Wednesdays are for the Miles Toyota girls first XV

The Miles Toyota Girls First XV tournament is due to begin next week, with an impressive number of schools continuously getting amongst it.  

Nine teams will come together in the Wednesday afternoon competition held at Burnside Park during this term, with teams across Canterbury submitting teams. 

There is an exciting increase in St Andrews College players as they enter the competition with their own team, after combining with Rangiora High School in 2023. Emma Dermody, Canterbury Rugby Game Developer - Women and Girls, who also plays in the Canterbury Farah Palmer Cup team says, “it’s very exciting to have STAC join this year as a couple of them combined with Rangiora last year, so to be on their own is amazing”.

Girls’ rugby is certainly on the rise in Canterbury, and it’s not difficult to see why with the huge increase in awareness and attention the girls and women space has received. A pre round competition of 10 a side was held by CRFU in term 2, which gained a lot of interest from High Schools across the region. “The schools are great at getting behind it and the number of players especially in this age group is definitely growing” says Dermody, “You have young girls that their favourite rugby player is now a Black Fern”. 

Alongside STAC’s team and the two from CGHS, the competition consists of teams entered from Rolleston College/ Lincoln High School Combined, Villa Maria College, Avonside Girls High School, Rangi Ruru Girls School / St Margarets College / Marian College Combined, Kaiapoi High School and Rangiora High School.

The competition begins Wednesday 31st July at Burnside Park, with games kicking off from 3:30pm.