Newsletter - Thursday 25th May 2023
Welcome to this week’s newsletter!
We would like to start by formally extending our condolences on behalf of the Board, Staff, Management and all our club members, to our Chairman, Viv de Beus. Viv’s Mum, Janny, passed away suddenly but peacefully on the 15th May. Viv has been understandably concentrating on his family during this difficult time. Your family are in our thoughts, and we hope you are able to look back and remember happier times together with your wider family at this sad time.
BAR OPENING HOURS – Friday 26th 5:30pm – late & Sat 27th11am-late
We are stoked to have a whole heap of games to watch at the club this weekend (see draw details and match schedule below). With the team from Eat Food Truck, yet again providing their awesome menu from our clubroom kitchen - come down and enjoy a meal at the club, while supporting our teams!
This week our postponed post-match Player of the Day celebrations for the U6 & U7 Grades will be held at 10:30am (U6) and 10:45am (U7) on Saturday morning. All teams will receive a yummy Eat Food Truck team platter for free and the Eat Food Truck menu will also be available throughout the day for ordering at the bar.
CFC WEEKLY DRAWS
Official link to the Junior Draws click here
Official link to the Senior Draws click here
RUGBY REPORTS
PREMIER MENS’ REPORT
Firstly apologies for not publishing the previous week’s Premier Men’s match report in last week’s newsletter....this was entirely an admin error, so we have included both week’s reports below.
13 May 2023
New Brighton v CFC Premier Mens
Rawhiti Domain.
HT 0-26
FT 14-40
It was going a big ask of the Premier team to take on New Brighton at the Sandpit, made even harder being the Panel Beaters club day. The CFC Prem Reserves had a good win in the 1pm curtain raiser and the sun had come out. Things were looking ominous for a good match.
Not a great for the boys as New Brighton got to work straight away and from a line out, using their much bigger pack, went to a driving maul to cross the line and 7-0 within the first 5 minutes.
Following this, the team settled down and got to work with their fair share of ball and territory. Maintaining position was problematic though and a turnover saw New Brighton quickly counterattack and score their second try of the day. Score 0 - 14 at 20 minutes.
A series of attacking phases by CFC gave the lads good territory and possession. A few pick and goes were going nowhere led the team to shift the ball wide however New Brighton’s centre read the play well, intercepted for a 85 metre sprint to score. Another converted try just on half time gave New Brighton a 26-0 lead.
The second half had CFC start well in the first 5 minutes and after a period of attack play Charlee Barrett was able to score with Connor Watherston-Spencer converting.
New Brighton hit back at the 50monite period with their own converted try.
Probably some of the best play of the day led to CFCs second try by Wil Gualter in the corner which was converted by Mitch Barry.
New Brighton though had the last say and dotted down once more just before full time. Final score 14-40.
Whilst CFC did not start well, they did not give up all day, something acknowledged by New Brighton in the after match speeches. This was evident in the second half being 14 points each. CFC had their moments but have yet to put together a full 80 minutes. When they do, they will be team to watch.
Saturday 20th May 3pm
Lincoln University v CFC Premier Mens
Lincoln University
HT 14-35
FT 24-68
It’s never easy travelling to Lincoln to take on the students, even harder on a Club Day. The lads knew it was going to be a tough day at the office. Whilst the forward pack was near full strength there was late withdrawals in the week for the backs. This meant a few of boys were playing out of normal positions. A wet miserable day and a game before meant the field was heavy under foot, which may have been in our favour.
CFC started well and held the ball for long periods. Starting from their own end of the field they gradually made their way up the paddock. A solid period of forward play saw front rower Dale Johnstone, on the 15-minute mark, dot down for his first meat pie. Conversion successful to Connor Watherston-Spencer saw CFC take the lead 7-0.
CFC had woken the sleeping bear. LU were quick to strike back and over a period of 15 minute ran in 4 unanswered converted tries. LU starved CFC of the ball territory. What we had, was not used to our advantage.
Just prior to half time another good driving maul by CFC had hooker Sailosi Rova over the line again successfully converted by Watherston Spencer.
The second half really belonged to LU who continued their campaign of territory and possession running in several tries. Whilst winning the game was out of reach mid-way through the second half, the determination by CFC not to leave the countryside emptied handed saw two more mauling tries scored by Sam Lawry at the 65 minute mark and Charlee Barrett just on full time. This gave CFC a 4 try bonus point.
