Rugby NSW Trials - Sione and Kiah

The First Day

On the 4th of May, Sione and I went to the rugby NSW trial selection to try and make the squad for 2021. When we arrived, we saw a lot of our mates who were already there and we stayed together for the rest of the day. Afterwards, as we were talking and passing the ball around, the coaches finally called us all in and explained to us what we were doing for the day. As soon as he finished explaining, we moved into doing a training session of tackling and passing. Moving on, the forwards and backs had to split into their own drills which meant Sione and I were unfortunately not together. We had to practise our line outs and scrums with the opens (17+) and they were massive, so luckily it wasn't us versus them. Finally the game began. Unfortunately, Sione and I were not in the same team but both of us still managed to play well as he managed to smash 3 boys who ran his way, and I successfully scored a try under the post. As we finished the first day of the trial, all the boys had a shower and went home. 

The Second Day 

As my mum dropped me off to the grounds early, I was looking for all the boys but couldn’t find them until I heard laughing and screaming coming from the change rooms. I walked in and all the boys were dancing and laughing and all yelled out “Kiah'' and ran to hug me. Then we found out that the girls were also trialing with us, but on the other field. As we got into our second day we did a small warm up and then went straight into the games. The coach rearranged the teams and again, Sione and I weren’t on the same team. Sione was more in the losing team while I was in the winning team. As there were 4 teams, we all played each other. 2 teams went first and the winners of each team played against each other, while the losing teams also played against each other. I was on the winning team and 3 of my mates were on my team while 3 of my other friends were on a different team. So when our game began we had to face each other. As every second passed, the game got more difficult, but my team still managed to grind and came on top winning by one try. So, after that all the teams were done and everyone went to the changerooms to get dressed so we could go back and hear who made it. As all the boys took their time in the changerooms laughing and having a shower together, we looked at the time and found out we were late so we got dressed and all ran to the place where they were calling out our names. When we went back out the coaches finally decided who made the NSW squad for 2021. As one coach was talking, Sione had no faith, saying that he didn’t make it but I kept encouraging him saying that he would make it. Soon as one of the coaches finished talking and gave it to the other coach who was going to announce the whole team he said “REMEMBER BOYS THERE IS ALWAYS NEXT YEAR”. He began saying the team.. “STARTING PROP: HEZE….HEZEKIAH”. 

I screamed and said “me Kiah?” and everyone cheered and clapped and Sione yelled out “Lets go Kiah!” with all the other boys. As soon as the other people were being called out, Sione was giving me face impressions that he didn’t make it but then… we heard “SIONE TAFEA STARTING OUTSIDE CENTRE'' Sione got up and yelled, running to me and gave me a hug in front of everyone. We hugged for ages saying to each other “WE MADE IT WE MADE IT” with Sione almost crying. 

Hezekiah Mau'u