Junior Red Devils left frustrated

A victorious, yet frustrated, group of young Marlborough rugby players wound their way back over the Whangamoas on Friday.

The Marlborough under-52kg primary school rep team began the annual Seddon Shield tournament in Nelson in scintillating form.

In their first two matches they registered 178 points and conceded none.

On Monday, they fronted up against hosts Nelson on Trafalgar Park, coming away with a staggering 105-0 victory after leading 38-0 at halftime. The Junior Red Devils were in unstoppable form, hat-tricks to Ryan Batty, Mason Chapman and Freddie Heagney provided the highlights as they produced some irresistible running rugby.

Manager Jimmy Giles admits the scoreline caught the management somewhat by surprise. “Everything just clicked,” he said, “we got the bounce of the ball, tackled really well and attacked superbly from all parts”.

Head coach Kyle Heagney described it as “almost the perfect game of football … basically it was a faultless game, pretty awesome to watch.”

The following day Marlborough accounted for West Coast 73-0, easing off the throttle a little after leading 52-0 at the break. In game two, also played at Trafalgar Park, Chapman picked up another four tries, underlining a young tight forward’s potential.

On Wednesday Marlborough had to sit out a bye before tackling Buller, the other form team of the competition on Thursday.

Then problems arose. In order to preserve the playing surface of Trafalgar Park, the owners, Nelson City Council, had the games moved from Nelson’s premier venue.

Unfortunately, the alternative venue, Greenmeadows in Stoke, was then deemed unfit for play and Thursday’s clashes were cancelled.

On Friday, the last day of the nation’s longest-running interprovincial rugby tournament, Marlborough were to play Golden Bay-Motueka. Again, due to ground conditions, the games were canned, leaving the Seddon Shield title to be shared between Marlborough and Buller, both sides having racked up two bonus point wins.

Kyle said the team and management were very frustrated at not being able to complete the tournament after making such a strong start.

“We are all just gutted,” he said, “we had the bye on Wednesday, the boys were excited for Thursday, we were looking forward to playing our brand of footy, which is pretty expansive despite the wet conditions, then the phone rings and we are told that the games have been cancelled.

“But there was still talk of playing on Friday and we knew that if we could win with a bonus point, we had a good chance of taking out the tournament outright. So, we said ‘let’s control the controllables’ and just do our best on Friday. Then we got an email late on Thursday saying Friday’s game had also been cancelled.”

Kyle admits the Greenmeadows venue was wet and boggy but asks the question, “what are the fields there for anyway?”.

“Trafalgar Park was in immaculate condition, it’s a sand-based surface … the kids are under 52kg … we felt we could have played on any ground and we wouldn’t have done a lot of damage.

“Even if we did cut up the field a bit, so what? It’s a tournament that runs for one week in a whole year so for the last two days to be cancelled was extremely disappointing. Grounds are there to be used and played on.”

As well as the players, Kyle also felt for all teams’ parents and supporters who were left short-changed.

To illustrate his point Kyle noted that, “Our overall player of the tournament, Mason Chapman, ended up only playing 80 minutes of footy.”

He was quick to congratulate the Buller team, who beat Nelson and Golden Bay Motueka, suggesting the final result was the correct outcome, “it’s just a shame we didn’t get the chance to play them”.

Along with Mason, several Marlborough players were named in the tournament team. They were Noah Litt, Kobie Stewart-Smith, Jock Murphy, Will Dunne, Buster Ford, Freddie Heagney, Toby Johnson, Ryan Batty, Jarius Tikotikoca-Lal and Charlie Bromwich.

This is the fifth consecutive year Marlborough has won or shared the title.

The victorious Marlborough team was: Noah Litt, Kobie Stewart-Smith (co-captain), Charlie Bromwich, Mason Chapman, Jock Murphy, Vander Bates, Will Dunne, Buster Ford, Hunter Giles, Freddie Heagney (co-captain), Gus Scott, Toby Johnson, Harlen Nicholson, Ryan Batty, Jairus Tikotikoca-Lal, Max Harris, Taylor McKenzie, Hadley MacDonald, Archie Bray, Paige Aitchison. Coach Kyle Heagney, assistant coaches Elliot Robinson and Courtney Finau, manager Jimmy Giles.