2010 ANNUAL REPORT - AllTeams

PRemieR team RePoRt 2010With the Gallaher Shield now fi rmly locked away for another yearit is time to refl ect on the 2010 season. The team were faced withmany challenges over the year with many things not going as wewould have liked – however that said, the boys delivered on thechallenges and came away with the ARFU Championship for theseventh year in a row.This year saw new coaches appointed to the team. Last year’sCoach Simon Scott had moved south and was appointed HeadCoach of South Canterbury and Assistant Coach Grant Hansenwas unavailable as he was on NZRU duties as Assistant Coach ofthe New Zealand Black Ferns (subsequently winning the Women’sRWC in England).New Head Coach Siaosi Vaili returned to Ponsonby after a seasoncoaching Teachers Eastern and he was joined by Assistant CoachWinston Hiliau who joined the club from Marist. Greg Edmondsreturned as Manager for the team and was joined by TerrenceMcQuoid and Ciaran Overton as Assistant Managers. PhysiotherapistTanya Browne returned to the team after a year away with the JuniorWarriors.Due to personal circumstances Coach Vaili resigned early in theseason and Captain Mark Hooper and Winston Hiliau assumed theroles as Co-coaches for the remainder of the season.Pre-season commenced as we traditionally have with our preChristmas runs and BBQ and then in mid January it was full trainingwith a good turn out of players. A number of players were unavailablethis year including Tom Wiley who has stayed in Europe, outstandinghalfback Chad Tuoro who decided to play in the BOP competition,Winston Stanley who had shoulder surgery, prop Vili Kinahoi whowas studying and veteran fl anker Tevita Finau who had moved toCounties.The majority of the championship winning 2009 team however,returned and were as keen to get into another season despite beinganother year older. In addition halfback Kane Hancy returned fromplaying overseas and second fi ve Roimata Hansell-Pune returnedto the club after playing in the Waikato.Early in January we had confi rmed that for the third year in a rowour Principal sponsor Urgent Couriers would again support us in2010. This is a signifi cant investment for their business and theteam showed their appreciation early in the season by taking partin the Auckland City Bike to Work day for Urgent Couriers racing acar, a bus and a bike from all parts of Auckland to the CBD. Thispromotion was a huge success with the team getting interviewed liveon Breakfast TV with our Ponsonby and Urgent Couriers sponsoredjerseys on.In addition loyal supporter Multi-Trans confi rmed they were back aswell as Debit Success meaning we were well on our way fi nanciallyfor the season. We also secured a new hydration drinks sponsorwith Raisey’s coming on board and a further sponsorship from RicSinisa Law.Our fi rst game of the season was against Suburbs at Bell Park aspart of the Waka Nathan games and we managed to score 7 triesto run out convincing winners 50 – 0. Next up was Te Papa MtWellington and while this proved a tough challenge we managedto score a good 44 – 17 win to take us through to the semi-fi nalagainst Grammar Carlton.The game against Grammar Carlton, played at Cornwall Park, wasdisappointing as GC took control of the fi rst 40 minutes and lead17 – 0 at half time. We fi elded an extremely strong team (includingCrusaders Daniel Bowden and Blues No 8 Chris Lowrey) but failedto spark together as a team eventually losing 27 – 17 to exit theWaka Nathan competition. The following week we bounced backto thrash a very weak Suburbs 92 – 0 in the fi rst round game of theAlan McEvoy Shield.The next few weeks saw the team beat Te Papa Mt Wellington 37– 26 (a tougher game than it should have been), Teachers Eastern53 – 17, Waitakere 59 – 17 and Eden 57 – 8. All of these gameswere good building blocks as we blooded new players into thesquad. One player to begin to shine early in the season was youngGareth Anscombe who joined the club and initially played out ofposition on the wing.Next up was Otahuhu and they proved to be a similarly diffi cultchallenge to previous years. They are always diffi cult to beat atSturges Park and this year was no different. After leading 14 – 9 athalf time we put together a strong second half to lead 29 – 14 onlyto go to sleep in the last 10 minutes and allow them back into thegame by scoring two late tries eventually winning 36 – 28. The nextthree games were high scoring wins against Pakuranga 58 – 19,Papatoetoe 60 – 17 and then East Tamaki 64 – 6.The season was now well under way and our 13th game againstCollege Rifl es won 18 – 5 was a record equalling 41 consecutivewins in the ARFU championship rounds. The record was set by the1986 Ponsonby team and so the team were thrilled to equal thisrecord and have the chance to extend it. Unfortunately our opponentsthe following week had a different view and we were beaten in thelast minute by a fi red up University 15 – 18. This loss was a doubleblow for the team as with this win, University also took the FredAllen Challenge Cup from us – a trophy we have proudly held forfour consecutive season.We recovered the following week and Manukau was the recipient ofa 66 – 3 loss. The team played well scoring 9 fi ne tries and veteranBrett Williams notched up the incredible milestone of becoming themost capped Ponsonby Premier player – playing his 176th Premiergame. We then went on to beat Marist at Liston Park 28 – 18 beforecomfortably beating Waitemata 34 – 8 at Western Springs.Our last game in the fi rst round was against rivals Grammar Carltonand was a must win for both teams to win the Alan McEvoy Shield.Despite starting strongly we trailed 6 – 8 at half time. The secondhalf was a thriller in front of a large crowd at Cornwall Park (again)and while we did everything right to lead 19 – 17 with 2 minutes togo, a simple mistake cost us a penalty and we lost the game 20– 19. This was a bitterly disappointing result for the team as we hadset ourselves a number of goals for the season and we were now ina situation that meant that the success of the season rested solelywith winning the Gallaher Shield.Former All Black and Auckland representative Ben Atiga (havingreturned from overseas) was now match fi t after playing for theReserves and came into the team. This was timely as centre DougTausili and second fi ve’s Roimata Hansell–Pune and Daniel Bowdendeparted overseas to international clubs. In addition the team wasbolstered by the availability of Blues and Auckland player PaulWilliams, who after a great season with the Blues, had time beforehe joined Sale in England to play out the rest of our club season.26 Ponsonby District Rugby Football Club (Inc.)