An Eastern Bay under-16/18 girls’ rugby team experienced playing some international visitors recently.

Abbotsford Rugby Club from Canada were in Whakatāne as part of a tour around New Zealand, billeted by local families.

“It was an awesome experience for our girls, said EBOP coach Matt Turner.

“Some of our team helped with billeting the visitors over the weekend and it was cool to see the friendships forming throughout their stay.”

In their entertaining clash at Rugby Park, EBOP ran out 31-28 victors, thanks to their five tries, while Abbotsford managed four.

The game was played in superb spirits – something Turner said he would like to see happen more often.

“It was a tough battle all the way through,” he said.

“Canada (Abbotsford Rugby Club) opened the scoring early in the first half and it was matched shortly after by EBOP. The game was even throughout with both teams putting in some epic defence.

“Spectators were impressed with the quality of rugby, as were the coaches, especially as this was the EBOP’s first game for the season.”

Turner said it was a tough game in the heat and it showed the girls had much to work on, but there were plenty of promising signs of a solid season ahead.

“ARC had played Papamoa College earlier in the week and beaten them 92-0, so we were expecting a good hit out by them.

“It was also a really hot day, so we had four,15-minute quarters to allow for drink breaks and substitutions.”

Standouts for the visitors were second five Laesa Tinworth and prop Amber Vallance, while the best for EBOP were captain Leilah Amai, number eight Hazel Gates and first-five Skye Chisholm.

Abbotsford coach Scott Hunter said his team had a blast in the Eastern Bay.

“Everything has been excellent so far. The girls were a little nervous about staying in other people’s homes, but that quickly disappeared once they met their hosts.”

He said Abbotsford had brought boys sides to New Zealand in the past, so it was only fair to give the girls a turn.

“The game was excellent to watch. There was some good attack, and both teams did well at set piece. Playing high quality games is crucial for our player development and the game provided that opportunity. We were able to identify down areas to improve on for when we return to Canada.

“Whakatāne is a beautiful part of the world. The players were sad to leave their host families. We found everyone to be very generous and excited to welcome us.”

The club has formed a strong relationship with Trident High School and expects to be back in the future.

Turner is looking forward to an exciting season ahead.

Last year, he and Tunihia Tupe coached the EBOP under-16 girls and were impressed by the level of skill and commitment shown by the players, so they worked to find more games outside of the Bay of Plenty.

“We travelled to Poverty Bay with both under-16 and under-18 teams and won comfortably in both games. Also, Ngāti Porou travelled to us for an under-16 game, which we lost 46-44, however, some great experiences for our girls.”

This year, with the number of girls coming through Tai Mitchell and into the secondary school grades, the coaches are looking to further develop girls’ rugby in the Eastern Bay.

“We know we need to capture them early to ensure they stick with rugby as their preferred sport. We have already planned games against Horowhenua 1st XV, Manukura under-16 and under-18, Fielding High School first XV and CBOP under-16 and under-18.

“These are all pre-season games and will set us up nicely for the Youth Development Cup in August.

He said there would be a four-week tournament following the Youth Development Cup, then Bay trials.

Several players will also be trialling for the NZ Māori under-18 team at a camp in Pukekohe in April.