College sport: St Paul's take on Aussies

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

Five-time New Zealand secondary school rugby league champions St Paul's College head off today to play one of Australia's top 32 schools.

The Ponsonby college accepted an invitation to the Australian Nurtri-grain Cup - the first time a New Zealand team will feature in the knockout tournament since its inception in 1975.

St Paul's are unbeaten in the Auckland premier first XIII after five rounds but will have to reshuffle their squad with some boys unavailable because they are outside the under-18 age limit.

The team, coached by Del Hughes, have lost six boys from the side that beat Kelston Boys High School 58-0 to win the national secondary schools title at Hopuhopu last year.

The side will take on Canberra's Erindale College on Friday afternoon at Parramatta Stadium in the a bid to progress to the round of 16, which will see them having to cross the Tasman again.

The team, captained by New Zealand under-18 player Jerome Ropati, boasts two players who stand 2m and 2.08m and weigh more than 100kg.

It will be the first trip the school's league team has taken to Australia since 1994.

DUATHLON

Fresh from winning the Auckland secondary schools cross-country championships last month, Epsom Girls Grammar's Elizabeth Orchard primed herself for the national secondary school cross-country in Blenheim on Saturday with a convincing win in the Auckland secondary school duathlon championships.

Adding a cycle leg to her usual solid running performances didn't faze Orchard. She won the senior girls event from unofficial competitor Kelly Bruce of Otamatea High School.

Todd Calkin from Auckland Grammar won the senior boys race ahead of classmates Stewart Adams and Jared Bowden.

Rangitoto College's Dino Bozzone added the intermediate boys title to the junior one he won last year while Diocesan School's Anna Elvery, who is bound for the world triathlon championships, produced a solid performance to win the intermediate girls.

Takapuna Grammar's Rebecca Spence and Mathew Midenhall won the junior girls and boys races respectively.

WEIGHTLIFTING

Cameron Sinclair and David Ingram of Auckland Grammar were two of the standout performers at the North Island championships in Auckland, rewriting the record books and winning gold in their classes.

Sinclair is the new national record holder for the 56kg clean and jerk, lifting 82.5kg and a total weight of 140kg in the under-16 age group. Ingram, in the under 85kg class, made a record 100kg snatch and increased the total under-16 weight standard to 212.5kg.

This week:

* Today: Auckland: premier boys hockey.

Counties Manukau: netball. North Harbour: girls badminton.

* Tomorrow: Auckland: premier girls hockey.

* Friday: Northern zone underwater hockey qualifying tournament July 14-16, Auckland. Auckland: basketball, squash.

* Saturday: New Zealand cross-country championships, Blenheim. Auckland: rugby, Auckland secondary school individual swimming championships, greater Auckland lawn bowls championships July 15-16, netball, soccer. North Harbour: netball, rugby. Counties Manukau: rugby.

* Sunday: Auckland: junior table tennis championships.

* Monday: Auckland: girls rugby, squash. North Harbour: boys badminton.