Sevens: Bay team sidesteps adversities

Adversities Beaten: Hawke's Bay's Nga Wahine Toa celebrate their second placing in Rotorua at the weekend. Photo/Supplied

Sometimes a child's expectations of their parents can be a little daunting ... just ask Thomas Te Pou.

A rugby coach for more than 20 years, Te Pou, has only been in Hawke's Bay for 10 weeks after arriving from Bay of Plenty. His daughter, Hastings Girls' High School year 10 student and East Coast Secondary Schools junior 100m sprint champion Te Aira Te Pou, told him she wanted to have a crack at Olympic Games Sevens selection in the future and as part of that plan she asked her dad if he could coach a Hawke's Bay team at the weekend's North Island Secondary Schools Sevens tournament in Rotorua.

"The girls did amazing in such a limited time after four weeks of training and with such limited resources," Te Pou said as he reflected on the "Nga Wahine Toa' team's second placing in the development grade.

"It's a bit different to back home where I can mention dad's name [former Maori All Black coach Matt Te Pou], snap my fingers and I usually get what I want. Here in Hawke's Bay no team had gone to the tournament before so there was no development or structures in place," Te Pou explained.

"Because I was new to the area I had limited knowledge of the pathways and had to find players at touch, athletics, football and rippa rugby."

Five of Te Pou's 12-strong squad had regular rugby experience and two members of the team were still of intermediate school age. On Friday the composite Nga Wahine Toa team, which contained players from six different schools beat Patetere from Putaruru 31-5 and then lost 17-12 to Lytton High School of Gisborne.

On Saturday the Bay team beat Cambridge 31-0, Te Puke 48-0 and Trident High School of Whakatane 43-0 to book a berth in the final against Lytton. The final was a cracker with Nga Wahine Toa scoring the first try from a well executed set move from a scrum which put Flaxmere Primary School's Harmony Kautai over in the corner. Lytton responded by going into attack mode and scored two unconverted tries off Nga Wahine Toa's mistakes.

The only try in the second half was scored by Te Aira Te Pou and Lytton captured the silverware with a 14-12 victory. However there was an ideal form of consolation when four of the Bay squad, Kautai, and the Hastings Girls' High School trio of Tuia Edwards, Te Aira Te Pou and Olioli Mua were selected in a North Island squad of 12.

"This was a reward for Nga Wahine Toa's aggressive attack, tenacity on defence and positive play," coach Te Pou said.

Seven of the players in the North Island squad came from the development grade with the Bay quartet joined by three Lytton High players. The Hawke's Bay team has been invited to another tournament in Rotorua at the end of the season and is considering other national tournaments.

"The girls overcame a lot of adversities - loss of transport so whanau helped out, no jerseys so Tom Blake from Karamu High School found us some and these were boosted by some from Irongate Primary School, no field to train on so Hastings Rugby and Sports gave us a home and equipment without expectations, no manager so one of the parents, Hayley Christison helped out and no funds so the girls fundraised and paid their own expenses," coach Te Pou said.

The Nga Wahine Toa squad was:

Layla Christison (William Colenso College), Rahera Heke (Irongate Primary School), Crystal Hapuku Te Nahu (Karamu High School), Renee Karaitiana (Napier Girls' High School), Harmony Kautai (Flaxmere Primary School), Kaya Mareikura-Russell, Irie Smith-Craig, Deijah Julian, Te Aira Te Pou, Anahera Hide, Tuia Edwards, Olioli Mua (all Hastings Girls' High School).