{"id":418408,"date":"2026-05-08T19:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418408\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T19:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:46:19","slug":"sunlive-surprise-visit-from-rugby-stars-at-bop-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418408\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Surprise visit from rugby stars at BOP school"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Black Ferns swapped stadium lights for a school field, inspiring students with a surprise training session.<\/p>\n

Cheers and wide-eyed excitement rippled across Te Kura o Matapihi on Monday as the Black Ferns took to the field in front of an audience of future players.<\/p>\n

Students and kaiako (teachers) welcomed the team with a waiata, followed by a thank you from player Katelyn Vaha\u2019akolo.<\/p>\n

The team then responded with a waiata of their own, before beginning training.<\/p>\n

Students, many of whom already played rugby themselves, described the experience as \u201cexciting\u201d, with some eager to pick up some \u201ccool moves\u201d from the team.<\/p>\n

Marihi Fox, 9, said he had played rugby for \u201cthree or four years\u201d and wanted to get some advice on how to do \u201cbetter tackles\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see some cool moves, some that we\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool that they chose our school, even though there are millions of other schools they could go to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Iria Te Kakau, 10, said watching the Black Ferns<\/a> train showed her that girls can be just as strong as boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, I\u2019ve watched heaps of their games and my favourite thing is how they\u2019re strong and they\u2019re not boys, they\u2019re girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Iria said she had been playing rugby for two years and she loved tackling people.<\/p>\n

\"Te

\nTe Kura o Matapihi kaiako Aroha Munkedal (left), with students Marihi Fox, 9 (centre) and Te Iria Te Kakau, 10. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

She wanted to learn how to do \u201csome intercepts\u201d and said she was planning to ask the players how to be fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [girls] can be just as strong as boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students had made signs for the team, proudly holding them up and cheering as the Black Ferns trained on the school\u2019s field.<\/p>\n

Kaiako Aroha Munkedal said the visit was \u201cvery inspiring\u201d for the school community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the visualness and physicalness of seeing them, rather than seeing them on TV. It\u2019s very different having an experience like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was a \u201cbit of surprise\u201d for the school and they had to keep it under wraps for a couple of days.<\/p>\n

\"Black

\nBlack Ferns training at Te Kura o Matapihi. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to see the w\u0101hine M\u0101ori in sport who are doing so well and have reached the pinnacle of Aotearoa, they\u2019re on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munkedal said seeing the team in person made a \u201chuge difference\u201d to the students\u2019 outlooks and taught them how w\u0101hine had to work hard to get where they were.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the Black Ferns come to our little kura here in Tauranga Moana, where you wouldn\u2019t expect them to come, we feel really privileged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The training session was organised through connections with the Aotearoa M\u0101ori Sports Awards Trust, and chief executive Dick Garratt helped bring the team to the kura.<\/p>\n

\"Aotearoa

\nAotearoa M\u0101ori Sports Awards chief executive Dick Garratt with his wife Desrae Garratt, who attended Te Kura o Matapihi as a student. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

He said the goal was to give students a rare opportunity to witness what it took to reach the top level of sport \u2013 and to inspire them to pursue their own goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls have had their own trials and tribulations to get where they are today. They are world champions, Olympic champions, and so they\u2019re showcasing that here today.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see them in person and how they go through their training is an outstanding inspiration for our tamariki.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black Ferns swapped stadium lights for a school field, inspiring students with a surprise training session. Cheers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-418408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}