2010 ANNUAL REPORT - AllTeams

team RePoRtS 2010Premier Reserves2010 was a tough year for the Reserves showing great promise early in theseason and topping the table for the majority of it with a number of great wins. Welooked like the team to beat, which we were, going 12 straight games unbeatenand putting many a good side to the sword by over fi fty, this credit going to thecoaching team and players who did this without an established number 10 forthe greater part of it. However, in the end we learned starting well does not winchampionships and we would be lying if we said it was a successful season byPonsonby standards. Though we enjoyed the season off the fi eld, we had onegoal and that was to win it all. Nevertheless, I am sure we will learn from ourexperiences and move forward, coming back better and stronger in 2011.A new management team was in place for 2010 with Jimmy Clayton takingover as head coach, James Hantz stepping up as a player/coach Matt Makgilland myself came on board as managers. Martha Purcell was the team physioand Ezequiel from Argentina was our stats man. We also welcomed OutsourceIT as our major sponsor and one of our main supporters. We are tremendouslyappreciative to Jo Clegg and all the team at Outsource IT.The team had a good mix of young and promising players with a number of seniorguys able to pass on a wealth of knowledge. The backs we had were sharp thoughwe had a lack of player depth in a couple of key positions, which affected the teamlater on in the season when players were injured. We were fortunate enough tohave a lot of depth and competition for places in the forward pack.The highlight of the season was a good tough win versus Pakuranga in roundseven, who were also top of the table at that time. It was a good all-round teameffort built on tough defence and excellent running play from the backline (won38 – 23). The team were top of the table for fourteen straight rounds and weredrawn to play arch rivals Grammar Carlton in the fi nal round. The equation wassimple: win and fi nish fi rst, lose and fi nish third. Grammar Carlton really took thegame to us in the fi rst half and led 22-0 at half time. We came back in the secondhalf 7-0 but could not score enough points to overcome the fi rst half defi cit.In the quarter-fi nal, we were drawn to play Marist, the only other team who hadbeaten us all season. It did not help our cause that we lost four key players forvarious reasons, which could not be helped. We started well and dominated thefi rst half in the forwards with good driving play and a strong pick and go game.We were unlucky not to be up by more at half time with the score being 9-8 tous. The second half was also very close with both teams aiming to play for fi eldposition, but with a couple of costly errors and Marist scoring a crucial try froma scrum move mid way through the second half the game quickly moved out ofreach. It was a disappointing end result (9 - 13) and left us playing off for the plate.To the team’s credit they showed great spirit and pride in the jersey bouncingback well from the disappointing quarter-fi nal loss to record two good wins overWaitakere in the Plate semi (34 - 12) and College Rifl es in the fi nal (36 - 21).Our overseas imports took out two of the team awards: Aki from Japan was BestForward and Olivier from France was Best Back. It was a pleasure having themas part of the team and we wish them all the very best for their futures on andoff the fi eld. Other players to receive club awards were Best Team Man AllanGoodwin, Rookie of the Year Semu Polika, Most Improved Player Mark Paulo andMost Consistent Player Trope Yandall. Great effort to them all and I am sure wewill be hearing these names a lot more in future years.The game that never was: We fi nished off the season with an end of year tour andhad jacked up a game through King Country to play Waitete the club championsfrom Te Kuiti. On the last Thursday night after training before leaving when wewere trying to get the numbers up for the trip ourselves, we received a call fromWaitete advising that they could not get a team together and we would be wastingour time coming down. With many of the boys disappointed and accommodationalready booked the suggestion was made we play 10 a side. We put this to Waiteteand told them we would be coming down anyway for a few pints. It was agreedthat they would see what they could do but nothing was promised. Come theSaturday after a number of last minute changes we managed to get on the roadand head south, only to take the wrong turn off to Te Kuiti thanks to my lack ofnavigation skills causing us to arrive two hours later than planned. It wasn’t meantto be. In the end it was a good laugh and most saw the funny side of it all. Aftera few beers with some of the boys from Waitete we headed off to Taupo for agreat night and in all a good experience was had. Waitete are keen to come upand play that game, and promise us they know the way to Auckland.Special thanks to:• Our sponsor Outsource IT for all their support this year• The coaching team who did a great job considering the number of changesto the squad throughout the year• Matt for taking care of all the back room stuff and countless hours put in• Martha for giving up her time to look after the team and manage their injuriesso well• Ian for pointing us in the right direction, and• BeeGee for all the work he does for the club and giving me this opportunityto be involved with the greatest club in the country.Though we did not win the grade, the team can take heart from the work it didfor the club, in the form of the many players we helped to regain fi tness and goon to be reselected for the Premiers in yet another successful campaign.Points For: 612 Points Against: 211 Wins: 15 Losses: 3Tyrone CampbellCo - ManagerSenior 2 blackWe had another up and down season but through it all Senior 2 Black had ablast! We had many challenges facing the team, the fi rst of which was thatwe basically had a new team! At least 50% of the 2009 team had moved onand we had a number of players that had not played since high school (or notat all). Luckily the new boys slotted into the groove easily and were up to thechallenge of playing some good old Ponies rugby. Our pre-season trainingstarted with variations of touch rugby to ease into things then we got into thetough stuff with the old favourite “Tackle Jackals”.At the start of the season we soon realised that the touch rugby wasn’t cuttingit and we had a lot of work to do, going down against Pakuranga and Manukau.There were some positive signs in each of those games, especially for theboys who were happy to be playing their fi rst game of rugby! The next gameagainst College Rifl es was the turning point of the season. We were bolsteredby the return of a few older heads lending their leadership and experience.Coupled with the youth and enthusiasm of our newer players we were able tonut out a tough win and put on some champagne Ponies rugby. We were ableto win enough of our games to ensure our place in the Senior 1 competitionwhich was a great achievement from where we started. We celebrated thisachievement with one of our famous fundraising socials at our sponsor barGrey Lynn Tavern. The “Super Heroes” theme was a hit and good times werehad by all. DJ Ula had the bar rocking all night….although most of us can’tremember too much as I think the punch was spiked.In the Senior 1 competition however it was not easy going. Like a few teamswe were facing our fi rst round of injuries and we were hit pretty hard. Timingcouldn’t have been worse as we played a very physical and tough Mt RoskillSenior 1 team fi rst up. Playing in tough conditions we were beaten convincinglyand unfortunately this wouldn’t be the fi rst time we tasted defeat. Next up weplayed the local derby against the Ponies Senior 1 team and it was a mini-State of Origin Ponies style! We were lucky enough to come out winners butour injury ward seemed to have doubled after that tough encounter. The nextpart of the season we had a series of win/loss/win/loss with our injury tollmounting each game. Next up we played the Ponies EP’s (who themselves weredecimated with injuries). However their experience and hunger were enoughto keep their winning record against us. Everything came to a head when weplayed Waiheke, as we could only muster 13 players against the top team andeventual Senior 1 champions. The boys battled hard but were always up againstit and we were beaten convincingly. This pretty much put us out of contention0Ponsonby District Rugby Football Club (Inc.)