Player numbers were always going to be a challenge for J2 White this year, with a squad of only 17 players. This lack of numbers, combined with player unavailability made some training and game days challenging to say the least. Our goal this year was to play a simple, yet well-structured brand of rugby and for the most part, we were able to achieve this goal. Throughout the season, when the team turned up with the right attitude we were able to compete with the very best in what turned out to be a highly competitive J2 grade.

Individually, a couple of our player’s leadership qualities, maturity and game awareness really stood out. Collectively, the overall maturity and willingness to learn and develop as rugby players was a big step up from last season.

Whilst we had a couple of disappointing performances attitudes wise, our biggest learnings came from a couple of 1 and 2 point losses to extremely good Silverdale and Kumeu teams, proving that our team could foot it with the best of the best if we turned up with the right attitude!

Jose was a huge asset to our team, his ethic and motivational speaking was second to none. Steve’s communication and organization as the manager was fantastic, and Blair’s refereeing was unquestionably the highest quality in the grade.

There are a lot of positives from this season that I hope all of our players, whether they are returning to Northcote next year or moving into High School rugby can take with them, the coaching & management team of J2 White wish you all the very best for your rugby futures.

Shaan