North Shore earns week off after unbeaten run

North Shore Rugby Club’s premier side finished pool play undefeated in 12 matches, with a 30-0 win over Silverdale away last weekend.

Shore topped the competition, meaning it has a bye in this week’s quarter finals.

Coach Rua Tipoki said the side would be working harder than ever to prepare for its semi-final match against either Northcote or Silverdale.

Shore’s emphatic win over Silverdale was achieved without star first five-eighth Oscar Koller, who strained a hamstring several weeks ago.

Tipoki said Koller, who has signed for the North Harbour NPC side, would definitely be fit for the semi-final to be played at Shore’s home ground at Vauxhall Rd on July 8.

“He could have played against Silverdale, but he’s a young football player and it’s our responsibility to look after the young fellas.”

Replacement players Cam Howell and Hunter Rice had performed excellently and also had strong games at the North Harbour trials, Tipoki said.

Shore also hoped to have classy prop Sione Mafileo back for the semi-finals now that his season with the Chiefs Super Rugby side had ended.

But the real strength for Shore was the number of local players coming through the ranks, Tipoki said.

“We’ve got a lot of depth through the squad, which shows how well Takapuna Grammar and other local schools are feeding into the club.”

Club trainer Dean Rice was very experienced and the young players coming into the under-19s and under-21s, then progressing through to the Premiers, were “instilled with the North Shore ethos, which is hard work,” Tipoki said.

Shore women’s rugby premiers show promise in first season

The North Shore Rugby Club’s women’s side is taking plenty of positives out of a challenging inaugural season in the tough Auckland-wide women’s premier competition.

Though the team had plenty to learn –with more than half a dozen players who hadn’t played the game before – it notched three wins, improved through the eightgame Coleman Shield season, and helped showcase players for opportunities at a higher level.

Two Shore players, midfielder Holly Williams and fullback Mikayla Suluape, were picked for a Black Ferns camp held in Auckland earlier this month.

Coach Robert Todd, a former professional player and ex-coach of the club’s men’s premier side, has pledged to take the reins of the women’s side again next year to try and build on the gains made so far.

Clear signs of progress emerged in the side’s last game for the season, a quarter-final against women’s rugby powerhouse Marist.

Though beaten 25-34, Shore were behind by just a point with eight minutes to play. Marist – the incumbent champions – complimented their much less experienced opponents by opting for a kick at goal in the final stages.

Marist, which has a proud history of women’s rugby dating back to the 1980s and has produced 33 Black Ferns, beat Shore 48-19 when the sides first met early in the season.

The Shore squad came from many different sporting backgrounds, including netball, and faced a steep learning curve in its first season, Todd said. “There was a lot of learning of rugby IQ.”

On

Among the diverse group was Commonwealth Games gold-medal winning hammer-thrower Julia Ratcliffe, who, after her athletics career, wanted to try a team sport.

Todd, who stepped into the main coaching role mid-season, said the other teams in the grade were well established, with well-developed player bases. “We’d like to build our team and player depth.”

Shore wanted to create an awareness among women players that “we’re a club worth coming to play for”.

Shore is among clubs tapping into the interest in the women’s game created by the Black Ferns win in the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

“Just locally, we’ve got huge participation and numbers,” Todd said. “If we can make a pathway, so they stay at the club, that will strengthen our numbers.”

In partnership with North Shore Cricket Club, the rugby club plans to provide improved facilities for women players in the former Devonport Bowls Club building in Cambridge Tce.

Todd hopes it will be available by next season. “The club’s right behind the team,” he said.

He was pleased that Williams and Suluape had been chosen for the national camp. “Some of the results didn’t go our way, but their talents were recognised.”

Several North Shore players are also expected to feature with the North Harbour Hibiscus in the upcoming Farah Palmer Cup season.