Beach 5’s Rugby Tournament
                       Thursday 13 March 2014
This was a rugby tournament played on the beach with five players per team. Rugby is recognised as New Zealand’s National sport and kiwi children are encouraged at a very early age to participate. In its rawest form it is basically tackling the ball carrier, passing the ball back to players in the team, and getting points by scoring a try.
The games played at Ocean Beach followed similar rules with modifications such as two-man scrums, one-man lineouts and immediately releasing the ball when tackled.

  Ocean Beach was the perfect site for beach rugby with its lovely long, golden, sandy beach. Many Hawkes Bay residents enjoy this seaside recreational beach;  this strip of coast has a very small community with very few roads, and not having its own shops deters many by sending them further southwards to nearby Waimarama, another beach a few kilometres down the coast. 

The land almost immediately behind the beach is extremely hilly and the one-way road going down the eroded cliff face is very steep. Ocean Beach has an unnamed river made by runoff from nearby farmland which comes through steep valleys further up in the outlying hills.  This river ends up in the sands on the beach and creates unusual water features that either form a delta, a lake, a lagoon, and sometimes beachgoers create canals from these lakes and rivers to the ocean. At the end of our rugby tournament it was used by many school children as a quick cooling down place before the long 35 minute drive back to school.

Ocean Beach also has a strong rip current and usually has large waves and is therefore popular with surfers. One dad who offered transport for some of our team members wanted to take full advantage of this.

I recollect a story, maybe ten years ago, of so-called secret documents between the nearby Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule and a syndicate of developers that approved new roading and over 500 houses to be constructed at Ocean Beach. The area, mainly owned by local Maori, was to become a town and residents were outraged, a battle that still persists to this day.
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Eight players from our little school expressed interest to participate in this rugby tournament. Return slips of consent were returned very quickly with three parents generously offering transport. More than enough for our little troop. Even when it was pointed out to parents that we have excess transport, the response was, “I want to come and watch the kids play anyway.”
Thanks to our parents Mike, Shelley and Amanda.

Each player was given a task to attend to while playing in the tournament.
Caleb, using his weight, was to run straight through.
Shae, using his strength, was to wrench the ball from the opposition.
Tobias, being lightweight, was to run in the heavy sand.
Zahn, being a speedster, was to hang wide for the ball.
Lila, also a speedster, was to hang wide on the other side.
Katelyn, with wiry strength, was to use her straight arm to fend tacklers.
Max was to add bulk and drive straight through.
Blake, was to be captain, be halfback to feed out the ball, and be the kicker of the ball.
“Gee,” says Blake, “I’m going to be busy doing three jobs.”

Our round robin segment of the tournament did not meet with success. The children didn’t play to potential, and were daunted by the size of their opposition. They lost their three games.
The second part of the tournament was playing in the Cup for the top teams, the Shield, the Bowl, and the minnows of the tournament, the Plate. We played in the Plate.
In this section we managed a draw and two commendable wins, the children having warmed to their allocated tasks, building in confidence, and responding to bribes of an ice block if they win.
“We almost won the tournament,” was one elated comment from a team member at the end of the games.

One of our girl players was introduced to the harsh realities of competitive rugby. She had her arm twisted and rubbed raw by an opposition member during a rolling maul. She was not happy with this strategy.
“He cheated,” was her outburst when she jogged off for the half time break.

Here is a story from one of our Year 5 players who participated in the tournament.           

                       Beach fives

Try time. Zahn scored a try. That was the first try of the game.

On Thursday the 13 of March there was the Beach Fives at Ocean Beach. I was the only one in the room 5 class.

It was awesome. It was only Primary Schools. In one of our games the crowd were screaming  out our names.

It was like the red carpet.

There were some monster players and some speed machines.  We got selected for the last round robin.

 We won two games in that round robin and lost one.

By Tobias Murfitt.   

Thanks to Errol, the father, and Marty, the son, for organising another most successful tournament. Marty Hantz has taken over the reins of running the Beach 5’s, but dad still can’t keep away, being the time keeper and blowing the hooter. Marty was too preoccupied for such strenuous activity. He was out in the field refereeing every game he could possibly manage.