Halkyard picked for Warriors

NGE 27Feb14 - NGE 27Feb14 - ON HIS WAY: Tumoana Halkyard in action playing during the Ngai Takoto Festival league game in Waipapakauri at the end of last year.

A local teenager has been invited to join the Warriors Development Squad.

As a consistent performer for the Northern Swords for the past three years as well as being a NZRL 16s and 18s triallist, Tumoana Halkyard was picked for the Warriors team after impressing the franchise's scouts while attending training sessions with a wider group of Northlanders as part of a Warriors Experience event earlier this year.

Warriors Academy boss, Duane Mann, in particular said he was impressed with Halkyard's physical conditioning and attitude.

"We're aware that Tumoana has been one of Northland's most consistent performers for the Swords. Inviting him to be a part of the Warriors Academy will give us an opportunity to get to know him better and give him an opportunity to impress us on the football field," said Mann.

The opportunity couldn't have come at a better time for the 17-year-old who played for the Muriwhenua Kuaka in the provincial under-18 competition last season. He has just completed Year 13 at Te Rangi Aniwaniwa last year and will be studying in Auckland this year for his bachelor in sports and recreation at AUT.

"This is the icing on the cake. I'm excited about being given the opportunity, but at the end of the day I will need to work hard if I am going to make it," Halkyard said, adding his next goal is to make the Warriors U20s Squad (contesting the Toyota Cup).

While in Auckland, Halkyard will continue playing age grade league with the high-profile Northcote Tigers club. If all goes according to plan, he will likely return to the north next month as part of the Duane Mann-coached Warriors Development team taking on the NorthTec Adam Blair XIII selection in Whangarei.

This match will be the curtain raiser of a double-header with the RLN Premiership season launch taking place on Saturday, March 29, at Hikurangi RFC.

Schoolboys kick offIn other news, the NorthTec Adam Blair Trophy tournament kicked off last night (results known only after the Age had gone to press).

There are five teams in the North Zone: Whangaroa College, Te Rangi Aniwaniwa, Northland College, Okaihau College and defending champions Kaitaia College; and five in the South Zone, Kamo High, Tikipunga High, Whangarei Boys, Dargaville and Bay of Islands College. All teams play midweek, with the byed teams from each pool playing each other in a crossover format. Kaitaia was due to travel to play BOI in Kawakawa in the first round yesterday (but eventually ending up defaulting while player registrations were sorted).

The top two from each pool will play semi-finals on April 2, with the finals set to take place under lights in Hikurangi on Friday, April 11. Following this match, a tournament squad will be named to play the Warriors Development team on March 29 as noted above.

Meanwhile, Rugby League Northland GM Alex Smits has brought up an age-old rivalry by coming out and firing potshots at his rugby union counterparts. While the secondary schoolboy league tournament had continued to grow, 10 teams contesting the trophy this year compared with eight last season, Smits said the event had also been strategically positioned in Term 1 to avoid conflict with rugby union acolytes.

"In 2013 this worked very successfully, probably too successfully as rugby have now moved their rugby sevens competitions into Term 1 as competition," Smits said, claiming the introduction of this rugby union component had added extra stress to some students.

"Some schools are making players choose between the two sports," he said, adding this move didn't sit well with him at all. "Kids should be given the opportunity to play as many sports as possible at school, our competition isn't about levering rugby vs league, it is about giving kids an experience."