Rāhui Women Win Title Again

November 2021

By Frank Neill

The Rāhui women’s rugby team is once again the Horowhenua Kāpiti champion.

Rāhui entered a team in the competition for the first time two seasons ago, and have won the

title in each of the three years they have competed.

This year’s title came with a dominant display over Levin College Old Boys in the final,

played at Levin Domain on 6 October.

After five minutes of play the match looked evenly poised, with Rāhui holding a narrow 7-5

lead. From that point on, however, the Ōtaki-based team completely dominated the remainder of the first half to lead 26-5 at the break.

Levin performed better in the second half, but were still outclassed by Rāhui, who closed out

the match 57-29.

Wikitoria Doyle, daughter of the well-known Sam Doyle who starred for Rāhui and the

Hurricanes, was in exceptional form and was rewarded with three tries.

Hannah Favell also played an outstanding game and she added her name to the score sheet

with one try and two conversions.

Heniti Buick scored two tries while Kelly Bishop-Greig, Hinerau Henare-Taiapa and Mahina

Cullinan also dotted down. Hinekura Connor-Phillips added four conversions.

Due to a variety of factors only two clubs fielded teams in the 2021 competition – Rāhui and

Levin College Old Boys.

They played two round robin matches followed by the final.

After narrowly losing the first match 30-34 on 22 September, Rāhui came back to win the

second encounter on 29 September 36-25.

Wikitoria Doyle scored five tries, giving her a season tally of eight tries in just three matches.

Heniti Buick was the other try scorer. Erana Cooper added a conversion and Hinekura

Connor-Phillips two conversions in the 29 September victory.

Coached by Patsy Matheson and Tama Tuirirangi and captained by Heni Roa, Rāhui

demonstrated significant improvement throughout the three-match season, as shown by the

fact they moved from a loss through to a dominant victory.