Coca Cola Cup - This Wednesday

We leave school at 8am. That means you need to be there before that so that we leave on time!! You need to be wearing your warm up t shirts but you will need to make sure you look after these during the day so that they don't get 'borrowed' by people from other schools!!

The squad for the day is as follows:

1, Daryl Toiaivao

2, Inoke Latu

3, Danny Olive

4, Puna Latu

5, John Fifita

6, Fine Aluesi

7, Langi Tuifua

8, Sipu Latu (Captain)

9, Harry Pualau

10, Greg Foe

11, Sami Tu'itupou

12 Amato Fatai (Vice Captain)

13, Chris Kumar

14, David Mauala

15, Lutui Mauala

Subs:

T J Hopoi

Manoah Pickering

Tyrone

Tom Fine

Takeshi Faamasino?

Nano Kalauta

This squad is subject to change over the next day

Team at the top!!!

Team at the top of Rangitoto!

Second week of the Holidays

For those of you that have forgotten

Training - Monday 18th April- 7 a.m. Number 2 ground at school, go over plays and moves for Wednesdays games.

Game - Wednesday 30th April - Meet at school at 8:30 a.m. to walk down to Papatoetoe Rugby Club as a team. This is for the 1st XV Coca-Cola cup. You will have approx 4 games, so bring something to eat, and warm clothes. The first three games will be against Mangere, Tamaki, Aorere. The fourth will be found out on the day. Expect to be finished approx 3:50 p.m.

Photos from the Rangitoto Trip

Haka at Rangitoto Island

1st XV Haka

At the top of the summit

At the top of Rangitoto Island Summit

Rangitoto Trip

Well wasn't that an enjoyable way to finish off our Pre-Season training. For the 16 of you that made the effort to turn up, thank you. Over the last 3 days i've really noticed the huge improvements we've made as a squad since the first weekend in January! There seems to be a good team spirit amongst you and that togetherness is going to be a crucial part in our success this year. The fitness levels are looking good, we'll continue working on them once a week as i know they can be even better. I want us to be able to completely dominate teams until they lose interest and don't want to play against us. We want to create a fear of coming to play at Papatoetoe and if the hard work from the last 4 months is anything to go by i know we can do it. You have done yourselves proud with all your hard work so far, and it has been a pleasure to put you through the pre season program which i hope you have enjoyed!! Now the real hard work starts, i'm excited about the future for this team! I hope you are too!!! (photos from today to follow)

Message from MacManager

Meet at the train station at 8am, MacManager will be there.
if you miss that train there is one at 8:18am that you will have to pay your money for. When you get to Brittomart meet at Pier 2 at the Ferry terminal.

Remember your student ID card

MacManager

Thursday Training

Just in case you weren't listening today:

Meet at the trainstation at Old Pap at 8am. The ferry leaves downtown at 9:15 so if you miss the train with the rest of the boys then make sure you get to the ferry by 9:15. We then run up and down the volcano have a picnic and come home.

Wednesday Training - Feedback

A nice relaxing session today but one that I found very useful. The lineout session was exceptional which was really pleasing to see. I know the backs will have learnt a lot from having a session with our technical advisor!! The little team run we had at the end was one of the best i've seen. Well done!

Make sure you get some rest ready for tomorrow. I hope you are all looking forward to it!!

Tuesdays Training - feedback

Great effort and attitude displayed by everyone today. Well done to Shawn for being the first one back!! That is probably the hardest some of you will have ever pushed yourselves so you just need to remember today and what you have acheived during the season when things feel like they're getting tough!! Well done and see you tomorrow.

Team Motto for this year:

"Pain Heals, Chicks love scars, Glory lasts forever"

Teams for the challenge - Spartans

"Taught never to retreat, never to surrender,Spartans: the finest soldiers the world has ever known"

Spartans:

Inoke

Darryl

Sam

Sami

Greg

Lutui

John

Amato

Sione

Coach

Teams for the challenge - Gladiators

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity"

GLADIATORS:

Fine

Tyrone

Sipu

Harry

Manoah

David

Chris

Shawn

TJ

Mr Macmanus

Tuesdays Training

So a scouting mission of tomorrows venue reveals the following:

A lovely 5k run through lush green forest and countryside with a few small hills thrown in to keep you on your toes!! The run will be a team race Gladiators v Spartans!! The same teams will compete in the Rangitoto run on Thursday!! Teams will appear on here at a later time.

Following the race we will continue in our quest for fitness with a series of drills in the pleasant surrounds of Hunua Falls. The day will be finished with an optional swim in the falls.

It should be a great day of training just make sure you bring a positive attitude and understand why we're doing this. The benefits I promise will be worth the effort!

Holiday Training

Just a reminder to all, first training day of the holidays is tomorrow. We are leaving school at 9am which means you need to be at school by 8.50 at the latest! Make sure you bring your running shoes and some water - your going to need it!!!

