Aquinas College Rugby Club

At the end of 2019, it was decided to merge the 1st XV teams from our schools moving forward – This was the start of Te Taumata Rugby.

Please note: Year 7/8 students (under 13) must register and play for one of the local community rugby clubs for your Saturday competitions. We will use your names to inform you of opportunities to play at school during the year (AIMS GAMES etc).

The Te Taumata rugby teams start at Under 14 through to 1st XV.

If your child would like to play Rugby in 2023 please complete this form.

Game Location: Games will be played at AC and assorted venues around the BOP.
Days: Games are played on Saturday mornings for U14 nad 1st XV. U16 will play on Friday afternoons
Times: Game time may vary each week. Games can be expected to be between 8.00am – 2.00pm

Please join the Te Taumata Facebook page for more updates https://www.facebook.com/groups/210824656896320

Registrations are now open for all Boys and Girls keen to play Rugby. Please click below to register.

Aquinas College Rugby Registrations 2021

Aquinas College and Te Wharekura o Mauao Rugby Merge

17 February 2020

Kia ora Aquinas Rugby Families

I would like to inform you all about an exciting change that is happening with the structure of Aquinas College Rugby for the 2020 season and beyond.

As you may know, Aquinas has had a close association with Te Wharekura o Mauao since it was established 9 years ago. In our early days, we joined together to form rugby teams at all levels. This was initially numbers driven and began a fantastic collaboration between our kura. Although we have each been able to field an independent 1st XV team in the last few years, numbers continue to be a challenge. Age grade teams have continued to be an amalgamation with great success.

At the end of 2019, Matt Dalton was approached by Heywood Kuka, the Tumuaki from Te Wharekura o Mauao, to discuss the possibility of merging the 1st XV teams from our schools moving forward. This was based on uncertainty around player numbers and a keen desire from both schools to enable every athlete who wants to play rugby an opportunity to do so at a level appropriate for their skill, size and experience. After some consultation, Mr Dalton agreed to support the Wharekura.

Ian Parata (BOPSS Rugby Manager) was also supportive of the merger and a Memorandum of Understanding has been established between the schools and accepted by Ian and the Executive Committee of the BOPSS Rugby Union. A working committee has been formed that is comprised of representatives from both schools and it will be their job to facilitate the smooth operation of rugby in our two kura.

This initiative is based on a three-year time frame and a review will take place at the end of the first 12 months to ensure the goals of this combined rugby community are being met. We will make those decisions after consultation between both schools and with the BOPSS Rugby Union.

Although this combined approach isn’t new to our school, there will be some logistics to consider and the working committee are doing their utmost to make this a positive and successful year for our young men and women athletes. We look forward to your support in that regard.

Members of the working committee have met with the players today to explain the new structure and answer questions.

Kind Regards
Bill Kite Ange McManaway
Director of Sport TIC Aquinas College Rugby

If your child would like to play Rugby in 2023 please complete this form.

LATEST MATCH REPORT
Game reports.

1st XV have played 4 games in 2nd round. Sitting 7th. Kevin to confirm Holiday training

Maria is going to set date for 1st XV dinner and ideas for guest speaker.

2nd XV AC 8 players . every week a battle for player numbers, 1-2 from Oats and 3-5 fromTWOM. Lack of structure. Maybe a battle to get team back after holidays. TWOM parent Wiremu Wedge has taken over the game day coaching and is very good. Reese C out of his depth with the coaching role. This Saturday game at AC and 11 1st XV players will make up numbers due to many players away with Holiday travel and other sports trips. Kevin has offered to run the game as sideline coach ( as Wiremu is away with TWOM in Aussie rugby festival )

U14 sitting about 2nd on table won 4 out of 6. thought they had No game this Sat but they now are playing RBHS at Hangarau 10.30 KO. With training this Thursday at TWOM. No training schdulded over holidays.

U14 rep training squad Toby Taylor, Willow Purden-Winters and Brayden Dew. Neutral Coaches this year working with this BOP rep team.

U15 rep training squad Taine Rush and Dacey Hoskin

1st XV 24th June

Good game against BC in the weekend with a final score of 15 – 20 to BC

First half saw us down 15 – nil, they ran out of steam and our fitness saw us pick up our game

Captain – Jake Hynds

Defender – Brad Burton. Menace at the breakdown and made some key turn overs
Attacker – Oscar Wood. Made big meters down the side line and kept ball alive
Work rate – Taine Rush. Popped up all over the place on attack and defense and scored a great try and helped set up another
Player of the day – Lachie Meehan. Outstanding game attack and defence, heaps of line breaks, great ball distribution and shut down their midfield attack with great tackling.

1st XV played 17th June

A tense draw against Opotiki in Opotiki this weekend, this will be the third time we have been up against them this season and so far we had a loss, a win and a draw – so very evenly matched.

At zero seconds till the full time whistle blew and sitting on 10-17, we scored a try which put us to 15-17. We then had to convert to get a draw – NO PRESSURE Charlie W, we managed to convert and final score was 17 -17.

