Last weekend, nine Taranaki representative teams travelled away to compete in tournaments. Three teams played in Auckland and six went to Palmerston North's Vautier Park to play in the Betty Steffenson Tournament.

More than 60 teams competed in eight grades in Palmerston North. Our Taranaki teams put in some very strong performances against opposition from the lower north island and top of the south. Five teams finished in the top three of their grades, with Taranaki Y8a (pictured) winning Division 1 of their competition.

Netball Taranaki's Beccie Atkins was in Palmerston North and said that the teams did themselves proud. "All of the top three placings that were achieved were a result of our teams competing hard and congratulations to the year eight's for their win. Our Year 9 development team played in the U15 grade, which was a big step up and they had some close games too which was pretty impressive. These results give us great confidence heading into the Waste Management North Island U15 Championships next month in New Plymouth" Beccie said.

Here are the final standings from the Betty Steffenson Tournament.

In Auckland our teams came up against stiff competition from the locals, with teams from the Auckalnd region taking out all but two of the grades with their urgency and skill attacking the ball a real feature of their play. The other two grades were won by Harbourside from Mount Maunganui. 

Our teams put in some strong performances with the highlight being the Taranaki U17 team defeating North Harbour 21-12.

The busy representative season continues this weekend with our Y8, Y8D, Y9, Y9D, U15 and U15D teams heading to Laird Park for the Whanganui Combined Tournament.

Article added: Wednesday 13 June 2018