peters
Caleb Korteweg HBHS
Carly Karauna Forest View
Liam Monika HBHS
Ice Adams-Hunt Te Awamutu
Levi Ririnui HBHS
Zak Ramsey Te Awamutu
John Auga HBHS
Perhyn Martin Melville
Taylor Green Te Awamutu
Thomas Williams HBHS
Corbin Warren HBHS
Ryan McNeil Te Awamutu
Cole Tuhakaraina Matamata
Matt Moore HBHS
Waikato U/15 Squad
Coaches: Wayne Maxwell & Nigel Hotham
Bailey Oliedam Te Awamutu
Weston Kranenburg Matamata
Solomone Tukuafa HBHS
Aaron Preest Hamilton Christian School
Bradley Jackson Morrinsville
Viliami Tuipolotu HBHS
Jahrome Brown HBHS
Caleb Lingman ( C ) St Pauls
Zack Cathcart HBHS
Orbyn Leger (Injured) HBHS
Joe Tourelle HBHS
Jacob Mita Cambridge High
Legin Hotham HBHS
Elijah Ale HBHS
Blair Rogers Matamata
Chey Riki-Hamana HBHS
Corey Togia HBHS
Ben Pullman Morrinsville
James Parton HBHS
Cameron Petch Te Awamutu
Nic McCurran HBHS
Shannon Tomuri HBHS
Herewini Barlow Melville/ Raglan Area
Joseph Manu Tokoroa High
With a total of 86 boys from around the Waikato attending an arduous 2 day rugby specific camp at Matangi Hillcrest over the holidays, two squads of 22 were then selected to travel over to Tauranga on Sunday and play a one off game against the Bay of Plenty under 14 and under 15 sides.
The Waikato under 14 side was the first to play and started very well to score in the opening minutes of their encounter from a nice flat skip pass, from first five Carly Karauna running blind side to link with flying left winger John Auga to score in the corner.
From there the Bay forwards started to get on the offensive and dominated possession and territory for a long period until against the run of play lock Thomas Williams scooped up a lose ball and ran 40m to score in the corner. 10 nil to Waikato.
Now a real physical game was about to unfold. With Bay fighting and competing hard at every break down for the ball, their forwards scored a deserving try just on half time.
With reserves coming and going in the second half the score see-sawed a bit with the Bay side assuming the lead 22-17 with 15 min to go.
The message went out to “keep hold of the ball, no 50/50 passes and to play with some width” and that’s exactly what the Waikato side did.
3 tries in 10 mins rewarded some very enterprising back play and flair, the young Waikato U14 team ran out victors 29-22.
With the tone now set, and a stirring rendition of the Mooloo song from the U14 boys the next game kicked off between the two U15 sides.
Waikato certainly looked the bigger of the two teams but Bay once again looked to have good control of ruck ball with good low, strong body positions.
But to Waikato’s credit, from just coming out of camp they applied good pressure with strong ruck defence forcing Bay to either kick possession away or make a mistake.
At set piece, scrums and lineout’s, the Waikato forward pack were very dominant giving number 8, Caleb Lingman, and the backs a great platform to launch their attacks.
With the halftime score of just 10-3 to Waikato, you could sense that these boys were just about to click and the next 30 mins was going to be very exciting.
And they did not disappoint. Playing like a team that had been together all season the Waikato U15 side where full of running, supporting and communicating, resulting in some fantastically worked team effort tries from all over the park and eventually went on to win 25 – 11.
A special thanks to the coaches of the two teams Allan Pike and Darrin Perrot for the U14, and Wayne Maxwell and Nigel Hotham for the U15.
