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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-25 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

World Sport Rugby carnival

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (17:22): It is with pleasure that I speak on the adjournment tonight and I think the member for Schubert and the member for Hartley may yet get a chance to do so because I do not intend to use 20 minutes. I wish to bring the house's attention to the successes of some young South Australians in the World Sport Rugby Carnival which took place from 6 to 12 July 2014 at the Gold Coast. Over 50 teams of different age groups competed in the World Sport Rugby Carnival and I commend them for doing so.

It is not traditionally a sport in which South Australia excels over and above the rest of Australia and, indeed, those other countries where rugby is played. I would like to bring to the attention of the house, for example, that the open division at the carnival was won by St Andrews College from New Zealand; the runner-up was the Southport School from Queensland; the under 16s was won by a school from New Zealand, and the runners-up were also from New Zealand; in the under 15s, Queensland and New South Wales were the winners and runners-up; in the under 14s, again, Queensland schools; under 12s, Queensland and New Zealand; and in the under 13s, the winners were the South Australian junior rugby team and the runners-up were the Cavaliers from New South Wales.

It is a tremendous achievement. The South Australian junior rugby team playing in the under 13s won six games and drew two which is utterly unheard of in South Australia. I am particularly pleased that one of my constituents, James Du Preez, was the captain of the team for the third successive year and, for two of those years, I have been pleased to assist in sponsorship. I know James works very hard in raising money to enable him to attend these carnivals and participate. I just wish to share with the house a few words that James has been kind enough to send to me as his local member and one of the people who was able to assist. James wrote to me:

While away on tour I learnt many valuable life skills. These include respect for teamwork, leadership and living away from home without my parents. Playing against high quality opposition also improved my playing skills dramatically in a short space of time. As far as team achievement is concerned, we went extremely well. We finished first in the under 13s age group. At the end of the week we had won six games and drew two, meaning we were undefeated. All of these games were played against big Queensland and New South Wales clubs and schools that have hundreds of kids try out for 23-man squads. We had 50 that trialled.

I am very pleased that James was able to do so well. He, in fact, scored 19 tries in the eight games they played, which was the most for anyone in the under-13 age group, and it is an outstanding achievement. I know James has now been offered a full scholarship to board at Toowoomba Grammar School in Queensland to play rugby, and that is a remarkable achievement for this young man from Morialta, and I am very pleased and our community is very proud of him.

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