NZ Residents Premiers Team 2011 Named

Auckland, New Zealand October 17, 2011 – – New Zealand Rugby League has today named the NZ Residents Premiers team for 2011.

Featuring players from six of the seven NZRL Zones, only the Northern Swords are not represented. Auckland Pride, winners of the Albert Baskerville trophy last Saturday have four players in the team, while the other finalists the South Island Scorpions have six. There are three Counties Manukau Stingrays players, two each from Waicoa Bays Stallions and the Wellington Orcas and one Mid Central Vipers player.

Five of the players were named in the 2010 NZ Residents team and have again made the grade: Suaia Matagi (Auckland Pride), Matt Everitt (Wellington Orcas), Darren Kingi (Counties Manukau Stingrays), Junior Salevao and Jaye Pukepuke from the South Island.

NZRL Football Manager Dan Floyd said, “This year’s National Competition Premiers grade was a tough one, with the second finalist being decided by for and against and only two wins separating first from fifth. The selection of this team reflects this with players drawn from six of the Zones. We are very confident they will perform well in their upcoming game against a NZ Maori Residents selection.”

Brent Stuart, NZ Residents Coach agrees saying “This side was selected based on the form of the players over the eight weeks of the National Competition. It gave all the players a good opportunity to showcase their talents and we believe it fairly represents the form of the players during the competition, all seven Zone coaches had input into the selections.

“Personally it is an honour for me to again be involved with the Residents and to have the chance to coach them this year. We definitely saw the benefits of having the opposed session with the Kiwis in 2010 and are starting to see some consistency in selections year to year which is pleasing.

“We’re looking forward to our game against the NZ Maori Residents later this month.”

The NZ Residents will play NZ Maori Residents at Mt Smart No. 2 at 3.30pm on October 30. This game will follow the National Competition 15s and 17s finals which start at 12.10pm that day.

1 Philip Pese AUCKLAND PRIDE
2 Junior Salevao SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
3 Ruben Williams WAICOA BAYS STALLIONS
4 Bruce Havea SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
5 Peta Hiku COUNTIES MANUKAU STINGRAYS
6 Matt Everitt WELLINGTON ORCAS
7 Hayden Karena WAICOA BAYS STALLIONS
8 Jaye Pukepuke SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
9 Darren Kingi COUNTIES MANUKAU STINGRAYS
10 Soape Kavaliku AUCKLAND PRIDE
11 Suaia Matagi AUCKLAND PRIDE
12 James Baxendale SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
13 Manu Mau AUCKLAND PRIDE
14 Kyle Leka SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
15 Dwayne Waterman WELLINGTON ORCAS
16 William Heta COUNTIES MANUKAU STINGRAYS
17 Manu Weepu SOUTH ISLAND SCORPIONS
18 Richard Graham MID CENTRAL VIPERS

Coach Brent Stuart
Ass Coach Brent Gemmell
Manager Dwayne Fyfe
Trainer Darrell Coad

ENDS

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