29 September 2024
With even more teams than last year, the Zones and Districts turned up in force in Mount Maunganui for the 2024 NZRL National Girls Youth Tournament. With the pool matches playing out on Day 1, it was a chance to see who was going to be the early front-runners: would last year’s winners stamp their mark on the tournament as they looked to go back-to-back, or would new teams emerge in a bid to take the title?
Last year’s winners Counties Manukau had a bye first up, but runner’s up Wellington took the opportunity early to show they were out to win this year, beating Northland 38-0 before going on to beat Bay of Plenty 40-0 also. That puts them on top of Section B heading into Day 2.
Bay of Plenty also played Akarana earlier in the day, the game ending in a draw. Although starting strong Bay of Plenty found themselves down not long to go before full time, however off the last play of the game they took the high ball and busted over the line, converting to level it up 16 all.
Manawatu also played well throughout the day, putting two solid wins on the board against both South Island and Mid Central to lead Section C.
Meanwhile later in the day, Counties had their first run out of the tournament against Waikato, opening the scoring by carving up the middle. This was a pre cursor of what was to come, with a dominant display ending in 24-0, leaving them top of Section A.
Last year Auckland dominated the 18s Girls final against Akarana, and they started how they meant to go on this year with a 42-0 win over Coastline.
On the flip side, Akarana had a slow start against South Island. South Island nearly went over in the corner early; however, it was Akarana to put the first points on the board. A close match throughout, mounting pressure was too much in the end for Akarana, South Island taking the lead not long before full time to take it out 12-8.
Akarana fought back later in the day though. Facing off against Bay of Plenty, it was a tight affair at half time, up 12-10, but they were able to blow out the scoreline more in the second half, the final whistle blowing at 30-14.
Both Auckland and South Island recorded another solid win each over Waikato and Coastline respectively to put them top of Section A/B.
Waikato, Wellington and Counties Manukau all put on convincing displays in their first matches. Counties and Wellington then faced off, a crunching affair seeing Wellington take the half time lead. Counties came back strong, scoring with 4 minutes to go to tie it up 16 a piece. Then with 30 seconds left on the clock, Counties went wide, went over the line to huge cheer, and took out the match 22-16. That win secured Counties the number one spot in Section C as they headed into Day 2.
Northland were also able to hold off a late surge by Mid Central, securing their first win of the day 24-20.
For all draw and results updates visit sporty.co.nz
On Day 2, Field 2 will continued to be live-streamed on YouTube
