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South Canterbury’s senior women representative netball team has wrapped up their season with silverware at nationals.
After securing the Hanan Shield in August and narrowly missing out on claiming the Whakataetae trophy earlier this month, the side concluded their rep season with a trip up north to Napier for the Netball New Zealand Open tournament.
Held from September 10-13, South Canterbury played six games in total, going up against some of the biggest centres in the country with many of the teams packed with Silver Ferns, ANZ and training partner players.
Day one saw South Canterbury take on the eventual tournament finalists in North Harbour and Wellington, going down 66-27 and 74-22 respectively.
The squad picked up their first win on day two, beating Hutt Valley 49-29 and then suffered a narrow loss to Manurewa 42-38 later in the day.
On day three South Canterbury took on Hutt Valley in a more closely contested rematch, getting over the line 37-31 to book a 13th-14th place showdown against Manawatū White the following day.
South Canterbury came out firing in their final match — going on to claim a 13th place finish with a convincing 50-28 win.
The team’s resilience, determination and tenacity was also rewarded at the end of the tournament with South Canterbury receiving the Gisborne Cup, which recognises the team that displays outstanding sportsmanship, respect and pride in representing their centre, both on and off the court.
South Canterbury had previously been awarded the cup in 1960.
Head coach Julie Langford said she was extremely proud of her squad’s performance across the entirety of the tournament.
“I found that everybody just performed every day, there were no dips. Sometimes you can have a really bad one in a tournament and we just didn’t, we just gave it everything, every game.
“We had our own goals throughout these games because you have to when you’re playing big teams. They might have been a numerical goal or they might have been a focus for that game but each time we just met our goals at every opportunity.
“That was huge because they weren’t necessarily easy goals, but they were something that we could aspire towards. The girls did lift in every aspect of their game and I think that was also noticed by other big centres.”
She said it was great to get that recognition and support from some of the biggest names in the New Zealand netball world.
“I had a lovely conversation with Noeline Taurua [Silver Ferns coach] and wow, what an amazing person she is and what a role model for our country.
“It was hugely, almost overwhelming how they connected with us.
“The whole tournament was just such a positive experience and one that we need to keep pushing to go to for our little region.”
Squad captain Merekite Wahitapu said the team gave it absolutely everything and could be proud of their efforts.
“We had nothing to lose, we had to go out there and just give it our all because we weren’t going to roll over and just let these teams or centres win against us.
“Especially because playing at that level and playing against this calibre of players, it made us lift our game and play better.
“It was intense, it was really physical. You had to fight for every single ball, every single pass, so it wasn’t easy physically or mentally.
“But our girls, they did so well, they fought every single minute of every single game.”
Langford said she was very thankful to the team’s sponsors, whose support made it possible for the team to travel to Napier for the tournament.
“There is a huge amount of work that goes in behind the scenes to make something like this happen.
“It’s hugely important that we kept on the right pathway so the team could at least put its best foot forward. We proved that we can be competitive against some of the biggest centres in the country.”