Grant and his wife Val were both familiar faces around the Marist NH Rugby Club, supporting sons Danny and Kevin as they came through the Junior Club from its inception in 1988, and later playing for various Senior teams at the Club. Grant was also a familiar face in the New Zealand Surf Lifesaving community for over 40 years, and his voice from his sideline commentary days for Newstalk ZB.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Morrison family. May he Rest In Peace.

MARIST NH SENIORS

RECREATIONAL SERVICES PREMIER 1 
Sat 29th April: In an exciting day for the Club, with all 3 senior teams playing at home, it provided the Premiers a great opportunity to put in a strong performance for their first win of the season.

Conditions once again played a significant role in the outcome of this game. Whoever used it to the best of their ability would put themselves in the best position to come away with the result. In the first half, Helensville used the conditions and their strong defence to apply pressure resulting in a couple of tries. Marist managed to play to their strengths using effective ball carrying and short passes and kicks to level the score at halftime. In the second half, Marist manipulated Helensville to try and play out of their own 22 into the wind. This resulted in more opportunities for Marist and thus they came away with a few good tries. 

Marist failed to capitalise on some additional scoring opportunities so will be looking to improve their ability to turn pressure into points in their next fixture.

A highlight of the day was connecting and debriefing the games with players, management and supporters in the Clubrooms afterwards. We are very excited about our next home game on Club Day (20th May) which will provide another great opportunity to bring the Club together.

🏉 Player of the Day: Uluaki Kale (No.8)

Sat 6th May: Sadly Kumeu have had to withdraw their Premier 1 side from the competition, which leaves our side with a BYE this week.

MITRE 10 ALBANY COLTS (U21's)
Sat 29th April: Saturday's game for the U21s started with a challenge, with playing numbers initiating the “Game On Rules”. Marist’s solid numbers midweek were reduced by a bout of Covid-19 amongst the team (and one coach). Not an ideal situation, especially for our first game at home, but Game On allowed the game to proceed, so a win for Rugby!  Credit to the team of players that went the distance. 

The Marist culture is strong in this group which is attributed to a combined effort from our Co-Captains El-Roi Mutepfa & Devon Gatcum.  They are doing a great job keeping spirits high.

Three Colts players - Conor Morley, Moi Finau and Sonatane Kaufusi - were all presented the opportunity of being selected for the Marist Premier team’s bench, backing up straight after their own U21s game. Congratulations to Moi & Devon for their Premier debuts, with their Marist tie presentation at the after match.

Sat 6th May: Mitre 10 Albany Marist Colts vs Northcote, 1:00pm, Harvey Wright 2.

BLUEBELLIES (PRESIDENTS)
Sat 29th April: The Bellies after a strong first game last week drawing with the Snails, had their first home game of the season against the Guerillas. 

With both teams having low numbers, and dealing with the conditions, the game was played in excellent spirit as always with nothing held back. The Bellies had an excellent game, ending up on the right side of the 4 all draw.

The referee handle the game well and let it flow in the pressie rugby spirit. Thanks Leon.

Our player of the day was Quintin Scholtz who was all over the field, including scoring a well earned try.

🏉 Player of the Day: Quintin Scholtz 

Sat 6th May: Bluebellies v Helensville, 2:45pm, Rugby Park 2

MARIST NH JUNIORS
J2 HAWKS
Great start to the season for J2 with a nice win against Silverdale. 
🏉 Player of the Day: Will Potter  
🏉 Coaches Award: Asher Manu

J3 BULLDOGS
J3 had a great first game. Was a very close match against Northcote, which went Northcote’s way. 
🏉 Player of the Day: Curtis Saunderson 
🏉 Coaches Award: Kaelen McCabe 
🏉 Opposition POD: Campbell Handrick

J5 WOLVES
J5 kicked the season off with a big win over Northcote.
🏉 Player of the Day: Lokei Lee 
🏉 Coaches Award: Chadd Coyle-Dowling 

J6 NINJAS
A great first hit out for the J6 Ninjas, especially with the entire team never playing tackle before. The kids embraced it and showed great confidence for game one.
🏉 Player of the Day:  Theo Malota
🏉 Coaches Award: Noah Cettina

J7 RED TIGERS
J7 Reds won with the whole team playing fantastically in our first game, with everyone scoring a try and defending well. They held the Takapuna team out from scoring tries a number of times. 
🏉 Player of the Day: Isabella Florian 
🏉 Coaches Award: Ava Rodley 
🏉 Opposition POD: Lottie Baines

J7 BLUE TIGERS
J7 Blue Tigers lost with about 2 tries. Really proud of the team with their first game of the year, going against a really good Northcote team. 
🏉 Player of the Day: Miro Prendergast
🏉 Coaches Award: Sage Prendergast
🏉 Opposition POD: Alexis Wentzel

J8 RED DRAGONS
Our two Marist J8 teams played against each other on Saturday. Red Dragons had a lot of fun and were getting very into the game by the second half. 
🏉 Player of the Day: Fady Francis 
🏉 Coaches Award: Walter Brown

J8 BLUE DRAGONS
An exciting first game of footy for 20+ Marist J8's! Some structure prevailed in the chaos with plenty of tries from wide, sweeping circular runs across 2 fields, and copious amounts of ‘air grabs’ resulting in minimal rips.
🏉 Player of the Day: Connor Campbell
🏉 Coaches Award: Jack Collie
🏉 Opposition POD: Charl du Plessis

WEDNESDAY NIGHT (SENIOR) RUGBY
North Harbour Rugby is pleased to announce that Wednesday Night Rugby (WNR) is back! Wednesday Night Rugby provides two new grades in the club space, ‘Harbour Hit Outs’ and ‘Rusty Rips’. These new grades give players a chance to play fast-paced, modified versions of footy and are open to players who want to give rugby a try or want to get back on the field in their club colours.

Wednesday Night Rugby will be played over 6 weeks, beginning Wednesday 24th May, and will be played in centralised venues across the Harbour Region. 

‘Harbour Hit Outs’ 

• 12-a-side 
• Full-field
• Full-contact game 
• Rolling subs 
• Uncontested scrums

‘Rusty Rips’ 

• 7-a-side
• Half-field
• Non-contact 
• Rolling subs
• Uncontested scrums and lineouts

Both ‘Harbour Hit Outs’ and ‘Rusty Rips’ are an ideal game-time opportunity for those who cannot commit to a full season of mid-week trainings and weekend games. It is a “show up and play” approach, to make rugby more accessible for all players. Participating players will need to individually register through North Harbour Rugby or as part of a team, through your Club. 

If interested in either option for Marist, please contact Director of Rugby, Matt Lumsden - rugby@maristnh.co.nz | 021736911

Marist North Harbour proudly supported by: