Northland under-16 coach Belinda Edwards (centre, back) delivers a message to her players while their opponents do the same behind them at the sevens tournament on Friday. Photo / Supplied
Northland under-16 coach Belinda Edwards (centre, back) delivers a message to her players while their opponents do the same behind them at the sevens tournament on Friday. Photo / Supplied
The Taniwha will need to watch themselves because we've had another reminder why rugby in Northland is quickly becoming a women's game.
The Northland under-16 and under-18 girls' sevens teams went unbeaten in nine games collectively to win their respective divisions at the northern region girls' sevens tournament held at the East Coast Bays Rugby club in Auckland on Friday.
This was Northland's second year competing at the tournament alongside teams from North Harbour, Taranaki, Waikato, Thames Valley, Bay of Plenty and Counties Manukau. In 2018, the two teams took home a second and a third placing which showed the improvements made in 2019.
The under-16 side, coached by Belinda Edwards and Joe Rau, went through pool play undefeated after getting past Thames Valley, Waikato and North Harbour, scoring 109 points and only conceding 17. Significantly smaller in size than their opponents, the tight-knit team used their footwork and acceleration to create space.
The Northland side blitzed Bay of Plenty in the semifinal, 31-0, before going into halftime in the final, losing to Taranaki. Thanks to some reassuring words from the coaches, the girls scored 22 unanswered points in the second half to claim the top spot.
The under-18 Northland team started their campaign well under coaches Laurie and Lee Nankivell, with a 24-7 win over North Harbour. Rodney College speedster Georgia Brierly broke through the opposition line regularly after the team's slow start.
Wins against Waikato and Counties Manukau put the Northlanders into the final against fellow unbeaten side, Bay of Plenty. Fortunately, the girls saved their best game for last, Ngawaiora Davis leading the way with damaging runs to win 28-0.
A winning Northland under-18 team smile with their trophy after going through their division unbeaten. Photo / Supplied
Under-16 coach Belinda Edwards said her side could only train for four weeks before the competition which showed how naturally talented this group was.
"We had a lot of girls who were already pretty fit and knew how to play the game, but it's huge to win both divisions," she said.
Building on the good results of last year, Edwards said she was quietly confident that the two sides could perform well but it was no easy task against regions with a longer history in women's rugby.
Over 35 players turned up for the open trial for the under-16 grade before the tournament, which Edwards said was indicative of women's rugby's growth in Northland.
"We are definitely growing the game and the numbers, certainly in the Bay of Islands region and in the Far North, have just gone crazy this year."
Edwards said coming up against bigger and stronger players from other regions meant teams from Northland needed to adapt their game to their advantage.
"Traditionally, we are smaller than other regions and we have a lot of fast, fit girls, so we push our players to keep the ball alive and run around other teams.
"If you keep running it into contact, it's very easy to lose the ball so we've tried to coach them to keep the ball moving and it seems to work."
Northland's success in women's rugby has been rewarded with a berth in this year's Farah Palmer Cup competition, the domestic women's rugby competition in New Zealand. Edwards said the next generation of players on show would strengthen an already competitive squad.
"From the team that I've seen, we look really strong already and I think they could do really well in the competition."
