2019 NZ Secondary School Ki o Rahi Champions - Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga

2019 NZ Secondary School Ki o Rahi National Champions - Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga

For the third year in a row the New Zealand Secondary School Ki o Rahi Tournament came down to a battle between Te Kura Maori o Nga Tapuwae and Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga, both teams AGAIN showed up to play and the game went down to the final quarter! 

The game started with Nga Tapuwae on Taniwha and Rakaumanga as Ki oma.  The first quarter was dominated by Nga Tapuwae who went up 6 - 0, with a mixture of tupu wairua points as well as wairua points.  

The second quarter saw Rakaumanga come out firing with their own Taniwha shooting, clawing points back, the shooters made the Nga Tapuwae Kaitiaki work and made them give away wairua points of their own.  The half time score was pretty much even again.  

The third quarter saw a better blocking performance from Rakaumanga as Nga Tapuwae scored only a few points with their shooters, however Nga Tapuwae did manage to hold out most attempts from the Rakaumanga Ki oma, although there was one try scored by Rakaumanga. Still anyone's game at three quarter time.  

The final quarter saw the Rakaumanga shooters control the ball for long bouts, the Kaitiaki did their best to limit hits on the tupu but those Rakaumanga shooters are the best around and they snuck in a few shots here and there, that paired with a strong defence meant Rakaumanga won the game 13 - 11.

This puts the name of Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga on the trophy for the third time in a row after winning the title in 2013 and 2014, they are now the first team to have ever won the tournament three times, and really demonstrates just how strong they are at the beautiful game that is Ki o Rahi. 

(Note: If you go back to the article from last year about this game, it happened almost exactly the same way, I basically just had to copy paste this blog and change a few things - two very good teams)

What will happen next year? Will Rakaumanga become the first team to win four times, will Nga Tapuwae be the 2nd team to win 3 times or will their be a new name on the trophy?

We will only know this in another year when the tournament heads to Te Taitokerau!