Whilst not the result hoped for there was some good moment by CFC. The wet conditions were good for the forwards with their pick and go and mauling (Wayne Smith may have stopped watching the game by half time) and gave them encouragement. The backs also had moments, but the conditions weren’t in their favour.
The team would like to thank the supporters, especially the handful of Axemen, who came out to watch when it may have been a day for sitting by the fire with a red wine in hand. We would also like to thank the Div 2 boys that played their game against University of Canterbury and then drove to Lincoln to sit on our bench. Thanks Arthur Gladstone, Connor Mahan, Shu Shimada and Ben Meads. It’s a big ask to have some of you play 80 minutes and then drive 30kms to another game to just sit on the bench. I am sure the Club Captain will put a few quiet ones your way this Saturday.
A big match this week before we head into the break. Belfast at home.
20th May
Lincoln University v CFC Premier Reserve Mens
Lincoln University 1pm
FT 7-24 Win
It was a stunner of a Saturday, setting the scene for a scintillating match at Ilam Fields against UC. It had been pouring with rain the whole night and morning prior, leaving the fields boggy and the ball slippery. Unfortunately for UC, the Premier Reserves are biologically built for wet weather rugby and weren't scared of lecturing these students even on their weekend off.
Professors Kyle and Matt knew a few things would need to come together to secure the W. Those keys were the forwards structure, keeping the passing in tight, getting to the edge, pinning, and keeping UC in their own 22 and working hard to protect the ball at the breakdown.
Kick off saw UC come out of the gates HOT, but almost too hot! Despite them putting the pressure on early in our 22, the CFC team held strong on defence and pushed them all the way back to their own 22. Shout out to Connor Mahan who has been working hard on his exit execution with manager Grayson Mitchell, he did an excellent job of keeping the ball out of our zone in the first half. However, all this excellent work and offensive pressure shone a light on arguably the team’s biggest weakness - execution. The team had multiple opportunities off of set piece to capitalise on the mistakes of UC early to get some points on the board, but failed to do so. As was the case in broken play stemming from the very average kicking ability of UC; a few poor decisions in the heat of the moment resulted in mistakes and turnovers. Disappointingly, these mistakes allowed UC to strike first, putting them up 7-0 about half-way through the first half.
The team were far from discouraged, spurred on by the leadership of Captain Cyril "Sizzla" Tamou they answered back. Connor Mahan evened the score up in the first with a great meat pie under the sticks before Sizzla took it upon himself to quite literally lead the charge. He death-rolled in the rucks, ran hard past the advantage line and even dotted down for an awesome try in the second half (featuring one of the FATTEST goosies you'll ever see from an openside flanker).
Given the weather, it was never going to be a high scoring match, but when it mattered most the Premier Reserves struck again and it was a beauty. They built phases, trudged their way up the field, used the momentum of the wet ground and as such the legendary Jason (NICKNAME IS TOO OFFENSIVE) Lowe scored a try fuelled by pure heart. Just look how happy he is:
This result would not have been possible without the stellar D from Arthur "Chosen One" Gladstone. He was EVERYWHERE, and his counterattack was Ardie Savea like!
Congratulations to coaches Kyle Brewer and Matt Aked for their first back-to-back wins of their Christchurch Premier Reserve coaching career! Here's to three in a row this coming weekend against Belfast at home, kick off 1pm - see you there!
Player of the Day: Cyril Tamou - Sizzla
Defender of the Day: Arthur Gladstone - Chosen One
Final Score: 24 - 7 to Christchurch Premier Reserves
From this week on we will be doing a player profiles, and this week it's Travis Moody- see Player Profiles below.
Connor Kitto
Co-Manager, Premier Reserves
PREMIER WOMENS’ REPORT
Saturday 20th May
CFC Premier vs Linwood Wāhine
Christchurch Park, 2:45pm
HT 17-7
FT 38-19
It was a wet morning and with the Premier Womens’ team being the only Senior team playing at home this week, we had the pleasure of playing on a decent field.
Although it was raining in the morning the rain held off for the whole game, but it was wet underfoot which didn't help the handling conditions of the ball.
