On Saturday 20th August over 2300 secondary school rugby players represented their school with pride and played their last game of rugby for the 2022 season. For the first time since 2019 the secondary school rugby calendar was completed as per the plan at the start of the season.

Over 15 schools represented across the region, making up more than 90 teams competing in our boy’s and girl’s grades of secondary school rugby. 2022 was the second year of the new format with a focus on teams playing more games in fair and equitable competitions to ensure players are having a positive rugby playing experience. Secondary school rugby in the Waikato continues to remain strong and builds year to year, this year we saw an addition of schools from Counties Manukau & King Country coming into the region.

Finals day – Saturday 20th August, a typical winters day across the Waikato. For some students their last game of rugby representing their school. With over 15 finals planned for the day throughout our region made for an exciting day of footy with a great spread of schools participating in finals rugby. An awesome opportunity for the community to get in behind their young rugby men. Our big final for the day was hosted by Matamata College with their First XV taking on Pukekohe in the Waikato 1st Division Final – Matamata College coming out on top winning 24-17 in what was very entertaining game of rugby. In our Division 2 Final Rototuna played out a thrilling final vs Te Awamutu College winning in the last minute with a penalty kick on fulltime!

While our local competitions were wrapping up, Waikato was also well represented in the CNI 1st XV final with St Johns College playing Fielding High School in Taupo and unfortunately going down 33-22. Meanwhile, back in town, Hamilton Boys High were playing host to the Super 8 Final taking on Rotorua in a repeat of the 2022 Super 8 Final. This time Rotorua coming out on top scoring in added time to snatch a 5th straight title for the young men from Hamilton Boys High.

Wednesday afternoons remained the prime time for Secondary School Girls Rugby with 12 teams competing in 2022 across three competition grades. Hamilton Girls High & Sacred Heart 1st XV’s participated in the newly created Chiefs Manawa Competition. Like the boys competition, the girls competition was made up with schools across the region split into even grades to ensure new players were safe, playing alongside experienced players, but the competitions remained even and all involved had a good experience.

While for the most part our internal competitions have wrapped up for the year, we do have further rugby opportunities for our young men and women to participate in before the year comes to an end.

While we wrap up the school season we can’t forget to thank and appreciate all the support from our volunteer coaches, managers, school administrators and parents to ensure our secondary school students have playing rugby and having a good time with their mates during their secondary school years. Without the coaches putting up their hands and doing plenty of work behind the scenes our school rugby would not be as strong as it is. Waikato Rugby thanks all those coaches, managers, school administrators and parents for keeping our game strong!

Article added: Thursday 25 August 2022