Third Place for NZ Defence Touch Team

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Army Senior Sergeant Paul Hawkins dumping the ball for Senior Sergeant Jason Keno during the NZDF vs Bay of Plenty game.

New Zealand Defence Force
Te Ope Kaatua O Aotearoa

Media Release

13 March 2007

THIRD PLACE FOR NZ DEFENCE TOUCH TEAM

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) over-30s touch team showed their strength at the weekend, coming third in the New Zealand Nationals Masters held at Auckland’s North Harbour Stadium.

The NZDF team got off to a slow start on the first day of the tournament on Thursday 8 March, losing 5-3 to Counties Manukau and 5-3 to Bay of Plenty, but went on to win their game against Waikato 6-3.

By Friday the team had found their stride and won both their games – 5-3 against North Harbour and 9-4 against Southland.

Team Captain Staff Sergeant Greg Mildon said, “The team was quietly confident going into the semi-finals on Saturday against North Harbour. It was a tough game which we won 6-4. We then had to face Counties Manukau in the major semi-final.”

“Our team played its second match against Counties in front of a crowd of about 500. By half time the score was drawn at 3-3. Counties Manukau eventually won the game 5-4 to take their place in the final against Bay of Plenty.”

“As a result of a tough encounter with NZDF, Counties struggled to match Bay of Plenty’s performance in the final which saw BOP convincingly beat Counties Manukau 5-2,” said Staff Sergeant Mildon.

“Overall, NZDF men’s over 30s finished the third best team in the country. After finishing second place in 2006, this confirms NZDF’s position as one of the top placed touch teams in New Zealand,” he said.

The NZ Touch Nationals are organised annually by Touch New Zealand. It is the major representative event for NZ Touch and is open to all provincial teams and teams from the NZDF and New Zealand Police.

ENDS

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