Weekly Newsletter

Published: Tue, 08/19/25

Updated: Tue, 08/19/25

Hi ,

Greetings all,

On Saturday we had prizegiving, where we took the time to acknowledge what has been an outstanding season - with for the second consecutive year, four of our teams made it to the big dance.

The Reserves, although winning their semi on Saturday against the Petone Brotherhood, didn’t qualify for the final due to some of their players being ruled ineligible.

Rick Stonnell’s match report is as follows:

Conditions for the John Davies Cup semi-final rematch between Tawa and Petone were much improved from last week's arctic blast and was played in sunshine but with a blustery northerly.

Petone looked just as formidable and it was going to be another tough day at the office for our boys. Zac the adopted manager filed the following report...

The Tawa Reserves started with a hiss and a roar, scoring two tries and one conversion to go out to an early 12 point lead. Petone came back with two tries and a conversion of their own to level the score. The ref let the game flow which made the game very entertaining for the small crowd that attended.

A number of the Tawa team stood out, including Elijah Brooking and a great run from Sene down the right wing from inside the Tawa 22m to score in the corner. In the end Tawa came away with a well deserved 36 - 24 win.

Prizegiving recipients were:

Best Back

Reserve Grade: Simon Afamasaga

85s: Ryan Awatere

Colts: Randall Paenga

Premier 2: Estevaan So’oialo

Premier: Faraimo Nofoaiga

Best Forward

Reserve Grade: JP Lolesio

85s: Nathan Wanders

Colts: Hadley Vaoliko

Premier 2: Bede Carr

Premier: Matolu Petaia

Rookie of the Year

Reserve Grade: JP Lolesio

85s: Tom Larking

Colts: Max Toft

Premier 2: Solomon Bern-Hippolite

Premier: Luke Bidois

Player of the Year

Reserve Grade: Lorenzo Lolesio

85s: Edward Bloomfield

Colts: Jarred Kuresa

Premier 2: Jared Fermanis

Premier: Mona Uelese

Coaching Award for Dedicated Service

George Bloomfield

TRFC Managers Award - Best Team Manager

Simon Humphries

M R Pigou Trophy - Most Promising U19 Player

Luke Bidois

Bill Amey Memorial Cup - Best Club Member

Charlotte Griffin

Points Cup - Most Points Scored in Club

Troy Howe (165 points)

Percy Kerin's Trophy - Most Tries in Club

Troy Howe (17 tries)

C C Mexted Memorial Trophy - Best Colt

Jacob Denyer

David Ford Memorial Cup - Clubmanship

Hemi Fermanis

Bruce Marshall Trophy - Supporter of the Season

Mike and Jermaine

Milner Cup - Skill and Sportsmanship

Evan Bishop

Club Captain Shield

Tu'ipulotu Nuku and Jon Masaga

Presidents Shield - Best Playing Record

Ducks

Blair Shield - Best Team Spirit

Ducks

85s Mallard Award

Gus McKinnon

Pac Fitness Award

Cullen Dexter

Paul McEnaney Best and Fairest Player

Jacob Denyer

Patrons Award

Charlotte Griffin

Our results on the paddock were massive achievements for the club and reflects all the hard work of the players, coaches, and management.

Clearly the highlight was the Ducks, who went back to back with their win against Johnsonville. This, on top of Matt Treeby and Adam Preston making the inaugural NZ U85 team that toured Sri Lanka earlier this year, capped off a season to remember.

However, in my view it was the work of our volunteers that differentiated our club from the others and allowed us to consistently outperform our peers week in week out on the field - there are too many to name, but we have them in spades. Thank you.

Well that’s a wrap for the 2025 club season. Time now to watch with interest the many Tawa players that are playing in the Lions, Samoans, Māori, and Centurion representative teams.

I look forward to catching up at our AGM.

Steve Rogers

President

JUNIOR SPOTLIGHT

Year 3 Streetwise Coffee Tawa

A chilly seven degrees and a crisp southerly to start our day off. We had a full squad of Sharks today, however with sickness going around, Norths Blue were down to three players. Thankfully there were enough Sharks to make up to two teams.

We started off with an epic warm-up by Coach KJ to get our boys warm and brush off the southerly chill. First half started off with a good amount of tackles from the Tawa tops team, and within a minute the White tops team scored a runaway try. Both teams began to score a number of tries and were on top of their defense with amazing tackles. We even got a runaway try from a Norths player - Liam (Player of the Day).

In the second half the Sharks came in strong led by our captain Kingston Tanuvasa-Kelemete. We crossed the try line a couple of times and had some good runs by our Legend of the Week James Webster, but the White tops side didn’t make it easy for us. Our players in the opposing side put on a good defense for their teammates and banked a few run away tries by Sonny Madar and Wynter Taylor (our team Player of the Day).

Thank you to our Coaches KJ and George for supporting our boys today and braving the weather. Big ups to our parents and family for coming out in this weather. Stay warm whānau.

Year 5 Leman Smeith

What a cold day today folks. Some decent hail storms this afternoon and evening in Tawa. We can be enormously proud of our tamariki, fronting up in very challenging conditions and wanting to play rugby today. It proved to be a classic derby encounter with plenty of passion and healthy support on the sidelines too. Norths deservedly took home the win in a tight battle of a contest with a great second half performance.

After a solid and welcome warmup by Coach T, Norths were keen to get going early but no field was marked out by them, so Paul rapidly ran around to cone out a wide field with Norths rep so all tamariki could play and have a full game (particularly with the cold conditions in mind).

Tawa started slow and Norths pounced on our mistakes to go three tries up. A rallying cry went out and Tawa clawed back level with some decent runs and tries (Kopo, Zoey, and Livai) to be three tries all. Some sloppy play by Tawa near their own try line was capitalised upon by Norths. Tawa also responded with a couple more very good breaks and tries (Detroit and Zach). 5 - 5 at HT.

Coach T put out an excellent half-time talk and encouragement and the team seemed set for the second half.

It's fair to say the Norths team was up for the second half challenge and came out firing. Tawa made a lot of mistakes with knock-ons, inability to retain possession with cold hands and boggy field, panicked, kicked the ball away and struggled to get going forward. Tawa also allowed the Norths team a lot of space to run at them with a deep defensive line. Norths capitalised continually on Tawa mistakes as too the freedom to run at the deep Tawa defense. Tawa did do a handful of good line breaks and they typically resulted in well finished tries, three in total in fact finished off by Kyan, Sam, and Ethan.

Overall it was a massive showing though by Norths to take out the second half six tries to three, and winning 11 - 8 tries overall.

Well done to Zoey today who had another excellent performance in defense and a good try in the first half, fully deserving of being awarded by Norths as opposition player of the day.

Also to Zach, who had I thought his best game of the season and scored a good try in the first half also, likewise fully deserving of being awarded Tawa Player of the Day.

Well done also to all of our hard grafters and quiet achievers. Thanks to Coach T and all our volunteers today, as too our whānau and friends for your dedication, support, and encouragement.

Thank you,

Tawa Rugby Football Club

23A Lyndhurst Road, Tawa 5028, NEW ZEALAND

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