Rhiannon Clutterbuck defending against Wairarapa earlier in the Girls Under 15 National Tournament in Carterton earlier this week. Photos by Suellen MacNab
Rhiannon Clutterbuck defending against Wairarapa earlier in the Girls Under 15 National Tournament in Carterton earlier this week. Photos by Suellen MacNab
Both the Wanganui Boys and Girls Under 15 teams will play for the right to be national champions tomorrow afternoon.
The boys team under new coach Robbie Matthews, who replaced Andrew Spence, will be trying to go back-to-back in this National Championship grade when they face South Canterbury at 1.45pmin Dunedin.
Meanwhile, the Jan Dixon-coached girls team, who were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, have their eyes on the title when they play Canterbury B in Carterton at 1.15pm.
Both have progressed through unbeaten, as the boys team drew with contenders North Harbour 3-3 in their final pool match, coming from two goals down at halftime.
From there, they safely negotiated today's semifinal with Thames Valley, winning 4-0 with two goals in each half.
"It took a little while to get in the game. Typical semifinal – a bit scrappy," said Matthews.
"They've pulled up pretty good, we don't have any injuries, everyone's been playing and contributing."
The comfortable scoreline meant Matthews was able to use her bench players for longer shifts, letting her front-liners keep something in the tank for the final.
"Physically, we've probably had one of the fastest and strongest team's here," she said.
"If we play like we've been playing, it can be ours."
The penalty corner conversions have been going well, and that set piece execution could prove vital given South Canterbury impressed in their 4-1 semifinal win over Canterbury B, and have a similar open style to Wanganui.
"The country boys came to play," said Matthews.
Te Ana Proffit got two goals in the semifinal, taking his tally to four, with Blake Hoskin (nine) and Charlie Sutton (eight) the top goal scorers.
The team has put away a phenomenal 42 goals in six games – a contrast to the 2017 squad who won the title on the back of unbreakable defence.
Matthews also singled out Finnegan Murphy for having a big tournament.
The girls will want to celebrate like this after the final with Canterbury B this afternoon.
It has been a tighter affair for the Wanganui Girls team, who have twice come from behind to snatch victory in playoff games.
After drawing their last pool match with Poverty Bay 1-1, Wanganui defeated Marlborough 3-2 in the quarterfinal on Thursday, then Central Otago 2-1 in the semifinal today.
They were 1-0 down in both sudden death matches at halftime.
"Nothing like a bit of pressure to make us score."
Against Central Otago, the defence of captain Olivia Smith and goal scorer Margy Hazelhurst proved crucial, giving Wanganui had plenty of shots on goal but weren't connecting early on.
"They scored first and we scored twice and managed to keep them out."
Looking to relax ahead of the championship final, the team went to the movies today before planning a team dinner and early night.
"Last time we met [Canterbury] in the final they beat us, that was two years ago," said Dixon.
