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In sport they say you’ve got to lose a final to win a final.
If anyone knows this, it’s the Mahurangi College mixed touch team, who had lost three national finals before finally winning one, when they beat St Andrews College 11-7 to claim the New Zealand Secondary Schools mixed touch title in Rotorua on December 8.
The victory was made even sweeter because it was St Andrews who had won the championship last year.
Team manager Claire Winiana says the college has been chasing the mixed grade touch title for over 20 years.
“We’d come second three times. In 2015 we lost to Whanganui High, the second time was in 2019 against Howick College, and the third time was in 2020, also against Howick,” she says.
“Mahurangi has gone to the nationals for the last 23 years my husband Michael [Winiana] has been at the college. He hasn’t always coached, but he’s been the teacher in charge of touch. And this is the first time we’ve won it.”
The difference this year was the team’s commitment to an intensive training schedule and knowing about the legacy of touch rugby at the college.
In their mixed touch team squad there were 16 players with six girls and 10 boys.
“We had a large group of Year 13s who’d played the last two years, who really wanted it. And what a way to finish Year 13 schooling, by winning the touch nationals right at the very end of the year,” Winiana says.
“I think they knew what it was like to lose, they knew what it was like to not win a gold medal. Last year, we won all our games except for that preliminary final, and that kicked us out.
“We had to live with that for a year and then finally we got a chance to have another crack at it.
“So this group of players understood what it was like to be cut in the preliminary final. They’d been there before, so they understood what it took and the pressure.”
Winiana says the desire was there.
“When your coach says we’re training Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 4pm till 6pm, clear your diaries.
“It’s then about making a commitment, even though training was overlapping with NCEA exams and jobs, and teenage lives. Well, it shows their commitment. It’s amazing,” Winiana says.
Mahu didn’t just win the final and make history, they did it in style going undefeated throughout the tournament.
The team pipped St Andrew’s in their pool game 6-5, had a tight semi against Botany Downs, which they won 4-3, but otherwise were totally dominant playing lights-out touch.
They took down Ngā Tapuwae: Te Kura Māori O Ngā Tapuwae 11-3, Mount Hutt College 7-4 and piled a whopping 11 points on Selwyn College while not allowing them to score a single try.
“We played eight games for the whole tournament in the mixed grade and won every single one,” she says.
So what happens next year when the Year 13s move on?
“We’ve got some Year 12s, we’ve also got a group of Year 11s coming through, who were part of this team. So they’ll carry it through and feed the next group, the next generation of players.
“Because that’s what we’re trying to do – keep touch alive at the college,” she says.
In total three touch teams from Mahurangi College, a contingent of 45 players, went down to Rotorua to compete in the NZSS Touch Championship.
The teams were sponsored by Mico Plumbing Warkworth as well as local business Active + Physio, who provided physio for the players over for the three-day tournament.