We had a bench full of sickies (flu & colds). and the ref was a local who knew most of the Opotiki boy’s names – so we did well

Captain: Charlie Wood

Awards:
Defender – Elliot Janissen – defended all day long
Attacker – Sean Mullaly – did some awesome runs down the wing
Workrate – Ollie Mortleman who took some big hits but just kept on going, (Sean meehan who was down with the flu picked up enough for 10 mins while Ollie was in the blood bin)
Player of Day – Luke – just kept making those yards

Ben Lee on this week for a 20 min run and now back on board

Opotiki one yellow card for throwing punches

This week sees a home game against BC – hope to see you all there

1st VX

Beautiful day down in Whakatane – we played Trident High School and lost 20-29

It was a great game to watch and AC played right up till the whistle blew – gutsy effort by all.

Captain: Jake Hynds

Awards:
Defender – Sam O’Connor – great run’s down the wing with those long legs
Attacker – Matt Dobson – kept on attacking and tackling those players
Workrate – Brad Burton – some great turnovers and was relentless
Player of Day – Charlie Wood – had nothing left in the tank at the end of the game

No Yellow card to AC, Trident was doing some high tackles and we got a few penalties with eventually one of them being yellow carded

Next week is Opotiki, in Opotiki. This will be out third game against them this season and with a win on both sides it will be a tough game

U14

The boys had a great game today taking on the highly fancied Taupo boys who have had a pretty good season so far. With 3 quick trys in the early part of the game we looked to be squeezing the life out of Taupo. But they came straight back with 2 trys just as quick and it was game on. The Taupo team and sideline though started getting agitated by some average refereeing and it got the better of them with TWOM AC pulling away to a 6 try to 3 advantage at half time.

Unlike the last 2 weeks the subbing at halftime was smooth and all subs hit their straps well. The TWOMAC boys kept up the pressure and in a shortened 2nd half(due to a late start) the boys piled on another 4 trys winning the game convincingly

58- 15. Hard to pick standouts as all boys played really well but Trevel, Toby,Troy and Patu are worth a mention in the forwards and Te Morehu, Josh and Willow in the backs. Tom Cameron played his best game yet at halfback but came off with a sore leg.

It was good to see the subs play well and it suggests with more game time they will show they have got the goods. We only stripped 18 and 2 boys sat the game out -1 due to injury concern and 1 failure to attend training.

U14

The U14s had a good game against TBC in great conditions on Saturday.After a nervous opening 5 minutes where TBC scored the opening try TWOM AC completely dominated the rest of the half up 29 -5 at half time. The forwards ran all over the opposition setting up good ball for the backs to score some good tries.

The subbing at halftime seemed to affect the boys again with TBC getting right back in the game to be only 4 points behind. That was as close as they got with TWOM AC regathering and eventually winning 48-39.

The boys have played 2 weeks in a row where they have dominated the first half then slid a bit in the 2nd. Something for all to work on.

The whole team played well and all made contributions so well done and we look forward to Taupo this week at home.

1st XV

Good win on Saturday against Opotiki at Western Heights in much better weather conditions, score was 27-19. The boys played to the game plan and it paid off in the end – it’s good to get a win under our belt

Captain: Charlie Wood

Awards:
Defender – Lachie Meehan – good turnover and tackles
Attacker – Sam Wylie – who scored a great try down the left wing
Workrate – Taine Rush – put in a lot of space
Player of Day – Taine Mcleod – only played 40 mins (out with a calf strain ) played well with great tackles

2nd XV

Played & lost heavily to a Tauranga Boys 5th XV who are an exceptional team capable of playing higher in the grades. Again we had only 13 players so borrow a couple of TBC to get a game underway & struggled against this Yr13 team who dominated us easily in open play resulting in them scoring multiple tries. To our credit the boys stuck it out and we actually dominated their scrum. Special mention to Daniel Hurley for his defence & scrum work

U14 AC/TWOM

After an easy run of 3 grading games we finally came up against a competitive team in Trident High School. Playing In what was absolutely miserable conditions the boys got away to a great start scoring 3 tries, 2 converted in the first half. The forwards worked very hard securing the ball for our back line who put Trident under a lot of pressure. Te Morehu Hawera at 2nd 5 doing great runs creating a lot of havoc for the Trident backs. Half time 19-7 to Twom AC.

The 2nd half didn’t start so well for the boys with Trident coming right back into the game. Their forwards ran a lot of ball at our boys who had to make a lot of tackles but the pressure finally saw Trident rewarded with 2 tries of their own. TwomAC quickly got one back through more good team play but that was it with Trident running in 4 more tries to convincingly take it out 39-24.

1st XV

Hard game on Saturday against TBC 2nd xv, 36 -0 to Tbc
Rain was relentless the whole time and they played on a very sodden field.
The game was played in good spirits and there were no yellow cards for either team.

Awards this week went to
Defender – Marshall Barker
Attacker – Luke Fasching
Workrate – Lachie Meehan
Player of Day – John Rush

Played Te Puke 2nd XV in very wet conditions and started the game with only 14 players. We struggled early on to gain possession hence we were down 19 – 0 after 15 minutes. Credit to the team as they stuck it out and play better for the rest of the game and the match ended up 34 – 15 to Te Puke. Special mention to our halfback Carson Wills who played well in a challenging environment. Zane Mackay & Fergus Lellman each scored tries + Keenan, the new boy from Oats.