Manukura beat St Mary’s College to retain Hurricanes schoolgirls title

• By Steven White

Manukura will once again be representing the Hurricanes region next weekend at the New Zealand secondary schools ‘Top 4’ championships, following their fifth straight Rex Kerr Cup Hurricanes final win over Wellington’s St Mary’s College and their seventh outright of the past eight.

Manukura, the two-time defending Top 4 champions, will have a shout at winning a third title after beating St Mary’s 30-17 on their home field this afternoon.

In wet, greasy conditions, Manukura were committed throughout on defence and often clinical on attack, extending St Mary’s through their backs and finishing their chances to pull ahead early and stay on top.

Manukura won six tries to three, but they failed to convert any of them. They had the game in the bag midway through the second half, leading 30-10, not long before a rainbow formed over the far side of the playing field.

St Mary’s fought hard to the end searching for their pot of gold as their forwards grew into the game, They scored with about five minutes to play and right wing Ana Kerr kicked the only conversion of the match to make it close.

Earlier, Manukura had led 20-10 at halftime, punishing St Mary’s for some defensive errors and mistakes from re-starts.

Manukura made a flying start in the seventh minute when, in general play, No. 8 and co-captain Te Maia Sweetman made a telling burst up the far touchline, shrugging off defenders and scoring in the corner.

Manukura doubled their score to 10-0 following a period of concerted pressure inside the 22 and they went wide through a long pass by second-five Kaylani Anaki to right wing Ngakahu Mathieson-Julian who dotted down in the same corner.

St Mary’s needed to get back into the game and they did so, following a scrum on the 22 and a short burst midfield by first-five Mia Ualesi after which they subsequently scored from close quarters to N0 8 Lynda Rabeni-Vatuloka to cut the deficit to 10-5 after about 20 minutes.

St Mary’s then made the first of two kick-off receipt errors which Manukura promptly capitalised on. Off the back of the subsequent scrum 30 metres out, the home team went wide again to right wing Mathieson-Julian who flew in to score her second try and make it 15-5.

St Mary’s hit right back and Kerr scored a try down the other end to close the deficit to five points.

However, Manukura would finish the first half strongly after centre Pewhairrangi Ashby won the ball back from the re-start and surged ahead with her team rallying beside her. St Mary’s defended well and kept out the try, but they knocked on clearing their own ball from a scrum, giving Manukura the attacking scrum. From here, Manukura ripped it through the back line once more and fullback Keighley-Rein Araia scored untouched in the left corner of play just before halftime.

Following the turnaround, Manukura launched themselves back on to attack and after a period of phase play, they crashed over to extend their lead to 25-10.

St Mary’s dug deep and their forwards attacked with plenty of vigour for several minutes, culminating in Manukura centre Ashby being sinbinned. With a one-player advantage, it was now or never for St Mary’s, but the moment passed and instead Manukura poured on to attack, stretching St Mary’s once more and scoring in the far corner.

The match officials conferred for a short time and awarded the try, and at 30-10 up Manukura were heading for the Top 4 despite the late boost by St Mary’s.

For Manukura, all three loose forwards, co-captains Sweetman and blindside Te Waikaukau Mathieson-Julian and openside Elley-May Taylor, put in a wholehearted performances, while tighthead prop Eva-Rose Dean provided strength up-front that Manukura teams have perhaps lacked in recent times.

Halfback Malina Leatherby-Millar and first five Gabby Wright both played well as a combination.

For St Mary’s, all the forwards gave them impetus at times, but loosehead prop Glennis Ah Fua and hooker Roma Fa’amausili-McKenzie both led with strong ball carries in the second half. No. 8 Lynda Rabeni-Vatuloka carried on from her strong game in Monday night’s netball final, on both attack and on defence at the breakdowns. Speedy Ana Kerr scored one try but was heavily marked and had few other opportunities.

St Mary’s haven’t won this game since 2017 and will be sidelined again from the big dance. Their problem is lack of big-game play. They need more hard matches throughout the season to build up to these matches against their great rivals Manukura.

Manukura will play Blues champions Howick College in their Top Four opener next Friday.

Christchurch Girls’ High School (South Island) will meet the Chiefs qualifier in their other semi-final, likely to be Hamilton Girls’ High School.

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
2025: 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. Last 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.”