The Cook Islands Touch Association weekly open men’s and women’s competition wrapped up on Monday afternoon at the National Stadium in Nikao with teams vying for top spots displaying dazzling skills to outwit each other.

Fighting it out for third place in the men’s category was KAPs and Germinators. In a closely contested affair, KAPs won the match 5-4 to finish third in the competition.

In the women’s third place playoff, 2022 champions FBI took on Nikz. FBI proved to be the stronger team with a convincing 5-2 win.

In the main matches – the finals – GAT played Atiu Warriors in the men’s division while Nukz Power took on Bounty Hunters in the women.

The Puna Hiro-led Team GAT proved too strong for the Atiu Warriors winning the “almost” one-sided affair 7-2.

In the much-anticipated women’s final, the hard-fought battle between the arch rivals went down to the wire.

The Bounty Hunters entered the final as favourites as they had beaten Nukz Power in both round games during the season. 

The tit-for-tat match ended in a 2-all draw and had to go into a drop off. Drop off commenced with four players and playing out two minutes.  

Nukz Power had started the initial game therefore they received first tap off for drop off. They decided to settle up the middle using three players (Kiana Sword, Tashi Tutai and Mahana Sjip) whilst their fourth player Julz Westrupp hung out wide. A long ball from Tutai gave Westrupp a head start to the line with a convincing dive right in the corner to put them in the lead. 

The minutes had to be fully played before they could take the win giving the Bounty Hunters the chance to equalise the game. Bounty Hunters restarted play with Mereana Atatoa, Mavis, Romey Rauraa and Ngamata Moeka’a.  They made it to the 7m line but were unable to score. 

Nukz Power showed fatigue and got a bit frustrated but managed to get the ball back down to their try line with Sjip doing a step around one of the Bounty Hunters players. Unfortunately she fumbled the ball while trying to place it to the ground.

Despite the setback, Nukz Power held on to win the clash 3-2.

The top try scorer awards went to Ngamata Moeka’a in the women’s category and Viiga Reupena in the men’s division. The Most Valuable Player awards went to Mereana Atatoa Carr and Ngametua Tuffy Tuakana.  

“Huge thanks to Vodafone and BCI for your continuous support,” said Westrupp, the president of Cook Islands Touch Association.

The mixed division finals will be held this afternoon.

Fixtures 

5pm Field 1 Mighty Arrows vs J Squad, 5.30pm Field 1 Outlaws vs 007