Sunday morning was the annual Dean Cup rugby game between Toko and Whangamomona.
The morning was spent catching up with old faces and welcoming new ones. We introduced ourselves and said what we would bring to the game and what we would do as individuals to win. Going by the responses we knew we had a squad ready to play some footy.
Our coaches decided our thinking platform for the day would be "character" because we knew who we were up against and were not under any illusion that Whangamomona was going to be an easy win.
At kick off Toko layed the heat on early to show we were there to play, and although we were playing how we wanted to, Whangamomona were calm and composed. Both teams were sound on defence and attack, with Whangamomona's number 10 finding gaps and showing his pace. Toko were first to put points on the board with a couple of tries but were unable to convert. Whangamomona kicked a couple of long range penalties and ran in a couple tries of their own, which kept the game close.
Toko dealt the first blow, scoring first in the second half, but Whanga kept their cool and created space to run in a couple of their own. With a brutal scrum, sound line outs and a determination for that trophy Toko kept pouring on the acid to run in two tries and take the win.