Our first Rep Team Review of the 2023 season is that of our undefeated Waikato U18 Girls side. 

Coahed by Raquel Anderson-Pitman and Matthew Chandler, the pair led a quality young line-up with plenty of talent across the park. A mixture of secondary school girls with a couple club players with good experience made up the side. 

Naming a 29-person squad for their five match campaign the girls started their preseason back in August, with matches throughout September taking on neighbouring provinces King Country, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Counties & Thames Valley. 

Game one saw our side kick off their season with a strong win over King Country at the home of King Country Rugby at Owen Delany Park in Taupo. Locked up at half time 19 each, our young side came out firing in the second forty to run away 44-24 victors. Tight head prop Lome Ngalu came home with a double with six other girls dotting down for their first try of the season. 

Next up was Thames Valley who travelled across to Leamington for our first home game of the year. That match was all Waikato with 13 of the 22 girls touching down for five pointers. A hat-trick to left wing Libby Kearins-Te Whare was the highlight with Fullback Sariah Ibarra converting 12 of the 19 tries. 

Taranaki was next up and following the strong defensive effort vs Thames Valley the week earlier, the girls had their second clean sheet in successive weeks - this time beating Taranaki 59-0. 

Next up was our Kaimai Range Neighbours in Bay of Plenty. Bay of Plenty posed a very different challenge for our young side. Following two weeks where the footy largely went one way, Bay of Plenty challenged the line and put a huge amount of pressure on defensively. Picking up a tough fought win 18-14 win meant that Waikato faced Counties Manukau in their fifth match that would ultimately decide the winner of the 2023 Northern Region U18 Girls Competition. 

A very strong Counties side made the trip south down State Highway 1 through to Leamington where our previously unbeaten side awaited. In what was challenging wet conditions for the last match of the campaign, our girls struggled in the first half. Trailing at half time 17-12 a strong second forty was needed. It didn’t start too flash with Counties scoring in the opening passage extending their lead to 22-12. Two quick tries to Waikato then drew the game up to make for a tight last quarter. A penalty try to the home side further extended our lead to helped us secure another strong win at home 36-29. 

Winning all five matches secured Waikato the first piece of Northern Region silverware for our 2023 campaign. Massive shout out to the coaching staff of Raquel & Matt, supported by Kylee Richardson who was the team manager and Waikato Rugby's Reuben Samuel as our Campaign Lead. 

Article added: Thursday 19 October 2023