We’re 5 weeks away from the 2020 NZ Secondary School Ki o Rahi Nationals in the winterless North.

15th - 17th April, 2020 sees the Ki o Rahi Nationals taking place in Waitangi, most teams will have qualified by now and would be well in to their preparations.

To help teams, fans and supporters of Ki o Rahi we thought we would review the 2019 NZ Secondary School Nationals.

2019 NZ Secondary School Ki o Rahi Nationals Review

2019 saw the largest secondary school ki o rahi nationals of all time, 34 teams attended the tournament in Napier! This was a huge jump from the 24 teams in Gisborne the previous year. It is an indication of the growth of the game, with interest from schools all around the country.

2019 was actually a pretty difficult year for teams to make the top 8 - teams were split across 6 pools meaning only one team from each pool could make the top 8, the other two teams that would feature in the top 8 would be the two teams who finished second in their pool with the best for and against records.

This meant that if you had a difficult pool, you were less likely to be able to make the top 8. A difficult pool meant you would have closer games and this would affect your for and against record.

Because of this we had a different looking top 8 than most years:

Last year, our top 8 teams were: Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga, Te Kura Maori o Nga Tapuwae, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Waiu o Ngati Porou, Hastings Boys and Girls, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Horouta Wananga, Karamu High School, Palmerston North Boys and Girls High School and Te Kuiti High School.

Over the forthcoming weeks, we will review the top 8 teams from 2019, but today we thought we would take a look at some of the other teams who missed out, there are plenty of good ones!

Teams to look out for at the 2020 NZ Secondary School Ki o Rahi Nationals in Waitangi:

Nga Puna o Waiorea and Turanga Wahine Turanga Tane finished 9th and 10th respectively in 2019. Both teams were in the same pool as Hastings Boys and Girls who finished 4th overall. Waiorea lost by 9 points to Hastings and TWTT lost by a single point, this shows that both schools were both contenders for the Top 8 last year. Both schools will be working hard to ensure they do feature in the Top 8 in 2020.

Lytton High School (11th), Hamilton Boys and Girls (13th) and Rotorua Boys and Girls (17th) are schools that have done pretty well in previous nationals, however in 2019 they were all in the same pool which was possibly the most difficult pool. All 3 schools lost to suprise package for 2019, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Waiu o Ngati Porou, who ended up in third place overall in the 2019 NZ Secondary Schools Nationals.

Because of the set up of the competition there was no way any of these schools were going to finish as a highly placed runner up, so they were forced to battle it out in the plate and bowl sections. Another team that also did suprisingly well in this pool was Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi Marae, although they finished 5th in a pool of 6 that featured Lytton, Rotorua, Hamilton and Te Waiu. Hoani only lost by 3 points to Rotorua, 2 points to Hoani, 2 points to Waiu and 1 point to Lytton High. (You can view results from 2019 here.)

Lincoln High School the only school from the South Island finished in 12th spot, they predominantly play the touch version of ki o rahi in the Waitaha region and were coming to Nationals without too much experience with the tags/rippa version of the game. To finish 2nd in their pool with some strong wins and only a 2 point loss to Te Kuiti shows they have the ability to do well in future.

There’s plenty of teams to be wary of, many schools have been attending Ki o Rahi Nationals for a little while now!

The main thing is to focus in on your own team’s strategies and come to Nationals with your own style of play and let other schools figure it out on the spot and try combat it with their own!

Next time we look at 8th place from 2019 - Te Kuiti High School