Champions of the Inaugural International Students Rippa Rugby Tournament
Posted on May 17, 2016
On Friday 13 May a group of eighteen Macleans College International students ranging from Year Ten to Year Thirteen travelled to Sacred Heart College to compete in the first ever Auckland Secondary Schools International Students Rippa Rugby Tournament.
The ten boys and eight girls were of Chinese, Indonesian and Hong Kong Chinese origin.
Auckland Rugby organised the competition and we were fortunate to have the coaching expertise of Waisake Sotutu in the lead up to the competition.
This was a competition designed for students who had no prior experience of playing rugby, and the rippa rules make it more accessible to international students.
Schools attending the tournament included Botany Downs Secondary College, Baradene College, Sacred Heart College, Mt Albert Grammar and Howick College.
The Macleans team won their pool games and then progressed to the final against a very good Baradene/Sacred Heart team. This was a low scoring tense game but Macleans defence held strong and this was the deciding factor in a narrow win.
Students who took part were Victor Chan (Rutherford House), Ester Kaisiepo (Rutherford), Rani Kobak (Mansfield), Raymond Lin (Mansfield), Mince Mbisikmbo (Hillary), Helen Meng (Hillary), Stanley Samay (Upham), Aileen Suebu (Kupe), James Sun (Batten), Gary Tsang (Rutherford), Frita Tunya (Hillary), Hana Wandik (Hillary), Jia Hua Xie Cao (Rutherford), Ricky Xu (Upham), Young Yang (Rutherford), Cheryl Zeng (Hillary), Cody Zhang (Hillary) and Derrick Zhu (Te Kanawa).
