Southland triumphs in thriller to claim U18 national touch title
Down 4-2 in the first half, Southland bounced back to beat Waikato 6-5 to claim the 2023 national U18 mixed Touch title.
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Southland’s young touch talent have delivered a stunning performance on the national stage to claim the 2023 U18 mixed title in Christchurch.
Southland was one of 10 teams that entered the tournament and went through unbeaten to win it. It included banking a thrilling 6-5 victory over Waikato in the final.
Southland had to dig deep after finding itself down 4-2 in the first half, but a couple tries to Claudia Broomfield levelled it up at 4-4 at the halftime break.
Broomfield was outstanding for Southland.
Waikato went ahead 5-4 in the second half before tries to Thomas Spain and Mika Muliania got Southland home 6-5.
“It’s a pretty cool moment to be fair,” assistant coach Scott Eade said soon after the final.
While Southland had gone through the nine round-robin games unbeaten it did include three draws and five wins by just one point.
Eade felt that tight round-robin series showed how close the competition was and also put Southland in good stead come the thrilling decider.
“Generally, with the U18 mixed teams we always think we are there or thereabouts, but it’s hard for us because we don’t get a lot of pre-tournaments or games to play in.
“These guys’ only preparation, in terms of game time, is a bit of a Wanaka touch tournament hit out in January. Because Canterbury and Otago don’t have U18 mixed they just go boys and girls, so effectively you’re only working amongst ourselves and our adult players and U16s in terms of local hit outs.
“That makes it even more special to go up there with not a lot of game preparation, compared to the other teams from the North Island, and do the business.”
Southland lost the final of the U18 national mixed tournament a couple of years ago, although did win it a few years before that when current Black Fern Amy du Plessis was part of the team.
This year’s Southland team was captained by Rico Fisher who has been selected in the New Zealand U18 Mixed team which will play Australia in a couple of months.
Eade said Fisher’s leadership throughout the tournament was huge.
Fisher is also a promising 15-a-side rugby player, as well as a thrower in athletics.
“He led from the front, just a high work rate and engine,” Eade said.
“He’s a hooker in rugby, he’s not the biggest hooker at the moment, but he’s just got a massive engine, is fit, and just goes and goes, and he’s got a nice skillset.”
Claiming the national title was a big moment, Fisher said soon after the final.
“We just dug deep. We knew we had to give it everything. A lot of us haven’t experienced such a big event like this so it was really cool to just push through for each other and for our coaches for what they do for us,” Fisher said.