Last month he attended a training camp for the Touch Blacks and he displayed the benefits of that camp in Fiji. While his team won $7500 for winning the tournament Robinson pocketed $1000 for player of the tournament.
Although the Touch Blacks have a 20-strong squad preparing for the April World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, 16 of them including Robinson, have been confirmed as travellers.
Robinson predicted two of his Outkast Sports teammates, former Hawks basketballer Mataeus Marsh and the promising Troydyn Bird to follow him into the Touch Blacks in the near future.
Robinson is working as a labourer for P & T Contractors and he said this assists with his fitness for touch. It will also help with the $3500 he needs to raise for the trip to Kuala Lumpur.
Outkast Sports were unbeaten for a second consecutive year in Fiji. They opened their campaign with a 7-3 win against the New Zealand Army team.
Their next opponents were last year's runners-up 2 Fresh Suva. Robinson's proud uncle and Outkast Sports player-coach Anaru Bartlett said the 2 Fresh Suva team was virtually the Fiji team for next year's World Cup and had made considerable improvement since their 12-5 loss in the final last year.
Outkast Sports pipped 2 Fresh Suva 11-10 before going on to complete round robin play with a 13-1 drubbing of another Fijian team Taki Mai and an 11-7 win against Elite Touch of Canterbury. Outkast Sports took on 2 Fresh Suva in the final and recorded an 8-7 victory on the hooter.
"We were lucky to beat them. They were hot on attack in our red zone and with the game tied up and seconds to spare when Mataeus intercepted the ball. We managed to work our way down to their redzone where we fed Ash the ball and he stepped his way through their defence for the winning try," Bartlett recalled.
"Ash was our captain and led the team really well. But at the same time I was particularly impressed with what our youngsters did on defence. Because they worked all day on defence it left us older blokes with more petrol to use on attack," 38-year-old Bartlett said.
"We took players like New Zealand age group rep Ethan Martin and New Zealand talent squad player Zac Brooker who will benefit from this experience in future. We only had six players back from last year's team," Bartlett added.
An Outkast Sports open women's team also travelled to the tournament and finished fourth in their six-team comp which was won by the Dunedin Sharks. Bartlett said the youthful women's squad lost their match against the Sharks by one point.
An Australian side won the mixed grade. Bartlett said both Outkast Sports teams will return to the Fiji tournament next year along with a mixed team.
On Saturday the Outkast Sports open men's and women's teams will compete in an Auckland-hosted Super Touch tournament.
The full Outkast Sports open men's touch team was:
Ethan Martin, Kanak Heremia-Bartlett, Troydyn Bird, Zac Brooker, Anaru Bartlett, Ash Robinson, Mataeus Marsh, Arana Murphy, Jordan Thompson-Dunn, Paul Taunoa, Jimi Harris, Brayden Matchitt, Riley Walton-Sexton, Caleb Horsefield, Pohaitere Ross.
