Methven played host to the Under 15 Development tournament over the weekend. There were teams from all over the South Island there to compete. It was a two day event and a real rugby spectacle over the two days. The tournamnet began the week before with the Mid Canterbury side playing against Ellesmere, with the Mid Canterbury side winning 41-29. 

The players in the Mid Canterbury side were all very excited about being able to represent Mid Canterbury at a big tournament. In their first game on Saturday they went up against North Otago. The Mid Canterbury side got off to the best possible start with a 51-12 win. In their second game on Saturday they faced South Canterbury. Mid Canterbury led 5-0 at half time, but South Canterbury ran in five tries in the second half to lead 29-5 over the hosts with five minutes to play. Mid Canterbury had a late run to close the game but it wasn't enough as they suffered a 20-29 loss.

Sunday morning, the Mid Canterbury side went up against West Coast. The 50/50's didn't go the way of the home side as West Coast were able to capitalise and score a number of length of the field tries. Mid Canterbury weren't able to recover as they suffered a 10-31 loss. For their final game of the weekend and tournament, Mid Canterbury went up against Buller. The team were incredibly fired up for their last game and everything just clicked for them as they won 50-7 

According to Head Coach, Kevin Urquhart, all of the players thrived playing in the tournament and are already looking forward to potentially playing for Mid Canterbury again next season. 

The standout players for the Mid Canterbury side according to Urquhart were, flankers Finn Veix and Joel Moffett, prop Elima Somali, hooker Archie Cudmore, halfback Alex Urquhart, first five Arlyn Whittaker, midfielder Kymani Pupuke and outside back Nikau Forsyth-Pakinga.

Article added: Tuesday 13 September 2022