South Island Rugby Development Tour 2025
In the early hours of Friday 11 April, the senior rugby squad assembled at Auckland Airport to catch the 6.55am flight to Dunedin. The boys were all there on time at 5.30am, including all the Year 13 boys, many of whom arrived blurry eyed from attending the previous night’s Rosmini Ball celebrations!
Once the vans had been collected from Dunedin the squad set off bound for Southland Boys High School, Invercargill. After a three-hour drive the squad arrived in Invercargill, dropped off gear and went out for a short training session as a way of freshening up from a long day’s travel.
Southland Boys Coldstream hostel is steeped in tradition and was the perfect accommodation for the squad to spend the first weekend of their Southern tour. Old style dormitory rooms, each housing eight boys in cubicles with large corridors leading to the dining room on one side, and to a large recreation games room on the other. Here the boys played pool and table tennis and watched the sport on the large television screen. With no neighbours in proximity the hostel was the perfect place for the squad to let their hair down, gel and get to know one another better early in the tour.
The match against Southland Boys was always expected to be very tough encounter. Southland Boys is a traditional school steeped in rugby history and were winners of the National Top 4 1st XV competition in 2023. At home this team has an impressive winning record, and our boys knew the enormity of the challenge that lay in front of them. The match didn’t start well with an error from us resulting in early field position for Southland Boys and the large pack took advantage. This early domination by the Southland Boys rocked the confidence of our team and the first 20 minutes was dominated by the opposition, and they took advantage in the way of 17 unanswered points. We demanded our boy’s never give up regardless of the scoreboard. Our tour captain George Lendich leads from the front with some massive carries which seemed to rally our boys. Confidence and composure of our players slowly but surely improved and led us to us scoring our first try. The game from this point evened itself up and became a much closer contest even though the halftime score was 29-7 in favour of the hosts.
After the break our boys came out with much greater confidence and played very well out scoring the opposition two tries to one, When the final whistle blew the score was a respectable 36-19 and whilst we accept we lost this match we as coaches were proud of the effort, the grit and determination the boys showed to claw their way back into this match.
At the after-match function our hosts laid on the food and hospitality in true Southern style. And when it was over they sent the boys away with no less than five large lasagne and macaroni cheese bakes “for a midnight snack!”
Sunday morning was moving day but before we left Invercargill the group took a trip down to Bluff where they ventured up Bluff Hill and had photos with the famous Bluff signpost. The group enjoyed the panoramic views including Stewart Island before venturing back to the magnificent Bill Richardson Transport World Museum in Invercargill. With over 300 classic and restored vehicles and other attractions the boys immersed themselves and spent a couple of hours exploring all that this attraction had to offer.
Sunday afternoon was spent travelling across to Arrowtown, the destination for the next three days of our Southern tour. The squad arrived around 5pm at the Arrowtown Hampshire camp lodge and following the room allocations it was out for a raining run on the adjacent rugby field.
We were greeted at the camp by our own in-house cook Sarah who would now be with us for the remaining days cooking and managing all the catering activities. Sarah organised the boys into groups based on their room allocations and they rotated the duties which included breakfast and dinner set up and wash up, as well as lunch preparation. Lunch preparation included laying out all the fruits and condiments, cutting and chopping ingredients, so that the remaining group can all come through and make up and pack their own lunch for the day.
Outside of training the activities while in Arrowtown included exploring Queenstown and a swim at the local pools. Day two was a big day out for the boys with the team participating in Go Karting, Mini Golf and a tour of the racing car museum at the Highland Park racetrack in Cromwell. From here the group travelled to Naseby and went Curling and Luging at the Maniototo Adventure Park. It was a big day which included a lot of travel, so the training session was a light one back at the camp that day as the evening closed in.
The mid-week fixture was against Wakatipu High School based in Queenstown. The Wakatipu team play in the Otago regional competition which includes the 1st XV’s from Dunedin. The match was played in sunny conditions with magnificent views of the Remarkable Ranges in the background. The first half was an even affair with Wakatipu showing plenty of heart. Our boys were playing well though and had a comfortable lead at the break. The coaches were ringing in the changes through the second half and with the changes came more and more points. By the last quarter our team had really hit their straps scoring multiple tries to close out the match with a 54-5 win.
A short after-match was enjoyed with the opposition players and coaches in the school cafeteria before the squad boarded the vans bound for our next destination in Dunedin. The Dunedin accommodation was in the Lodge at Dunedin Holiday Park located out near St Clair beach. The boys again were allocated rooms and were all involved with the meal preparations and clean ups.
Our opponents in Dunedin were Kings High School who we had been informed by the coaches of the Southland Boys and Wakatipu High School that they are the team to beat in the Southern region this year. The Kings boys were large and were made up predominantly Year 13 boys. They started the match very strongly pushing our scrum backwards against the feed and scoring from the ensuing attack. Down 7-0 after 5 minutes our boys stayed composed and stayed in the game. Defensively our boys were massive and eventually this pressure forced the Kings boys into making errors. Our boys capitalised, scored points and gained in confidence and dominated the remainder of the match. The final score was a very pleasing 27-21 win and a performance that every player could be proud of!
The inclusion of activities in Dunedin such as ten pin bowling, paintball, escape room, climbing Baldwin St (steepest street in the world), and swimming at the Moana pools all contributed to the spirit that was building within the group. The Dunedin leg of the tour was celebrated with a fun team dinner out at the well-known Speights Ale House Restaurant based at the Speights Brewery. The food was great, and everyone enjoyed the hospitality that we had received throughout the Southern tour.
A big shout out to all our coaching crew and supporters who all helped us to make this tour memorable for the boys. The tour party were all back safe and sound in time for Easter Sunday with their families. The team enjoyed a few days of rest and recovery before regrouping again on the Thursday to train and prepare for one final preseason match against One Tree Hill College. One Tree Hill play in the Auckland 1B competition and were also in the final stages of their build towards the formal competition. The match was played in wet conditions at One Tree Hill College. Whilst our boys were far the smaller of the two teams it was evident early on that the preseason fitness and training that our boys had engaged in for several months was to prove too much for our opposition. The boys managed to throw the ball about and stick to the shapes that they had trained over many weeks. They were too strong, scoring many tries, at the same time keeping the opposition scoreless.
The 2025 preseason training is now complete. We are very proud of the way this senior group conducted and committed themselves over the last five months and the result now is we have great depth of talent that we can call on this year and beyond.
At this point I would like to wish all the boys the very best of luck for their seasons ahead and to congratulate the following boys who today have been named in the initial 1st XV squad for the 2025 season:
1. Cameron Bray
2. Charlie Clarkson
3. Samiu Seau
4. Izack Fa’onevai
5. Jerimiah Afu
6. Te Whare Paora-Chamberlin
7. Luchian Opperman
8. Mac Williams
9. Zion O’Brien
10. Danny Murphy
11. Brodie Tofilau
12. James Thorpe
13. Liam Kelly
14. George Lendich (Co-captain)
15. JP Baledrokadroka
16. Elijah Wharepouri
17. Niki Tomoda
18. Nate Tofilau
19. Hunter Johns (Co-captain)
20. Cairo Sietu
21. Josh O’Sullivan
22. Quinn Pybus
23. Kason Moller
24. Braden Morley
25. Kane Te Whiu
Mr Joseph O'Reilly
