Massive year for Mahu Rugby

This season, Mahurangi Rugby Football Club (RFC) went from underdogs to overachievers.

The Mahurangi premiers (prems) made the top four in the North Harbour club rugby playoffs for the first time, then their sevens team won the North Harbour sevens tournament, capping off one of the most successful years in the club’s history.

Mahurangi manager Mike Rodden says the difference was the belief the prems players had in themselves this season after becoming more competitive in 2023 under coach Amasio Valence.

“A few years ago, we wouldn’t win a game and we never really got close to winning – we were getting beaten by 60 to 70 points,” Rodden says.

“Whereas now we’ve had a couple of good seasons with Amasio and his assistant coaches Akuila Matanibukaca and Lyle Robertson. He brought a few Fijian boys over to the district to live, work and play here.”

Eight players from Fiji were selected to play for Mahurangi by Valance (MM, Feb 19).

Rodden says while the Fijian players have made “a huge difference to Mahu rugby”, their success was also because of the depth of local talent coming through the grades.

“The good thing about the club was this year we had a B team and an under 21s team, which we haven’t had for quite some time.

“We’ve got a lot of boys who have been through Mahu College, played under 21s and are now playing prems. We’ve probably got 12 or 15 in the squad that are actually local boys, which is just so good for us.”

With more quality players available for selection, this meant increased competition for starting spots.

“Two or three years ago we didn’t have that. Basically, if you turned up to training on a Thursday, you got a game for the premier team.

“But now, in a lot of the positions, the guys are fighting week in, week out. If you have a couple of bad games, you’ll get dropped down to the B team. And that showed in our result,” Rodden says.

Led by their captain Ben Dallow, one of the highlights of the prems season was coming from behind in their quarter final to beat favourites Massey RFC on their home ground at Moire Park in Massey, stunning the crowd.

“Massey were one of the top teams in the competition and the hot favourites to win the quarter final, and we’d lost to them in the round robin.

“I think we were 13 points down with 10 minutes to go. And then we scored 14 points with first five Cooper Rodden (Mike Rodden’s son) nailing the conversion to seal the win. So the boys showed a bit of grit and character there.”

Unfortunately, the Mahurangi prems couldn’t repeat their heroics against North Shore RFC in the semi-final the following week at Vauxhall Park in Devonport.

“We played North Shore who had been undefeated all year. And they beat us in the semi, then went on to beat Takapuna in the final. North Shore was simply the better team.

“But it was good for the boys to be in a semi-final, because a lot of them hadn’t really been tested at that level before,” Rodden says.

A few months later, the Mahurangi sevens team (made up of prems players), took revenge on Northcote RFC by beating them in the final, having been knocked out in the semis by them last year.

“Northcote won the tournament in 2023 and were going for their second win in a row and were the favourites. But the success we’d had in the 15s carried through to the sevens and we pulled off another upset.”

Rodden says the players can take their success and experience from 2024 into the premier championship and sevens tournament next year.

“The boys have started to believe in themselves and back themselves. Now we’re competing and on our day I think we can beat any team we come up against.”