Friday 9th October –
Today was an early start for the team as we loaded onto the boats at 7am to head into Levuka, everyone was very excited for the sports ahead. Meeting the school teachers and rest of the kids at the wharf, we then fell into our lines ready for the march through the town to the ground, and it was great to have such a presence supporting the children. To open the day there was a speech from guests and the national anthem was sung, and then it was game time!
In the group stages the girls were absolutely un-stoppable in the netball, with 12 wins out of 12 as the Under 10s, 12s and 14s cruised through playing some superb netball and making Alice, Emily and all the team extremely proud, as well as all the villagers who were there supporting. The Moturiki friends and family were certainly making the most noise, and the atmosphere at the netball court was incredible. In the rugby the under 10s showed some strong defence to win their group with 3 wins and 1 draw, whilst the under 14s also went through with 3 impressive wins and 2 draws as they too did Scott and Joe very proud! Sadly the Under 12s didn’t make it through after 2 draws and 2 losses, although the two teams who ultimately met in the final, Levuka Public School and Delana Methodist Primary School, were the two to go through form their group and myself and tim could not have asked for any more from the boys!
With the semi-finals to come, the Under 10s were very sadly disqualified for playing a girl who was 5 days too old, and it left Alice and Emily and all the girls so so disappointed as they had ben un-touchable up to that point, after training so hard. But the girls have assured me that next year they will be even better, and they can head home so proud with their games. The Under 12s stormed through to the final, where with just moments to go were squeezed out by Loreto 3-4, and yet again there was nothing but praise from everone watching for their efforts! The Under 14s missed out in the semi-final 4-5 against a very big LPS side, and looking back there was a sense of frustration for Emily and Alice and their girls that with only two games lost in 14, they missed out on the trophies, but they were quick to say just how amazing their kids had been, going in as huge under-dogs against the much bigger Ovalau schools.In the rugby it was a simllar story of pride and frustration, as the Under 14s lost in sudden death extra time in their semi-final against Marist Convent School to a very obvious forward pass, and the Under 10s lost out in their final to a sudden death drop kick competition when they couldn’t be separated in normal time. So no trophies to bring back to Moturiki Island, but the kids had given everything and made everyone so so proud. We arrived as the huge underdogs, and left as everyones favourites, people will no longer ask who the Moturiki District School are!
Tags: Fiji rugby coaching, gap year, gap year Fiji, gap year sport coaching, Moturiki district school, old capital festival, rugby gap year
