Congratulations to Te Kura Matua o Wainuiomata who were crowned the 2024 Junior Kī o Rahi National Champions yesterday.

The tournament held in Taupō at the spacious Owen Delany Park saw 30 teams from across the country battle it out.

One of the highlights of the tournament was seeing Kura from the Mataatua region, Kura such as Te Wharekura o Ruatoki and Te Kura Tura o Te Manukatūtahi (Whakatāne High School). They’ve been the only rohe missing for a while so it’s awesome to see them bring their flavour to the kēmu.

30 teams across 6 pools meant each kura played 4 games on Day 1.

We have some highlights of Day 1 here if you would like to check them out!

At the end of Day 1 the placings were as follows:

The only unbeaten teams on Day 1 were Te Kuiti, Wainuiomata, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Waiū o Ngāti Porou and Hamilton Boys and Girls High.

The top 16 played off with rank 1 playing 16 and rank 2 playing 15 and so on, this is an awesome way to find the best 8 schools as certain pools may be more difficult than others.

After this round the Top 8 was pretty much as expected with Te Kuiti, Wainuiomata, Te Waiū, Hamilton, Te Rau Aroha, TWTT and Ritana all cementing their spot in the Top 8. The only team to bow out of the 8 was Manutūke who went down to last year’s finalists Te Koutu in a tight battle.

Top 4 then became Te Kuiti who beat TWTT, Wainuiomata who beat Ritana, Te Waiū who beat Te Rau Aroha and Te Koutu who upset Hamilton Boys and Girls as they had previously beat Te Koutu in pool play.

Our semi finals saw Wainuiomata beat Te Koutu and Te Kuiti get the win in overtime versus Te Waiū.

This gifted us two Kura who have never played in a final before with Te Kuiti and Wainuiomata, both topping the table on Day 1 and looking very much like finalists from their first game. Both teams had strong ki oma and taniwha not relying on one side of their play, they also had strong kaitiaki.

Champions after a hard fought match being Te Kura Matua o Wainuiomata, a well drilled team with dangerous male and female ki oma players, a resilient kaitiaki who lead who team well and some terrorizing taniwha defenders who didn’t allow too many tries to be scored.

Really enjoyed the tournament and looking forward to seeing the next steps of all our teams.

2024 Junior Ki o Rahi Nationals Champions Crowned