MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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International debut for local athleteBY ROB POOLEY
Over the past decade there have been few school, inter-school and Northland athletics records that have not fallen to Rodney College Year 12 student Georgia Brierly. Athletics has predominantly been her forte and her constant success has been a pointer to her selection for the inaugural U18 NZ Dutch Barbarian girls sevens team who have been invited to play in a quadrangular tournament in Amsterdam in September, an initiative run by the NZ World Indigenous Games Trust. Though she has played touch and tag “the call came completely out of the blue” says Georgia, but is little more than a sidestep as she is perpetually training for competition of some discipline or other. Georgia recently joined 11 other girls for a week-long training camp in Kaikohe as part of their bonding. The Kiwi girls will be the new kids on the block and being a composite team with girls from Kaitaia to Queenstown, couldn’t be more diverse. A couple of the Far North girls are already playing sevens but the squad has had to come up to speed fairly quickly with the rudiments of the sevens game regarding ball handling and retention, and positional play. Energiser, coach, and motivator is Sport Northland’s Bodean Rogers who says the girls are all playing various sports so are all fit, and praises the benefits of the training camp to train together to generate team spirit and bonding. Of Georgia he says “she has explosive speed and will be a good weapon out on the wing.” This special invitation by Netherlands Rugby to compete in Amsterdam will pit them against teams from Holland, Germany and Belgium. They will be tough opposition as they are preparing for the European Youth World Cup, but it will be good grounding for the Kiwi girls who could well be a part of the next wave of international players. The competition runs for a week in September with warm-up games in London and Paris. While some costs are met there is still a lot of fundraising to be done to cover accommodation, food, uniforms and the team kit, with good opportunities for sponsors to get their names on the world stage or to simply make a donation to help the team on their way. Each player has a target of $5,000 to meet. If you would to like to support Georgia and the team, please contact nz.dutch.barbarians@gmail.com Rodney College student Georgia Brierly (third from left) prepares to make her international sporting debut. |
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