Linwood came out strong, despite losing some players away with Manusina. Good strong ball carries made our team work on tackles throughout the game. However, our team displayed some good ball through the hands to get it wide for Grace Moriarty to dot down twice in the corner.
It was a good first 20 from the girls, but as the game progressed it showed poor ball handling leading to many scrums.
With the score being close at half time, we had to back our defence to shut down Linwood’s strong runners and offloads to close out the game.
Congratulations to Ruby Allsop for making her debut for the women.
It was great to share some kai and kava with the Linwood team after a hard battle on the field.
As we were the only Senior team playing at home, we took this opportunity to have our whānau day this week to thank all our friends and whānau for supporting our team this year. They were treated to some awesome kai from Eat Food Truck as well as sponsored drinks from Moa Brewing.
Thanks to Andrea Te Ohaere-Fox for hosting the Whānau. We appreciate the support we get from you all and this was a little token of our appreciation.
Make sure you get along and support the girls this weekend for the top of the table clash against old rivals University of Canterbury - 2.45pm Ilam fields
DIV 3 CHOPPERS’ REPORT
20th May 2023
Halswell Wigram Battlers v CFC Choppers
2:45pm, Knight Stream Park
Full Time: 43-31
What a great day for rugby, cold, wet and muddy! Everyone’s dream, right? Certainly, my preferred rugby weather.
Saturday saw us hosted by the Battlers at Knight Stream. They’ve had a really, really good start to the season and are doing well to keep an undefeated record intact.
The game started with the Battlers on the front foot, but the Choppers were holding up well in defence. For the opening five minutes it was most definitely attack (the Battlers) versus defence (the Choppers). They had quite a few sizeable players and their centre pairing certainly enjoyed running the angles cutting through our defensive line. They did manage to cross the line shortly after the first whistle but we gathered our thoughts and reset.
After the first points we were able to get our hands on the ball, but some stoic defence meant that we weren’t able to get the territorial gain we were hoping for. The Battlers turned it over and then proceeded to run in a couple of tries. After our third meeting under the sticks, we decided that we needed to reshape our positioning from the restart. This most definitely made the difference and meant that their free running backs were limited on space out wide, and we were able to narrow the playing field and slow down their scoring rate.
The first half concluded with a fantastic team try by us. We were on their 5 metre line and must have run about 15 to 20 phases of play, from one side to the other, making small gains each time. Eventually we spread the ball from left to right and Leon crossed the line to dot over in the corner. It was a good feeling after the defensive efforts we’d put into that point and a great way to end the half.
The second half started in the best possible way, with us crossing the line for our second try of the game shortly after the restart. Then the third and a bit of belief growing in the lads on the field. We knew we weren’t too far off from what the Battlers put on us in the first half. They definitely didn’t enjoy conceding points to us, and while they are a well drilled and organised team, we saw our chance to take advantage of this minor blip in their concentration.
We definitely tightened up our pods and running off the shoulder in the second half and it made a massive difference. One of the tries we scored was a beautiful move by the forwards in the back line, through the hands and a mammoth run by Flo to make great metres and still be able to get the offload for another try.
We were then camped on our five-metre line having to dig deep to keep the Battlers out, they must’ve gone through about 15 phases of play too, plus a couple of penalties that they chose to scrum from. Left to right and back again, until Scarfy got an intercept and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts and slot the conversion. The scoreline was certainly getting close at this point at 36-26 and we still had some fight left in us. Then the Battlers scored and admittedly it did dampen the spirits a bit, but a rousing team talk under the posts and we gave it one last go.
We managed to get over the line but unfortunately the ref couldn’t see the ball and therefore gave us a scrum on the five-metre line. We again came close to the line but ended up conceding possession. The Battlers made a charge up the field to about the 10-metre line and we managed to get the ball back. After a huge amount of one off runners, we got ourselves back to inside the 22 and won the put in at a scrum, only three minutes on the clock! We managed to score off the back of the scrum thanks to our player of the day, Blake, who had a barnstorming run to the line.
Final score 43-31 to the Battlers. It was a great game to be involved in, they were top notch opponents and fantastic hosts putting on a BBQ for the lads and supporters at the full-time whistle.
Next up we play under the lights, Friday night against Sumner for our annual night game. Kick-off is 6:30pm and it would be great to see some support on the side line to cheer on the lads.
