Black Fern Rebecca Mahoney wasn't expecting anything special when she did a ring-a-round to organise a team of mainly Eketahuna players with a couple of "imports" from Wellington to contest the popular Rangataua sevens rugby tournament played at Mt Maunganui at the weekend.
For Mahoney it was a good opportunity for her and fellow Eketahuna Black Ferns Shakira Baker and Kathleen Wilton to have a hit-out before they leave next Thursday for a three-test tour of England, and for their teammates to start building fitness levels for the 2012 season.
So Mahoney was surprised when her team upset a series of highly-rated combinations to win the title and Mahoney was named player of the tournament.
"Honestly, all we talked about was trying to improve game by game, we never really thought about winning the thing," Mahoney said yesterday. "And as for me being player of the tournament ... that was probably an even bigger shock. I don't think anybody would have expected that, not at sevens. I'm not exactly known for my skills there!"
With former Wairarapa-Bush captain John Kendall, who these days teaches in Palmerston North, called up to handle the coaching duties and Cross Country Rentals and Trevs Sports coming on board with sponsorship, Eketahuna beat a powerful Auckland Marist, the Michael Jones Village Academy, and Ngongataha side comprising several Bay of Plenty representatives.
