The 2017 Junior Club Rugby Tournament gets underway this Sunday 23 July with the seeding round - J1/J2 at East Coast Bays, J3 at Mahurangi and J4 at Takapuna. J1 is a four team regional competition as introduced in 2016 and J2/J3/J4 have teams from each participating club with a total of 33 teams in the seeding round which will reduce to 8 teams in the J2/J3/J4 grades for quarter-finals. The quarter-finals are on Sunday 6 August, semi-finals on Sunday 20 August and finals on Sunday 27 August – venues to be advised depending on ground conditions/availability. The losing quarter finalists in the J2/J3/J4 grades will go into a Plate section with the winning teams in the Championship section.
The J1 regional teams are Western Pioneers (Massey/Kumeu), Central Sabres (East Coast Bays/Northcote, Southern Sharks (North Shore/Takapuna) and Northern Reds (Silverdale/Helensville/Mahurangi). The team names come from the senior club conference rugby competition which ran in the late 1990’s.
The North Harbour Junior Club Rugby Tournament has been around over 40 years with the first tournament in 1975 when our clubs formed the Auckland North or North Shore region of the Auckland Rugby Union before we broke away in 1985. The solid mahogany wooden shields are covered in winners shields and they still have the original silver plate name plates for 14th or 16th grade that date from the 1970’s and earlier.
The tournament is enjoyed by the clubs and is a significant and prestigious event which brings out the passion for their club and the love of the game in the young players, not to mention coaches, managers and supporters.
Good luck to all the teams and fingers crossed for good weather.
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