As seen on the Southland Tribune

The Southland rugby league community will pack out a plane at lunchtime on Friday for a journey to Auckland that’s been spurred on by a lot of “heart, hustle, and hope”.

Included on that plane will be 60 Southland rangatahi who are ready for what’s been described as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to showcase their skills on a national stage.

Four Southland teams will line up in New Zealand Rugby League’s National District 9s tournament across the girls and boys under-16 and under-18 grades.

Southland District Rugby League Development Officer Dominic Vercoe said the journey to get the kids to Auckland was an uplifting one.

“This isn’t just a sports story. It’s a powerful example of what can happen when passion meets opportunity, and when a community rallies around its young people,” Vercoe told The Tribune.

Southland District Rugby League – led by the team managers alongside whānau support – has raised over $70,000 to get the kids to the tournament.

“It’s a true Southland effort, full of heart, hustle, and hope,” Vercoe said.

“It’s much bigger than rugby league. We are from a certain part of New Zealand where some kids don’t get the opportunities like the rest of New Zealand do, to go to a tournament like this in Auckland.”

For most kids, the two-day tournament will be an opportunity to create some special memories representing Southland at a national tournament.

For others, it could potentially open some significant doors.

A number of NRL clubs are expected to have scouts casting their eyes over the New Zealand talent in Auckland at the National 9s tournament.

The emergence of the NRLW competition has ramped up the opportunities for female rugby league players.

It is in the girls’ game where Southland probably possesses its most exciting rugby league talent at the moment, and where some of those opportunities with NRL clubs might come.

That girls’ promise was highlighted by the Southland U16 girls team winning a recent Southland-Otago tournament and Manaiya Leishman being named tournament MVP.

Last year Leishman captained the South Island Scorpions U16 team despite being just 14 at the time.

Manaiya’s older sister Jayda is another in Southland’s crop of promising female players.

“We’ve got some girls in our development system who are names you will want to remember for the future, they’ll be playing NRLW,” Vercoe said.

“It just goes to show what Southland Rugby League, the parents, and the community are doing for the development side of it down here.

“NRLW wasn’t even a pathway two or three years ago, now that pathway is massively wide open.”

The nine-a-side format, rather than the traditional 13-a-side rugby league games, has worked perfectly for a smaller region like Southland to get teams to Auckland for the national tournament.

Vercoe said a squad of 21 players would be needed to line up in a traditional 13-a-side tournament, which would be a stretch for Southland’s playing resources.

Nine-a-side provided a good platform for Southland rugby league to provide opportunities and try to grow the game.

“This is the start. We’ll get up there and these kids will get to experience it, and the community will get to see what we’ve done up there.

“Hopefully, it will inspire some other kids, and, in the future, we can take up a 13-a-side team,” Vercoe said.

The National 9s U16 and U18 tournament will be played across two days starting on Saturday.

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