With preparations under way for the Rugby League World Cup back home, New Zealand Police’s Rugby League (NZPRL) players won hearts and minds – and games – while helping raise the profile of their sport in Canada.
NZPRL impressed with their free-flowing footie as they first beat Canada’s national side The Wolverines 30-16, followed with a 40-4 trouncing of the British Columbia provincial side.
In their final game they met their old foes from Great Britain Police Rugby League, a “savage arm-wrestle”, says manager Senior Constable Tony Feasey (Auckland District), which ended 8-8 on the scoreboard, but 4-2 to GB in injured players taken to hospital.
NZPRL were touring to assist development of Rugby League in Canada, where the sport is in its infancy.
Off the field they made friends with visits to Vancouver Technical Secondary School, where they held coaching sessions, and to British Columbia Children’s Hospital.
The tour was the coaching debut for North Harbour and Northcote premier player Constable Lafaele Filipo (Bay of Plenty) and Sergeant Junior Fiu (Auckland), formerly of the New Zealand Warriors and current St Paul’s Collegiate Coach.
The young team is drawn from constabulary staff from around New Zealand and includes Fox Premiership-winning Glenora player Constable Chase Bernard (Waitematā) and Constable Nate Solomona (Counties Manukau), of Richmond.
They met the Wolverines under the lights at a chilly John Oliver Park, Vancouver, and played British Columbia on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon at Klahanie Park, home of Vancouver’s Capilano Rugby Club.
The final game was at Brockton Oval, Stanley Park, Vancouver, where the All Blacks played in 1934: “a fine sunny day on picturesque ground straight off a postcard,” says Tony, though the rugged nature of the game belied the idyllic setting.
NZPRL had three players out through injury while GB played their entire squad of 20. However, by the end the injury score was more even, with Vancouver Police transporting four British players to hospital, along with two more injured Kiwis.
“It was a bruising encounter with no quarter given by the stoic Kiwis, reduced to minimum numbers,” says Tony. “Of course it was a great spectacle for the spectators who turned up.”
Tony says he is proud of the team’s achievements on and off the pitch - great ambassadors for Rugby League and New Zealand, he says, who achieved the tour’s goal of helping development of League in Canada.
“This was borne out in the warm welcome from the Canadians, the increasing crowds at games and the positive responses to our ‘reachout’ sessions at the school and hospital.”