Hi ,

Rugby

What a great day for our club’s Old Timers Day. The weather was pretty damn good for the time of year and after some of the wily days during the week.

I started off at netball in Ranui on Saturday morning with Helen and Karla to watch Ella, my granddaughter. The game was a lot more even than last week, with the Aotea Kiwis winning 9-8. Ella also slotted a goal for her team.

Onto The Fortress. On Friday night our Colts played Johnsonville Colts under the lights, recording a massive 78-7 win. Player of the Day was Hadley Vaoliko. 

On Friday night and Saturday morning, the Juniors descended onto the fields at Lyndhurst, Redwood, and Alex Moore parks. The Juniors post match reports on their Facebook page every week, which are well worth a read. 

On Saturday afternoon, we started the Senior games with the Prezzies playing Johnsonville. It was an interesting game with legends on both sides. I particularly enjoyed the moment the referee Zac went to halfway while our Prezzie player sprinted off for a runaway try under the posts. Intelligent refereeing, conserving energy for the tight plays. I'm still unsure what was in Zac’s “energy drink” prior to the game. Man of the Match was Toa Madar – still got it Toa! A win for the hometown boys.

The next game was our Premier 2s. The Johnsonville boys came to play and started off looking the part. But then our team settled and did a lot of damage. Every few minutes someone was tinkering with the scoreboard by way of adding points to the Tawa side of said board. The end result: a resounding 70-7 win to Tawa. Player of the Day was Javan Upton. 

The Premier game against Johnsonville was a totally different script to the above. It was a see-sawing game of “could haves, should haves, and would haves". There were some great well-executed tries by both teams, with no one ready to predict an outcome. At times it looked like the Hawks were going to take it, and then our Prems would come back. Some of the Johnsonville backline tries were absolutely text book manoeuvres at the northern end in front of the clubrooms. Tawa were equal to the task with similar displays. At 35-all with a couple of minutes to go, it seemed a fair result, but then our boys rallied - TRY!! 40-35. Hell of a game. Man of the Match – Kemara Hauiti-Parapara!!

Our Ducks unfortunately did not get to play and won by default. 

At the Old Timers Day after match, we had Ha'amea Ahio, Johnsonville Captain, hand over the historic Carman Cup to Akira Ieremia. Johnsonville and Tawa have been playing for this Cup since 1947!!

The Old Timers Day went off a real treat. The committee decided to take it downstairs to the greenroom, which was another good decision. There was a very good crowd, at which it was my privilege to welcome everyone to our function. 

There was a couple of special moments:

1. Welcoming a special guest and great stalwart of our club – a gentleman who was our President for a total of 13 years, a Life Member in 1990, and our Club Patron for a large number of years – Paul McEnaney. It was a real delight to have Paul at his usual Saturday afternoon haunt.

2. Stewart Dixon from Aprotean introduced himself to the club as a new club Sponsor.

Len (Hoki) Young, an 85-year Tawa old boy, with Trent. 

Len partied up a storm on Saturday night, busting a lot of dance moves.

Len, "back in the day"

The next very important subject was that of presenting Kemara Hauiti-Parapara with his Blazer for 100 Games. Dave Banks opened the occasion with some photo clips and a chat about Kemara’s rugby life. The Blazer was duly presented to Kemara’s very proud mum, to place on Kemara’s shoulders. When you consider how many times Kemara has been away from the club, playing rugby in different countries as well as Super Rugby excursions, this is one mean feat! In Kemara’s speech, he noted that wherever he has been and whatever he has done, Tawa RFC is his rugby home. Congratulations Kemara and well done. Personally, I have always enjoyed your play.

U11 Fundraising 

A reminder that the Tawa Rugby Club Under 11s are hard at work fundraising to get to the Taupō Rugby Tournament in September. They are currently running a roti and butter chicken sauce fundraiser:

If you'd like to support the team and buy some delicious food for dinner, complete the Google form by Friday 1st June. 

They are also selling Tawa RFC Jibbitz, at $5 per piece. If you'd like one, come by the Junior clubrooms at one of their Monday and Thursday practices from 5.00pm - 6.00pm. Show off your Tawa RFC pride on your Crocs!

Super Cars

Last weekend was also the Perth Super Car SuperSprint, Races 9 and 10. Both races were won by blue badges, with Chevy having to settle for a 2nd and 3rd place by way of Will Brown, Ampol Red Bull Camaro. In four days is the running of the 108th Indianapolis 500, arguably up with Bathurst 1000 and Le Mans 24 hour as far as iconic races go. On Pole is our own Scott McLaughlin at an average speed of 234.220 – that is MPH, not Ks.

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This Saturday, we are hosting Avalon. Two games at The Fortress and two games at Redwood Park.

Have a good week, and see you at The Fortress!

Allan G Davidson

President & Life Member