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Goliaths Conquered in Grading: Paraparaumu & Tawa Premiership Bound 

Tawa College celebrating against St Pat’s Town on Saturday. Photo: Tackld.

  • By Adam Julian

Wellington First XV rugby was turned upside down in grading games on Saturday with herculean victories by Tawa College and Paraparaumu College over St Patrick’s College, Wellington (Town) and Rongotai College respectively.

Paraparaumu and Tawa have qualified for the topflight alongside the top four schools in 2023: Scots College, St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Wellington College and Hutt International Boys’ School.

Town and Rongotai, winners of the Premiership a combined 10 times since 1979, must win this weekend to guarantee two of the last four places in the Premiership.

The winners of the following four grading fixtures will determine the final made up of the Premiership on Saturday: Town v Porirua, Wairarapa College v Naenae College, Rongotai College v Taita College & St Bernard’s College v Hutt Valley High School

Paraparaumu no longer Premier Pariahs

When Paraparaumu College coach Les Poutama was asked has Paraparaumu College ever qualified for the Wellington Premiership he didn’t know the answer nor did the most experienced staff at the College. If they had it was well before any of the players were born and when Rod Muldoon was Prime Minster and Uptown Girl was fashionable.

Wins over Premiership regulars Wairarapa College (26-19) and Rongotai College (29-22) have propelled Paraparaumu into an unusual stratosphere, and they were doing it in a canter at one stage on Saturday leading Rongotai 29-5. Co-Captains Adam Van Vuuren (centre) and Daniel Oldroyd (openside) and fullback Rico Poutama (2) had scored tries. Was Poutama flustered when Rongotai surged back? No was the blunt response.

Van Vuuren and Oldroyd have been in the First XV for three seasons and have a “high work rate” and “great ethics.” Paraparaumu have grown enormously since losing the Premier 2 final against St Patrick’s College Silverstream’s 2nd XV last season. Poutama has guided much of the squad since winning the Under 65A grade four years ago.

Van Vuuren and Poutama (son of Les) also scored tries in the Wairarapa victory with No.8 Freddy Kreuzer a damaging presence in both victories and winger Otis Black converting six of eight tries.

Poutama is no stranger to Premier I rugby. In 2017 he guided Kapiti College to the top flight and in their inaugural season they achieved a respectable four wins in nine matches.

He became a coach because he was “sick of hearing parents complain.” Poutama is an accomplished athlete in his own right. He was a member of the all-conquering Poneke-Kilbirnie softball team that won five national titles in the 90s.

Much of his coaching philosophy was shaped by Don Tricker (ONZM) who guided the Black Sox to the 2000 and 2004 World Series and in 2010 was appointed High Performance Manager for New Zealand Rugby, a role that included talent identification, player development, sports science, performance analysis, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and mental skills. When Tricker left his role in 2017 the All Blacks had won 96 out of 108 Tests, including the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup.

“Our team culture revolves around two words, believe and respect,” Poutama explained.

“Believe in ourselves and each other that we can collectively achieve things if we work hard and trust each other. Respect our opponents and referees but more importantly, respect the game that allows us to express ourselves with our ability. Doing all these things combined means the most important part will come regardless and that’s fun.”

Remarkably, Paraparaumu lost their 2023 captain Samuel Thompson to St Patrick’s College, Silverstream. Thompson has made a big impression scoring two tries for a side that’s won four on the bounce against Nelson College (33-15), St Bede’s College (17-13), Napier BHS (26-12) and Gisborne BHS (20-18).

Poutama is assisted by Ashley Drake whose son Paora plays first-five. Ashley captained the Cook Islands Sevens team and appeared in the 2006 and 2014 Commonwealth Games. A double centurion for the Waikanae club he won four senior club championships and made 89 appearances for Horowhenua Kapiti.

Paraparaumu has four teams: First & Second XV, Under 15s and Under 65kg. PE teacher Tim McMillan is the rugby coordinator.

Paraparaumu College opened in 1977 and has a school roll of little over 1000. Their most famous rugby old boy is the 2015 Rugby World Cup winning All Black Dane Coles (90 Tests, 23 tries, 74 wins).

Members of the Paraparaumu College First XV doing their haka at the start of last year’s Premier 2 Murray Jensen Cup final. Photo:  Andy McArthur.

Tawa College Soars in “Death Week”

“Death week” was how Tawa College coach Cliff Hunt described his sides’ three victories in seven days to qualify and retain the Beard Trophy, a Ranfurly Shield style competition for Porirua schools.

On Saturday Tawa beat St Patrick’s College, Wellington (Town) for the first time in their history 29-24 to qualify for Wellington’s top flight. There are 21 returning players from last year and they are the only school from the Porirua Basin/Beard Trophy competition to qualify this year. The previous weekend Tawa accounted for St Bernard’s College 28-19. St Bernard’s upset Wellington College in the week Wellington won the Quadrangular last year.

Try time between the Rob Law Max goal posts for Tawa against St Bernard’s College last week. Photo: Tackld.

Tawa was down 24-22 with only moments to spare against Town when inspirational hooker and captain Malachi Suniula tapped from a penalty and caught unsuspecting defence napping.

Suniula scored tries in all three wins and his audacity in rejecting three was typical of Tawa’s bravery this week. Earlier winger Labront ‘James’ Muldruck-Tolai scored a spectacular try, from just outside his 22 when he regathered a daring chip from centre Malachi Osman.

Another crucial moment was just before halftime when pint-sized halfback Mako Ah-Far slithered underneath a pile of bodies to nudge Tawa ahead at halftime.

Hunt praised the “gutsy efforts” of his forwards and said building a large lead in the St Bernard’s game allowed him to blood younger talent earlier than expected which equipped Tawa well for the demanding pressure that Town applied.

Hunt has had two boys, Anthony and Cliff Jr in the Tawa First XV. His nephew Boston Hunt has played lock for Ngāti Porou East Coast and in 2022 won the Jim Brown Memorial Medal as the man of the match in the Jubilee Cup final won by Norths 23-20 over Petone.

Tawa College’s reserves and coaches/management celebrating a try against St Pat’s Town on Saturday. Photo Tackld.

On Wednesday Tawa defeated Porirua College 52-0 in the first defence of the Beard Trophy. First-Five Eden Govind was particularly impressive scoring 17 points. Porirua shared a 15-15 draw with Aotea College in their grading fixture on Saturday.

Tawa doesn’t have a second XV just an Under 15 team that combines with Newlands College.

The late All Blacks captain Jerry Collins (48 Tests, 5 tries, 42 wins) attended both Tawa College and St Pats Town. In 1998 he won the Bronze Boot award as the best player in the New Zealand Secondary Schools 36-9 victory over Australia.

Tawa College will haka the premier Tawa team onto the field in their Old Timers’ Day Swindale Shield clash against Hutt Old Boys Marist at Lyndhurst Park this Saturday

 

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