Women’s Vahe Hihifo and Men’s Vahe Kolo win rugby tournament [1]
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 - 17:54. Updated on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 10:37.
By Eleanor Gee
The women’s sevens Vahe Hihifo Warriors team and the Men’s 15-a-side Vahe Kolo Cruise team collected their prize money at the Nuku’alofa Club last night, October 11, after winning their respective competitions in the Centenary Tournament last Saturday.
The men's Vahe Kolo Cruise won against Vava’u 29-25 while the Women’s Vahe Hihifo Warriors team beat Ha’apai Sea Warriors 14-12.
The winning teams collected $10,000 in prize money and there were also prizes for the remaining teams.
The best young player of the tournament was Suliasi Tolu from Vahe Hahake Blues, and the best female player was ‘Ofa La’akulu from the Vahe Hihifo Warriors.
The best player of the tournament was Patelesio Oneone from Vahe Kolo Cruise.
Centenary Tournament Women’s sevens competition placing:
- Vahe Hihifo Warriors
- Ha’apai Sea Warriors
- Tu’I Vava’u
- Vahe Kolo Cruise
- Seketoa Niua
- Vahe Loto Hammers
- Vahe Hahake Blues
- ‘Eua
Centenary Tournament Men’s 15-a-side competition placing:
- Vahe Kolo Cruise
- Tu’i Vava’u
- Seketoa Niua
- Vahe Hahake Blues
- ‘Eua
- Vahe Hihifo Warriors
- Ha’apai Sea Warriors
- Vahe Loto Hammers
Tonga Rugby Union CEO Peter Harding was pleased with the tournament.
“We saw very very good rugby,” he said.
Regarding the women's teams, they are looking to aspire to reach the level the Fiji’s Fijiana sevens team achieved in the Olympics winning the bronze medal.
"We have to keep working hard to get our women to the Olympics eventually and hopefully we can do something similar to what Fijiana did this year.”
The men’s finals game was a “very tough physical game and there were a lot of very good players on show”.
Meanwhile, TRU has been looking at all the players in the tournament and are in the middle of profiling them.
“Over the next couple of weeks, we will be picking a Tonga A squad from this competition,” said Peter.
Funding
The Centenary Tournament, marking 100 years of Rugby in Tonga, was funded by World Rugby ($335,255) and the Tongan Government ($245,600).
From the funding, $169,600 was provided as allowance for the players and officials and $76,000 was provided for the prizes.
Additional funding of $6,100 for extra prizes was donated by Elina Felemi and the Tokaikolo Church.
Progress
Peter said TRU is making progress off the field as well as on the field.
“We ran a governance review 10 days ago and that is going to change the way we run Tonga Rugby so we’ll see how that goes over the next few weeks.”
In addition, TRU board member and Centenary Tournament director ‘Aisea Aholelei was selected to the executive committee for Oceania Rugby last week.
Tonga Rugby Union has also signed with a company who will look after the team up to the next World Cup.
“We’ve doubled the deal we’ve had in the last few years so we’ve done well there.”
TRU has also "signed a four-year deal with Marseille Metro for all of our camps, which will save us hundreds of thousands of Euros over the next few years".
Potential games in Tonga
TRU is looking to host two potential rugby tests next year in Tonga.
We’ve got a Rugby World Cup qualifier against Hong Kong and potentially one of the PNC [Pacific Nations Cup] games.”
But to hold the games, a new scoreboard is needed at Teufaiva Stadium.
“We will have to get a scoreboard up there at some stage otherwise they won’t give us the games. But everything else is ready to go for the two games in Tonga next year,” he said.