The Jonty Carran Memorial Rugby tournament was played in Otautau on Friday 24th November.
Jonty Carran had been at Southland Boys' High School for six weeks when he passed away in his sleep on 28 February 2016, aged 13. Countless tests followed his death in the search for why this healthy and athletic boy never woke from his sleep. This young lad was a talented sportsman, with rugby being one of his passions. In his memory the Jonty Carran Memorial Rugby 10’s Tournament is now run annually with teams from all over Southland converging on his hometown of Otautau to play in his honour.
We took one Year 7/8 team with us this year, coached by Callum Rutledge. Our first game was at 9am and we played Aparima Boys and won 44/10 - a good start. At 10am we played Longford Boys. We felt this would be our hardest game, but we won 29/0. 11.20am saw us play Arowhenua Tama with a win - 49/7.
The boys prepared for our final game of the pool. We played Otautau Blue at 12..40pm and won 49/0. Although it sounds from the scores it was a walk in the park, it wasn’t. The boys played 8 minute halves, and they played hard. They were quick and their defence was strong.
The semi finals were played at 2pm and we played against Lochiel/Winton with a win of 42/ 0. Into the finals we were headed! We faced Limehills in the final and the score doesn’t reflect how exhausting the game was. The boys put their heart and soul into it and played hard, to win 40/0.
It has been 4 years since we last won and the boys and Mr Rutledge received the trophy from Mr and Mrs Carran and Rugby Southland.
Zavier Te Amo also got player of the day for our team (each team had a player of the day). Congratulations to him and the whole team. The boys played as a team, even though they have never played together before, communicating and working well together. Lots of sportsmanship was shown, everyone played their part and made the team great.
The team consisted of:
- Logan Beck
- Sam Coulthard
- DJ Edginton
- Nixon Esplin
- Arlo Fletcher
- Hunter Flowers
- Ryder Harris
- Lucas Keil
- Max Matthews
- Charlie Muir
- Jonty Muir
- Quinn O’Connor
- Tyrell Poihakena- Jackson
- Eli Robson
- Thomas Rutledge
- Zavier Te Amo
- Kitione Tuapati
- Macks Whaanga
