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MANUKURA beat St Mary’s in Hurricanes final to retain Rex Kerr Cup and return to Top Four

  • By Steven White
  • Photos by Andy McArthur

MANUKURA 22 (Tayleh Seng 2, Elley-May Taylor, Te Maia Sweetman tries; Maia Davis con) beat St Mary’s College 10 (Casey Sio, Abi Isaia tries). HT: 12-5.

For the fourth consecutive year in the Hurricanes Region Schoolgirls’ Final, Manawatu champions MANUKURA have beaten St Mary’s College. They won today’s final 22-10 in fine, breezy conditions at the Petone Recreation Ground.

Left wing Tayleh Seng scored the first and last tries for MANUKURA as they completed a well-deserved 4 tries to 2 victory over their long-standing Wellington rivals.

As has been the case in this match over the past few years, MANUKURA’s outstanding defence proved the winning factor. Beaten in the tight forward exchanges and with a noticeably smaller side, MANUKURA tackled themselves to a standstill and took their chances on attack. St Mary’s had plenty of opportunities to score more tries, and most likely against any other team in the country would have done so and would be going to the Top Four next week.

MANUKURA will play Chiefs champions and past winners Hamilton GHS in their Top Four opener next Friday.

MANUKURA were wearing black arm bands owing to the tragic passing of one of the whanau of their centre Patricia Heihei, who was a late withdrawal. MANUKURA also had strong vocal support from a group of seven Spanish boy exchange students on the far sideline.

Both teams were presented with their jerseys beforehand by Black Ferns and former students at their schools, Kaipo Olsen-Baker (MANUKURA) and Monica Tagoai (St Mary’s).

Playing into a light breeze in the first half, MANUKURA began the scoring in the opening minutes with a relatively straightforward try. From a scrum near the line, they passed the ball through the backs across the posts to left-wing Seng to score in the corner.

This spurred St Mary’s into life, and they enjoyed a lively period of play in possession. Their ball-running forwards, led by prop India Russell-Lia, made inroads but at the same time, MANUKURA’s defence climbed into its work. This was led by openside flanker Elley-May Taylor and No. 8 Te Maia Sweetman, who would subsequently both be try-scorers for the visitors.

St Mary’s No. 8 Lynda Rabeni-Vatuloka makes one of several strong carries.

Finally, the weight of attacking pressure paid off for St Mary’s when tighthead prop Casey Sio crashed over in the scoreboard corner to make it 5-5 in the 30th minute.

On the first two occasions MANUKURA would bounce back quickly with decisive tries. They did so following a kickoff handling error by St Mary’s which soon led to their second try to flanker Taylor. Co-captain Maia Davis kicked the conversion and MANUKURA led 12-5 at halftime.

Openside flanker Elley-May Taylor scores her try just before halftime.

The wind picked up in MANUKURA’s favour in the second half as St Mary’s made another promising start, dominating possession and territory for several minutes. But MANUKURA’s flankers Taylor and Te Waikaukau Mathison-Julian each made a couple of key turnovers during this time.

St Mary’s then had a golden chance to score from a lineout in the corner, but first five Litia Bulicakau kicked it too far and the chance was lost.

In the 55th minute MANUKURA scored their third and most decisive try of the afternoon. Following another period in possession by St Mary’s, MANUKURA won a turnover and first-five Gabriella Wright put in a raking kick downfield. St Mary’s scrambled and saved the day momentarily, only for MANUKURA fullback Keighley-Rein Araia to field an exit kick near halfway on the grandstand touch and link up with Davis who found No. 8 Sweetman who carved through in broken play to score to make it 17-5.

St Mary’s needed to score next, and they finally did so from a breakout themselves. From a scrum deep inside their own territory, they found space and attacking centre Ana Kerr fed left wing Abi Isaia who scored their second try to make it 17-10.

With only a few minutes still to play, St Mary’s needed to jump straight back on to attack but instead it was MANUKURA who did that by scoring their final try of the game with Seng in support of fullback Araia.

St Mary’s finished the game back on attack but as previously, failed to capitalise.

Perhaps if they had one more X-factor in their backs it might have been different for St Mary’s. A player such as watergirl and former student Monica Tagoai and unavailable current fullback Billie Va’a would have been valuable.

For MANUKURA, the loss to injury of hard-working co-captain and tighthead prop Danica Talitonu in the dying minutes could be a blow heading into next week as they prepare to defend the Top Four girls Hine Poumanu Trophy.

The referee had a blinder.

Rex Kerr Cup

The Rex Kerr Cup has been contested since the Hurricanes Youth Council was first formed in 2006. New Plymouth Girls’ High School won in 2006 and 2008 and Feilding High School won in 2007 and from 2009-11.

Since 2012, the winners have been:

2012 Feilding High School
2013 Feilding High School
2014 Feilding High School
2015 Feilding High School
2016 St. Mary’s College
2017 St. Mary’s College
2018 Manukura
2019 Manukura
2020: St Mary’s and Manukura shared
2021: Manukura
2022: Manukura
2023: Manukura
2024: Manukura

The Rex Kerr Cup is named after the Principal of Otaki College for 21 years, from 1976 to 1997. He was the first Chairman of the Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council Inc. on its formation in 2006, until retiring from this role in 2012. Rex is also the former President (and current Patron) of the Rahui Rugby & Sports Club. He is a Life Member of the Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council Inc. and New Zealand Schools Rugby Union Inc. Rex was a strong advocate for the development Girls Rugby within both organisations

Earlier this year, Rex Kerr was made a “Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit”, (or MNZM) by King Charles III, “for services to the community and rugby”.

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