Around the Grounds - June 3

Around the Grounds - June 3

CMRFU Community team busy
The Community Rugby team have had a productive few months of Small Blacks Courses, Rugby Smart Courses, Tackle Clinics and Scrum Clinics. Currently there are Girls Rippa Rugby Festival Nights, Secondary Schools Girls 10’s, Give it a go days. Secondary Schools Rugby has now kicked off alongside Junior and Senior Rugby.
Looking ahead, we have 4x Secondary Schools Roadshows, Junior/Intermediate Counties Tackle Days, Tu Wahine, Ethnic Cultural Language weeks, Talent Identification Under 16 day (100 students), Emerging Under 18 Boys 2-day camp (40-50 boys), Secondary Schools finals, Secondary Schools 1st XV Chiefs Top 4 Qualifier, Winter Tournament Week: Pasifika Aotearoa 15’s Cup, Pre-Aims 7s and Secondary Schools 7s. We also have teams/students representing at the Condor Svens and World Schools 7s towards the end of the year.

Flash to be unleashed at Bombay
It was great to see former Steelers, Chiefs and All Blacks winger Lelia Masaga listed on the team sheet for Bombay in their McNamara Cup game against Papakura last weekend.
The former flyer was unable to take the field due to paperwork but fingers crossed we get to see him in action in the coming weeks.

Girls Secondary Schools comp underway
The Girls Secondary Schools competition heats up today with four local teams in action at Pukekohe.
Pukekohe High School faces Papakura High School at 4pm at Pukekohe High School while Rosehill College Red meets Waiuku College from 4.40pm.
Rosehill College Blue has the bye.
The action moves to Waiuku College next week.

CMRFU staff take up refereeing
It was good to see CMRFU staff members running the touch lines last week in the Karaka v Puke McNamara Cup game. Both Dale Tucker and Scott Penney did a great job but fair to say their GPS numbers didn’t threaten the players’ stats.
Richie Harris also took to the whistle as he refereed the U14 Manurewa High v Otahuhu College match last Saturday.
There are a few more refereeing debuts to come - Liam Daniela, John Hall, Ti Tauasosi, Jed Knox and Aaron Lawton. Some education to happen to avoid confusion around rucks and play the ball...

 Referee Room Upgrades
Out with the old and in with the new! Our refs’ rooms are getting a long overdue renovation and a fresh lick of paint. All this week we have had pros in to repair leaks, replace holes, tidy shabby bits and pieces and repair and fit light switches and lights. Massive shout out to Robert Shore and his crew for doing the renos, and to Justin Wharf replacing and fixing the lights and electrical bits. We are blessed to have such amazing support from our rugby community. Also thanks to ACSL for the sponsorship of a new heat pump keeping our refs cosy in the winter and cool in the summer.

Primary and Intermediate Boys Tackle day a hit
A fun day in the sun on Tuesday at Pulman Park with 17 teams battling it out for a spot to the Auckland competitions, fighting for the top bragging rights.
We have the Girls tackle day too coming up next week. Thanks to Manurewa High 1st XV Boys and Girls for their massive help refereeing these tournaments and doing an outstanding job of it too.

Scum Factory rolled out to junior teams
Paul Wheeler and his CMRFU team have successfully run Scrum Factory sessions for all U12 & U13 Junior Teams in the region.
It saw 19 sessions, 347 players and 52 Coaches involved.
Thanks to club tutors Ed Holmes, Aaron Hill and Hamish Fraser.

Shoosh
Keep an eye and ear out next week for some significant announcements. Some high level football is coming to Pukekohe and there are some NPC signings due to be confirmed in the coming days.