Having been hardened by the rigours of an Otago rugby comp, Wakatipu High’s under-15s triumphed at the recent South Island secondary schools’ U15 co-ed tournament in Westport.

After beating defending champs Ashburton College 19-7, they made mince meat of three other sides in round robin play.

They then just held out Winton’s Central Southland College 21-17, to win their semifinal, before thrashing Greymouth’s John Paul II College 45-14 in the final.

Co-coach Andre Broughton says their semi was clearly their ‘final’.

“[At the end] they were hammering our line for 5 minutes straight, 2 metres out, and we held them out.”

Broughton, whose co-coaches were Grant Crotty and Jamie Kirk, says the team has been together since the Basin Bulls’ Australian tour in ’24.

This year they chose to take on the might of Otago’s top boys’ schools by competing in the secondary schools’ U15 Cup.

“The first round, we lost every game by 30, 40 points.

“They then had a choice to go down a grade, but they decided to stay in the grade and came within 7 points, 10 points against all those teams in that second round.”

That improvement, Broughton notes, set them up well for their subsequent tournament success in Westport.

At that tourney, he says they had “a really strong set piece and a lot of pace in the backline”.

Forwards Liam Tiananga and Aston Woods and backs Tyler Joll and Xavier Crotty were selected for the tournament team.

scoop@scene.co.nz