This week we have had
Belmont students at our school for this year’s sports exchange. I hosted a boy called Tim, we got to know each other really well and had a lot of fun playing badminton, at the school disco, on the playstation and a lot more.But finally what they had come to do, play sports. I was in the cross-country, it had never been a sport before and I decided to race as I wasn’t in a sport. Tim was in soccer. I walked the cross-country track and then returned to the start, we had never run the track before so neither our students or
Belmont’s knew the track. I t was a great race and I really enjoyed it, as I was allowed to run over the farm which had previously been too wet to run. Overall I got 5^th, although it didn’t seem great it was the best from our school. Although they had their best racers and we didn’t. After the race I got to watch Tim play soccer in the second half of the game, I thought he was pretty good and stopped a lot of people from shooting for goal. Later that day we had the disco, it was a lot of fun and both Tim and I enjoyed it.Sadly the next day Tim was leaving, it felt weird without him there as I was almost lonely at home that night.

Overall it was a very successful exchange and T.A.I. managed to come out with a win, 8 games to 6. I hope to meet Tim again someday as I believe he was a great friend.

I’ve just got an edublog my new adress is mitchellb3.edublogs.org please check it out.

On Saturday we played Eastern Suburbs in rugby. We came into this game enthusiastic as we had a draw with the hardest team last week. We lost the toss and were receiving the first kick. I missed a few catches which was pretty disappointing but my tries made up for it.  It was really close at half time and we needed to get our act together.  We missed a lot of conversion kicks, this is what our team really needs to work on and I already have been. I got two tries and one was put down by me and my friend, Patrick. I missed one of the conversions but it was from along way away, I got the second as it was right in-front of the posts. We started to pull away in the second half as the other team were becoming frustrated. This was the perfect time for us to kick the ball down field, we did and sure enough it worked, we turned the ball over straight away and had made 50 meters.  We were all getting tired and kept asking how long to go. We passed out to our wingers who got a sudden burst of energy and started sprinting down field. The other team turned over the ball in a ruck and kicked it out. The final whistle blew. We were all really tired and couldn’t wait to sit down.

  It was a great game and we held the other team out and only let them score two tries. The final score was 39-12, it wasn’t as good as we should’ve got but we still won. Most of our players hadn’t played their best and were disappointed. We went back and awarded the Player of the Day awards. We then left and waited for the All Blacks game to start. 

We were going to play Frankton in rugby, it was a grading game but we knew that this team would be title competitors. This was going to be our hardest game so far, after winning all of our early games with ease, we came up to this hurdle.

We arrived at Frankton’s grounds not knowing what to expect. We warmed up and had our team talk, we decided who was kicking and went on to the field. We were pumped up, We were receiving the kick off and the game had begun.

It was very close all through the game. Both teams wanted to win; it was even at half time. I had made some great tackles, one of them I had almost run the length of the field to stop a run-away try. I also had a chance to get a try after chasing a kick and charging the other teams kick, sadly it went out.

We came out of the game pleased, we hadn’t won but hadn’t lost either, it was a draw. 12-12 was the final score. All of my team thanked each other in our great effort to take this Frankton team down. I saved many tries and got close to scoring some as well. I think there was a chance of us playing better if we had all our players at the game to as a few were away and slightly injured. It was a really fun game and both teams enjoyed it. We gathered together and handed out the player of the day awards. 

 Our team was a lot smaller than our opponents and couldn’t wait to meet this team to play each other again. I hope next time that we win. I am going to practise my kicking and hopefully get the job of kicking; if I get better at kicking and take the job we could’ve won the game. We are going to go back to training now and talk about the game and what we need to work on. 

I went back down to the same rugby park the next game. I practised my kicking and got the kicks that we missed on game day.   

Last Saturday and Tuesday there were trials for the Te Awamutu Gwynne Shield rep. rugby team. On Saturday we had four quarters of playing, I was playing full-back for the maroon team. We started slowly with the other team scoring; I wasn’t playing my best and knew I had to if I wanted to make the team. I was off for the third quarter as all of players had to have a turn. I came back on at the start of the last quarter and started to play well. I held off lots of tries and made loads of tackles. Finally the last whistle blew and our team had lost, that didn’t really matter though as the selectors were looking for talented players from both teams. We met again on Tuesday and I hoped to play better to show all of the selectors how good I can really play. I was playing the same position in maroon but with different team mates this time. I started well scoring an early try for our team in the corner. It wasn’t converted though; I made lots of good tackles stopping any players getting past. I only dropped one catch and apart from that played really well and hope to make the teams. There was no-one else trialling as their main position as full-back which helps me. If I get into this team I will be playing a week long tournament in the holidays with no days rest in-between. If I get into this team it will be a real challenge as I will be playing people a lot bigger than me. I will also be trialling for the Te Awamutu Goldfields rep. team later this year.

