Kids play in front of idols
For a team of rugby league loving children, stepping onto Wellington’s Westpac Stadium to watch an NRL game is thrilling.
But to actually play the curtain-raiser and share the field with some of game’s greatest stars is a dream come true.
Before the New Zealand Warriors’ beat the Cronulla Sharks in a one-point thriller on Friday night, the Dannevirke Tigers’ under 7s and under 9s teams went toe-totoe with the Pa¯tea Warriors.
Star struck by idols like Shaun Johnson and Roger Tuivasa-sheck, the youngsters had one eye on the game they were playing and the other on the two NRL teams as they warmed up beside them.
They even got their own taste of the big stage, with their every tackle and run broadcast on the stadium’s big screen.
‘‘They were hyper all the way down there and all the way back,’’ the club’s chairwoman Naioma Chase said.
The teams didn’t keep score and instead allowed the children to enjoy the occasion, she said.
‘‘It was pretty cool being in the middle of the Cake Tin. Even our coaches and managers were quite excited.’’
It’s a remarkable turn of events for a club that three years ago didn’t have a single junior team.
Chase resurrected the club, which was established in 1976, when her son showed an interest in rugby league, saying he wanted to be the next generation to light up the Warriors’ home ground at Mt Smart Stadium.
It now has nine teams and draws players from as far as Masterton, Palmerston North and Pongaroa.