Media Release 19 July 2010

While the Rugby World Cup hits New Zealand in 2011, the exhilaration of top-level rugby will be experienced when twenty-four Bay of Plenty teams endeavour to lift aloft the first Baywide Rippa Rugby Championship.

Several years ago Bay of Plenty Rugby introduced the Rippa Rugby World Cup to the Western Bay of Plenty. It has since been taken to Rotorua, and the hugely popular tournament made its entrance in the Eastern Bay of Plenty this year.

For the first time a Baywide Rippa Rugby Championship Final will find the best school teams in the region. While each participating school had a team apiece in the Year Three & Four and Year Five and Six divisions in the regional competitions – only the top four schools in each division, from each of the regional tournaments, have earned a place in the final stanza.

The Bay of Plenty Final of the Rippa Rugby extravaganza will be played at the Paengaroa Domain on the 4th August 2010. The twenty-four teams from the three Bay of Plenty regions will represent their School and respective Sub-Union in the championship deciders.

Kane Hames BOPRU Rugby Development Officer said “From 126 teams that entered the Rippa Rugby World Cup, just twenty-four have made it through to the Baywide final, to be played at Paengaroa”. “ The teams will wear their school rugby uniforms as they try to win the first Bay of Plenty Rippa Rugby Championship”.

“ I have visited over 70 schools this year and the level of talent participating in the tournament is outstanding”. “Not only have the youngsters put in the hard yards as team members, but a considerable number have the talent to push on to higher honours”, said Kane.

The Bay of Plenty tournaments brings together schools from both town and country, where the city school players rub shoulders with their country cousins. At the Central (Rotorua) region event, the year 3/4 division was won by Selwyn School, with country school Paengaroa taking out the older age group division.

Opotiki Primary and Paroa School were the victors in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, with Pillans Point and Fairhaven winning their respective Western Bay divisions.

BOPRU Rippa Rugby World Cup Regional Results (and participants at the Baywide RR Final)

Central
Year3/4 – Winner: Selwyn School R/U: Malfroy School – Semi-Finalists: Ngongotaha/Otanga
Year 5/6 – Winner: Paengaroa R/U: Malfroy – Semi-Finalists: Rotorua Primary/Otanga
Western BOP
Year3/4 – Winner: Pillans Point R/U Thomas More – Semi-Finalists: Papamoa/Fairhaven
Year 5/6 – Winner: Fairhaven R/U Te Akau Papamoa – Semi-Finalists: Papamoa/Maungatapu
Eastern BOP
Year3/4 – Winner: Opotiki R/U: Te Kura o Teko – Semi-Finalists: Allandale/Apanui
Year 5/6 – Winner: Paroa R/U: Opotiki – Semi-Finalists: St Joesphs/Te Kura o Te Teko
 

For Further Information Contact
Mike Rogers BOPRU Operations Manager
DDI 07 927 1316 029 478 4292