We are the champs!

Coach Kelly Sargent is still coming to grips with the fact her Wairarapa team are the inaugural winners of Netball Wellington's regional super league competition.
They won the title after beating Northern United 62-55 in an enthralling contest at the Walter Nash Stadium in Taita on Friday night
That success left Wairarapa equal top of the points table with Mana, both teams having suffered just the one loss in seven games, and they took the spoils by virtue of having the better goal differential.
Sargent, who had the dual role of player and coach, said she was "stunned" by her side returning to the representative arena after a number of years in the wilderness in such a spectacular fashion.
"Honestly when we started off the big aim was just to be competitive??winning the whole thing didn't even come into it then," she said. "I was confident we had the players to make our presence felt, but that's about as far as it went. It was pretty much unknown territory for us so you couldn't be too optimistic, could you?"
Not surprisingly though Sargent's hopes of a title success grew game by game as Wairarapa racked up one victory after another until they came unstuck against Hutt Valley 2 in the third of their three home games.
They were walloped by 13 goals in that particular game and looking back it now Sargent is adamant the defeat was a blessing in disguise.
"I think we had started to relax??.to become too complacent," she said. "We were starting to think we had only to turn up to win and when you do that you often need a kick up the backside to get going again. And we got that big time."
Wairarapa bounced back from that defeat to win their following game and go into Friday night's match with the title still very much in their sights.
Sargent knows some people might question the quality of the opposition in the super league, but she said most of the opposition teams contained some players with experience at higher levels, such as the national league, and that the standard of play was generally very good.
"I know there were a lot of people in Wellington who were shocked that we could win it."she said. "They were pleased to have us there but I don't think too many saw us as a threat."
Sargent considers a strong team spirit was an important element in Wairarapa's
Success with all members of the squad willing to work for each oher, and for the overall good of the team.
"As a coach you have a lot of tough calls to make as regards team selection, but we hardly had any grizzles at all in that respect," she said. "They've been a great bunch to be associated with."
Friday night's game was always likely to be a keenly-contested affair with Northern United having claimed the scalp of Hutt Valley 2, the only side to have beaten Wairarapa in previous rounds. .
The importance of making a strong start had been stressed in Wairarapa's pre-match build-up but, as it happened, it was Northern United who looked the more settled in the opening exchanges and they took an early lead.
However, the more the first quarter progressed the more Wairarapa came onto their game, so much so that by the end of the 15 minutes they had actually taken a seven-goal advantage.
The second quarter was evenly contested with Wairarapa having slightly the better of it and going to the halftime break 10 goals up.
It was a decent lead, but Sargent said there was never any reason for complacency on Wairarapa's part.
"Obviously it was nice to have that sort of cushion but we couldn't rest easy," she said. "We were pretty evenly matched and we knew that if we slackened off they'd come right back at us."
The third and fourth quarters actually saw Northern United outscore Wairarapa but by not enough to really threaten their lead.
They had a one goal advantage in the third quarter and a two goal advantage in the third, leaving Wairarapa seven goals up when the final whistle sounded.
Illustrating the tightness of the match was the fact that Sargent did not believe it wise to continue with her previous policy of bringing players off the bench during the last two quarters.
"It would have been too tough on the players coming in??..there was a lot of tension and we couldn't afford to risk them taking time to get the feel of," she said.
The assertiveness of the Wairarapa defence was a feature of their performance with Lisa Butler and Sarah Brooking leading the way there.
They made life difficult for the Northern United shooters with their "in your face" approach and rebounded well.
Butler's black eye at the end of the game was an indication of how physical some of the exchanges became.
The speed and decisiveness of Lisa Manihera, Emma Foote and Carlene Karaitiana through the midcourt also played a big part in the Wairarapa success as did the accurate shooting of Sargent herself in combination with the unflappable Geraldine Carroll.
"I think you can say it was a really good all-round effort," Sargent said of the victory. "Sure, there were times when we turned over possession but we countered that by picking up a number of turnovers ourselves. We deserved to win, and that was pleasing."