The Gordon Brown Memorial Cup being carted across the Manawatu/Whanganui border on Saturday afternoon is a story worth celebrating as a victory for opportunity.
In 2016 Carl Gibson and Darryl Malcolm hatched a plan to create a Whanganui colts (under-21) rugby team to compete in the Manawatu Union's colts competition.
A similar grade in Whanganui was long extinct and the co-coaches felt there was a gap between school rugby and senior club rugby locally.
Read more: Whanganui Metro win Manawatu Colts rugby championship
They feared keen rugby players, who had left school but weren't ready for the rigours senior club competition, would just stop playing and there was plenty of anecdotal evidence to back that up.