The Rippa Rugby World Cup Competition

Article by reporter Libby Nolan
On the 4th of June 2010 the Year three and four rugby players went to the Rippa Rugby World Cup Competition. There were ten players that went. They were Kiahi, William, Andrew, Jamie, Sophie, Alice, Nicolas, Daniel, Adam and Oliver. There were sixty six schools that entered in to the Rippa Rugby Competition in all of the Bay of Plenty area. The games started at 9.00am and they finished at 2.00pm. The team got given a shirt from organizers to wear and they chose our team to be Italy. At the end of nine games Italy won a second place medal. At the final presentation they heard that the team got into the Bay Wide Championship. They were all really excited.
So now The St Thomas More team will go to the Bay Wide Championship. The rules are a little different because you must have thirteen people in your group and you must have three girls in your team. Here are some comments from the Italian team.
Sophie Sandford said “It was a very complicated game. I had fun. She scored ten tries during the whole thing. I was very happy when we came second over all out of the sixty six schools.”
Kiahi said “Most of the teams we versed cheated. He scored twenty six tries in the whole thing. St Mary’s and Pillions Point were probably the hardest teams. We were under feated except for the last match.’’
William told me “In the final was our hardest game when we versed Fairhaven. There were a lot of teams that cheated. The tournament was really fun. ’’
Alice said “We competed at Blake Park. We played six games plus three games because we got in to the quarter finals plus the semi finals. I was really excited when we got in to the finals.’’
Jamie told me “He scored two tries but I was the first one to score a try. The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. We are in the top four. ’’
Andrew said “He scored three tries the hardest team was St Mary’s. The easiest team was Samoa. It was really fun. I am really proud of what we did. Maybe next time we would win. ’’
Oliver said “He scored seven tries. I think the hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day.’’
Daniel said “He scored twenty two tries. The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day. I think we need to do some practice on putting the ball down.”
Adam said “The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day. My favorite thing was beating Samoa because they were supposed to be the hardest team.’’
Nicolas said “The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Russia. It was really fun. I would do it all again.