Wednesday we're training at school, not as intense as Tuesday or Thursday but very focussed team sessions. We'll go through the video of the last game and really work hard on the timing of our set plays and team attack. Training starts at 9am!

Thursday we head to Rangitoto! Meet at Papatoetoe train station at 8am MacManager will meet you there, then head into town on the train where we will catch the ferry over to the island. Remember there are only 2 ferries back to the city from the island so it will be a great opportunity to really see who can push themselves past a little bit of pain!!

Alfriston game - Result 19-18 Win for Papatoetoe

Well the 1st win of the season. I wonder how everyone felt after the game?? I would be really interested in hearing how you felt it went....i'm sure some of it will come out on Wednesday at training when we go through the video.

At times we were good sometimes very good, other times not so good. Watching from the sides the abundance (that means amount!!) of talent that is in this side is staggering. I can't wait for the game when things click as you will be unstopable!! 

Our Lineouts went well again, they are starting to become a real weapon for us, our scrum showed that it can be dominant but i think there is a lot more to come in that department!! Backs started to show what we can do when we get the ball which was pleasing.

Standout performances on the day: Sipu, Greg, Amato, John (Tito)

Well done, and lets look forward to some real hard quality work next week.

Holiday Training Days

Details for the holiday training days are as follows:

Tuesday 22nd April:

Henua Dam - Meet at school at 9am

Wednesday 23rd April:

School

Thursday 24th April:

Rangitoto Island - meet at Papatoetoe Train station at 8am

Suggestions for caption welcomed!!

Submit your thoughts for the caption for this picture. Best one wins a prize!!

Photo's from Condor 7's

Photos from Cook Island Game

Team to Play Alfriston College 17th April 2008

The team to play Alfriston is as follows:

1 Daryl Toiaivao

2 Inoke Latu

3 Danny Olive

4 John Fifita

5 Puna Latu*

6 Tom Fale

7 Sipu Latu* (C)

8 Fine Aluesi

9 Greg Foe

10 Chris Kumar

11 Sami Tu'itupou

12 Amato Fatai*

13 Langi Tuifua

14 David Mauala

15 Lutui Mauala

16 Darcy Faumui

17 Tyrone

18 TBC

19 Nano Kalauta

20 Harry Pualau

21 T J Hopoi

22 Manoah Pickering

Condor 7's

Despite being let down by a number of players who failed to turn up on the day we took a squad of 11 to the national 7's competition on Sunday 13th April. A tough draw in all the rounds made life difficult but once again the improvement was there for all to see. Everytime we take the field all of you are making improvements which is so pleasing to see. It's important that you can see this and not let the results get you down at this stage in the season. I am increasingly confident about our prospects this season based on the improvements that i've seen since we started. Standout players on the day - Greg Foe and Chris Kumar - well done boys for a great days work. (Photos to follow) Also a big thanks to the few parents that made the effort to come and support for the day. The weather wasn't great so the support was greatly appreciated!!

Cook Island Game

This was always going to be a tough fixture, but with the result not something that interested us it provided an excellent opportunity to continue working on our defense. For 50 mins our defense was outstanding, yes they scored but I would happily bet anyone that with that defense we won't meet anyone in the competition that would be able to score against it. The key now is to make sure that we use the ball effectively when we win the ball. Our next target is the game against Alfriston on the 17th. For the first time in our pre season games the target is to win! Our aggression levels at the breakdown must increase considerably if we are to compete this season. I am confident that we will win on Thursday and then we can head into the season on a high. Well done for a fantastic effort lads!! Also great work McCookin - food was awesome!! (photos to follow)

2008 1st XV Squad

1 Daryl Toiaivao

2 Inoke Latu

3, Darcy Faumui

4, Danny Olive

5, Zach Faumuina

6, Puna Latu

7, John Fifita

8, Sipu Latu - Captain

9, Sam Rogers

10, Sione Palu

11, Tom Fale

12, Fine Aluesi

13, Greg Foe

14, Harry Pualau

15, Chris Kumar

16, Manoah Pickering

17, Amato Fatai - Vice Captain

18, Shawn Watkins

19, Sami Tu'itupou

20, Langi Tuifua

21, Lutui Mauala

22, David Mauala

23, Nano Kalauta

24, Sam Tulemoe

25, A N Other

Congratulations on making the team boys. Now the hard work starts!!

Pictures from the Aorere Game

Game against St Peters

Well the game against St Peters was definately a learning experience and showed just how much hard work we have still got to do!! There were significant improvements in some areas of our performance such as Lineout, Ball Retention, Scrum (when we worked at it). However our defence probably slipped a little from last week. I'm really hoping that it opened some peoples eyes to the work that we have to do over the next six weeks but also that it gives you some confidence that we can succeed this season!! Keep working hard boys!!