Whanganui Intermediate School girls rugby team shines with win at Central Districts tournament

Whanganui Intermediate School's girls rugby team won at the Toa Whakaihuwaka tournament. Pictured with coach Lemahn Lambert (furthest right). Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui Intermediate School’s girls rugby team staked their own piece of history, getting first place at the inaugural Toa Whakaihuwaka tournament.

The tournament invited all intermediate schools in the central North Island to enter teams in multiple sports including rugby, football, netball, and basketball.

It’s the biggest tournament in the Central Districts for intermediate-age students, and Whanganui Intermediate School (WIS) was the only Whanganui school to send teams.

Coach of the girls’ rugby team Lemahn Lambert was proud of their performance.

“The girls actually started off quite shy in the beginning, and towards the end of the day every single one of them had some sort of magic they pulled out,” Lambert said.

The team played through four pool games against New Plymouth’s Highlands Intermediate, Lower Hutt’s Avalon Intermediate, Palmerston North’s Monrad Intermediate School, and Lower Hutt’s Wainuiomata Intermediate School.

The team placed first in its pool which meant it went straight to the final, where WIS faced Avalon for a second time, winning 11-10 to take home the trophy.

To get there the team had to battle through difficulties from the start of the tournament.

“When we got there we didn’t realise it was seven a side, we thought it was 10 a side, so that was something we had to mentally conquer,” Lambert said.

The girls’ tournament also had fewer entries than the boys, which resulted in the games being longer, playing 14-minute halves to the boys’ seven.

“So we had four pretty much back-to-back, 28-minute games and still pushed through, so they were still amazing.”

The longer games also resulted in a number of injuries, but Lambert said this didn’t dull the team’s enthusiasm.

“We had five pretty much on the sidelines injured at one point but they were still keen as to get on and help their team and showed great sportsmanship.”

WIS sports co-ordinator Ross Cronshaw said the girls’ win was awesome.

“When I came out and heard these guys had won it was really cool,” Cronshaw said.

Principal Kathie Ellery said much of the success of the team was thanks to Cronshaw as his role provided their school’s sporting efforts with a lot more focus.

“He’s actually been able to find where people’s strengths are. When we get a group of kids who are really keen on something we’re actually able to make that happen because we’ve got someone who’s not trying to teach a class as well,” Ellery said.

She was proud of the girls and wanted to highlight the significance of their win.

“They’re a phenomenal group of kids and they’ve done really well and it’s kept them on the straight and narrow and given them something to focus on and they’ve really represented the school well.”

The school had seen an increase in interest towards sports from girls, which Ellery thought may be due to recent high-profile women’s sports events like the rugby and football world cups.

“I think also the fact that we’re able to cater to a group of children who arrive with a shared interest,” she said.

Much of the rugby and football teams were made up of Year 7 students, so she expected the team to come back even stronger next year.

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.