Kāpiti College’s 1st XV won the annual Rosebowl fixture against Paraparaumu 18-0 on Saturday the 4th to claim the trophy for the fourth year in a row.
The boys had trained hard after losing to Paraparaumu 10-15 just 3 weeks ago. Their preparation for the game included an overnight stay at the college marae and a team breakfast at the Village Inn. The coaches worked on game plan very carefully and made sure leaky defence from the previous game was tighter.
The boys performed a stirring haka before the game. It was written especially for them by Paora Trim and was done with real passion. The Paraparaumu team looked startled by it and never really recovered. This was the first time it had been performed in public and the boys had put a lot of effort and energy into doing it well then backing it up with a good performance.
Kāpiti dominated play for most of the game keeping Paraparaumu pinned inside their 22. Eventually their defence broke and Brandyn Laursen finished off a nice short passing movement with a good try. Later in the first half Hinkley Leiataua scored and Brandyn Laursen converted. Two penalties saw Kāpiti take an 18-0 lead which they were never going to give up.
Superb defence from Kāpiti ensured Paraparaumu rarely threatened the line. Kāpiti nearly sored twice more but a knock on and a foot out of touch saw two tries go begging. Paraparaumu Captain and Number 8 Max Thompson and wing Tainui Brown both had good games but they were out passioned by a determined Kāpiti team still hurting from that earlier loss.
This game was the end of an era for Kāpiti. Pem Chambers and Craig Laursen have coached for 5 years at Kāpiti College and have brought the boys through from junior club rugby to Division 1 and 2 in College Sport Wellington competitions. They have coached the boys superbly and as Paraparaumu’s coach Trevor Mason said “set the benchmark for college rugby in Horowhenua”. Many of the senior boys are leaving at the end of the year. Some have played together since they were in the under 7’s. A core of about ten players will take the new haka and begin to prepare for a fifth straight Rosebowl victory in 2011.