WHO ARE WE………………..CHOPPERS
Cheers,
Jez
Jerard Cowburn
CLUB MEMBER PROFILES
JUNIOR CORNER
Unfortunately, due to the terrible weather, our U6-U8 Grades had their games cancelled last week, to try and preserve the grounds around the City from further damage. This meant that our Club Day was a smaller event than we’d originally hoped for, but we were still blown away by the support and buy in from the U9-U11 teams and families that did attend.
As can be seen from the above pictures, our teams all had a great time coming into the clubrooms to enjoy some post-match team kai together, warming up in the clubrooms for their player of the day speeches.
U6 & U7 Grade - Sat 27th May Player of the Day Celebrations & Free Team Platters
We ae really looking forward to seeing all of our U6 & U7 teams in the clubrooms this weekend, after their Saturday games.
Teresa and Lynda from The Eat Food Truck will yet again be working their magic in our clubroom kitchen, to provide free platters for all our teams post games. The Eat Food Truck menu will also be available for our families to order from, and we would love you to support our supporters by ordering from their great menu!
Timetable for the teams in this grade is the same as last week and detailed below.
10:30am
U6 Jenkins
U6 Jordan
U6 Christie
U6 McLeod
U6 Gualter Wild Cats
U6 Mighty Pups
10:45am
U7 Bears
U7 Cobras
U7 Tigers
U7 Cougars
U7 Bees
U7 T-Rexs
See you there!
For our U8 Grade – we will arrange a suitable celebration for you in the coming weeks – we will send our further notification via the Heja App once we get organised.
Volunteer Recognition:
The calibre and level of support we receive from our volunteer coaches, managers and committee members is second to none and a key driver behind our continued growth and success in the junior club.
This week, we would like to recognise the awesome Connor Kitto, who is the Head Coach of the mighty U11 Weka. Connor has been coaching junior teams for the past two years, after a series of concussion injuries meant he was no longer able to play in our senior teams. Connor has a long-standing connection to the club via his own playing career, but also as the son of Aaron who is a club Axeman, qualified Referee and is always on hand to support the club where needed.
During the week, you can usually hear Connor hosting The Hits Canterbury Radio Show between 9am-3pm (97.7), and if you happen to have a listen, we usually get a CFC mention during the week – so thanks for all the shout outs!
Aside from the fact that Connor freely gives up his time to coach, despite not having kids in the team, Connor is also volunteering as part of the Special Friends Sports Trust. This means Connor helps to mentor a child, commits to getting them rugby ready and then takes them to/from practice and the games each week. Over the upcoming weeks, Connor will be talking more about his work with wee Callum on his team, so listen in to find out more about the great work Connor does to support our tamariki.
Outside of all of the above, Connor also helps to manage our Premier Reserve team, and provides the team match reports and player profiles…..in summary, he definitely keeps himself busy!
However, none of the above is the main reason for Connor featuring in this week’s volunteer recognition. The reason is because we received the below email from our friends at Belfast RFC following their game against the U11 Weka team this weekend:
“Good afternoon,
The Belfast Under 11 Cobras played the Under 11 Weka today, and I as the team manager would like to say a huge thanks to Connor (coach) He reffed the entire game and was outstanding on the field, he was fair, let the game flow and explained all things to the kids playing.
There were a couple of injuries where he stopped the game to make sure the child could get off the field safely.
We had one of our players have a small seizure and he cleared all the kids away and took complete control of the situation.
So once again, nothing but absolute praise for how Connor and the Under 11 Weka players and supporters conducted themselves today.
Kind Regards
Lisa and the Belfast Under 11 Cobras”
Thanks for all you do Connor – we really appreciate your support!
CFC Junior 2023 Chocolate Fundraiser
Most of our chocolate money has now been paid in, but we do still have a few outstanding, so please, make sure you come along this Wednesday if you still have money to hand in, to save us having to chase everyone manually.
We are truly grateful for all of the support in this massively important fundraising initiative for our club!
GILBERT APPAREL – ONLINE STORE NOW OPEN!
We have a great range to order from with something for everyone from kids to adults’ sizes. More junior socks are on their way and should be available behind the bar again shortly as currently only size 8-11 are available.
We will be running a shop at the club during junior club day next weekend for a selected range of CFC Gilbert branded gear.
Our online store can be accessed here
Article added: Thursday 25 May 2023