Last night I was called by one of our coaches, it was great news, I had made it in the squad. I was very happy and can’t wait to find out who else is in the team.

Tonight the Crusaders took on the Waratahs at there home stadium,
Christchurch, where the Stadium was full. The Waratahs took the early lead 5-3 after a great try. The half time score was 12-11 in the Waratahs favor, but the Crusaders came back with the final score was 20-12. This wasn’t just any game but the Rebel Sport Super 14 final and it showed with the determination of both teams.  I was backing the Crusaders to win as they are my favorite team. The Crusaders Struggled in first half and weren’t playing there best, but with many kicks going in-between the posts from Daniel Carter the Crusaders slowly came back to win. There were many moments when the Crusaders were close to scoring tries but couldn’t pull through. The Waratahs really made the season favorites really struggle and were so close to winning. The game went very quickly, it didn’t have many points scored or any run-aways. There was a lot of kicking during the game and also a great amount of tackle by the Waratahs. The Crusaders defence was very strong all game and this was where I believe they won the game. The Crusaders coach, Robbie Deans will be leaving the Crusaders now, as He is coaching the Australian rugby team. This was a very close game and had me sitting on my seat the whole time. Lachie Turner was the stand-out player for the Waratahs after scoring two fabulous tries against this strong team. I was glad to see Reuben Thorne go onto the field even though there was five minutes to play, as it was his last game for this Christchurch team. Overall a great game and go the CRUSADERS!

Last Saturday we arrived at Albert park expecting a close game of rugby against Fraser Tech, after winning last week against Hamilton Old Boys 24-0 we were expecting a harder game. That didn’t happen though, we had a huge win with the final score 74-0 in our favour. During the game I scored 5 tries alone, Me and our Second Five worked well to get these points. The other team seemed very disappointed with the score. We went and thanked them and awarded the player of the day ribbons. I got the one for our team and our Second-five got the other. It wasn’t a very close game but we still had to try hard and keep up our good work.  This week we beat Ohaupo in a friendly game, the score was 42-0. Although we won by a lot it seemed like a very close game and I think that we slightly struggled. This game was a lot of fun, we din’t seem to pass the ball out to the wingers much. I dropped one catch of the rugby ball as the sun was in my eyes, luckily the ball went backwards. We have a very strong team this year and hope that we play hard and we could even win our grade.

On Monday, 11th May the Junior, Senior, Jazz bands left for Totara Springs music camp, the choir also came along. We finally arrived at Totara Springs which is in Matamata, Bags were unloaded and put into our cabins where we were going to stay for the next two nights. We then met students from Matamata Intermediate who where joining us for our concert. We practised and practised until we hit the right notes and our songs sounded right. We had delicious food to eat after our practise. Finally lights out, of course no one wanted to, so we ended up talking most of the night. The next day finally came, the same thing happened, practise, practise and more practise. Finally the dress rehearsal came. We played well but had to play better for the concert. We started tuning up for the big concert, I was scared that I would make a big mistake, but I didn’t. The concert went along smoothly and was a lot of fun. We had many other groups join us like the salvation army band and a extension drum group. The concert was over and all of our parents were very impressed, we were so tired. The last day came, we had many activities such as archery, air rifle shooting and the best of all, a water-slide. Finally we left for home and I couldn’t wait to crawl into my own bed. I had learnt so much from this camp and had heaps of fun with my old and new friends.

Our first game of rugby is this weekend and we are playing against Hamilton Old Boys. Last year we just won and hope to win again. I feel that we have a stronger team this year which will be very important if we want a win. This weekend I am playing as Fullback, so my job is to catch the kicks and tackle any one who breaks through our backline. Also the Fullback may kick the goals, which I may sometime through the year and I have to take some kicks for touch. My Favourite Fullback is Leon Macdonald. Some other positions that I might play this weekend is left or right wing, this is because I am a pretty fast sprinter. This game is going to be a lot of fun and will put us into our pool for this year, I am already in 12th grade but if we win both of our grading games we should get into the A pool. I hope to get into the A pool as this will really challenge our team and we will always have to play our best.  

My Saturday Rugby is about to start for this year. We have already trained and I have also got into a development squad for a competition called Gwynne Shield. I am in the 12th grade and am playing for Te Awamutu Sports. We will play many teams from all across Hamilton, Cambridge and lots more. I am once again playing Fullback for my team and hope to improve my rugby skills this year. Last year I made it into Bowers Cup and Goldfields representative teams for Te Awamutu, I hope to do better this year.