On 22 March, five Nua canoe polo teams headed off to the nationals which were held in Feilding this year. The teams had performed well at the recent regional events but it is always hard to gauge how teams from other regions in New Zealand had performed at their regionals.
The junior girls struggled initially to get their game together but with confidence and enthusiasm they improved as the tournament continued. They eventually made it to a memorable play off for third but lost to the Feilding High team.
The divisional 2 girls also took a while to get things together and play some attractive polo. Their best game was in the medals play off. It all seemed to click and they easily beat their opposition for the bronze medal. A great effort from this team!
The senior girls had some thrilling games and were the top team after the round robin games. All hopes were high but this was to be short lived as they lost their play off to the bottom placed team. This was such a disappointment for the girls after all the hard work they had put in to their round robin games. Such is the nature of sport! To make matters worse, they then lost to our great rivals, Karamu High School from Hastings, for the bronze medal. The girls were naturally disappointed with their performance but showed great sporting character by congratulating the opposition.
The junior boys made a very convincing start to the competition by winning their first game 15 nil. The next game was against our old rivals Karamu. It was a tough and vigorous game and could have gone either way but the boys eventually won 5-4. They were now placed top of their pool and had to play Palmy Boys High for the chance to go into the finals. Nerves played some part in this game as our boys seemed to struggle and not make the most of their opportunities. However, they did win and went on to finals.This was an amazing game. The boys played with great patience and made the most of the opportunities presented to them. The opposition seemed to struggle against our tight and well-formed defence. The boys were up 2 goals by half time and looking good. The second half was intense for all the players and spectators as well as for me as coach on the side. The noise was so loud it was difficult to coach the team. A few nerve-racking decisions by one of the officials made the atmosphere even more intense close to the final whistle but the boys held their lead and won to become national champions. This was a well-deserved outcome.
The senior boys were always going to struggle after losing so many players from last year. However, they played some attractive and convincing polo to win their pool games. In the semi final they played the second placed team, St Johns, in an intense and hard fought game which they eventually won 2-1. In the finals they came up against Palmy Boys High who had proved to be very strong at regionals. The first goal was well executed by Fab to the delight of the crowd and put some pressure on the Palmy team. Eventually the Palmy team equalized and as time progressed they got into their stride to win 5-1. Our boys put in a very credible performance and are to be congratulated on winning the silver medal.
