The Cook Islands dominated the Harmony Nines, winning the Under 18s and Open Men’s divisions, while also reaching the final in the Open Women’s division.

The Cook Islands meant business in the Under 18s final, especially Player of the Match Trinity Tauaneai, who scored a hat-trick in the 22-14 victory of NSW Maori at the Croom Regional Sporting Complex in NSW, Australia, last week.

“Never happened to me before in my life. But I need to thank the girls who passed me the ball each time,” Tauaneai said.

“We’ve been playing together for a while now. And now we’ve gone back-to-back. I’m very proud of that.”

Cook Islands coach Michael Stuart was also a proud man – and a successful one at that. He coached the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs to a premiership in the NSWRL Westpac Lisa Fiaola Cup (Under 17s) in April.

The win underlined the Cook Islanders fierce reputation with another Harmony Nines trophy. 

“It was just smart football. We got on the front foot early, we held the ball, and we enjoyed playing a fast-pace game,” Stuart said.

“It’s great to be part of a continuing winning streak for the Cookies. They weren’t nervous. They knew if they executed what we wanted them to, they’d win the game.”

In the Open Men’s, the Ozzy Cook Islands left their run until the final seconds, when forward Shaiquan Terekia barged through the middle of NSW First Nations Indigenous defence to score under the posts.

The First Nations players thought they had snuck away with the trophy scoring in the 14th minute to lead 14-12 with two minutes left in the 16-minute (two eight-minute halves) final. But the Cook Islanders had other ideas, eventually winning 18-14.

Captain Michael Lett accepted the cup from NSW Women's Origin fullback Emma Tonegato.

“We’ve been coming here for a couple of years now. We fell short in the semi-finals last year but this year we promised ourselves we’d come here and change our luck around,” coach Richard Dean said.

“We took it up a notch and got the job done.

“We really only had one full session together but the majority of the boys were playing up on the Gold Coast in a Tri-series three weeks ago. So this is a team that knows each other and works for each other.

“They are very proud of where they’ve come from. Cook Islands may only be a dot on the map but a lot of people know much more about us because of Harmony Nines.”

Ozzy Cook Islands lost to NSW Tonga in the Open Women’s division final 8-20 while Mediterranean held their nerve to turn a 10-8 halftime lead over Syria into a 20-18 fulltime result in the Open Women’s Emerging division.

In the Open Men’s Emerging division final, two nations making their debut at the tournament – Greece and South Sudan – battled each other.

Greece overcame being a man down after Tyrone Tsagalias was sin-binned for three minutes in the second half, when Leon Bakis scored the match-winning try regardless for a 16-8 victory.

“Very proud …” said coach Jim Pizanias, as his players chanted ‘Hellas! Hellas!’ (Greece! Greece!) behind him.

“Some of them are only 17. Our eldest is just 25 years-old. So the bulk are 18 or 19, which is good for Greece as we want to be up there in the future and these are the kids who can do it.

“It’s our first time at Harmony Nines and we’ve won it. How good?

“These boys know the Greek culture, it’s a part of them already. You see them – and hear them - proudly carrying the flag and supporting each other.”

Meanwhile Westpac NSW Blues winger and four-time Penrith Panthers NRL premiership winner, Brian To’o, came to support niece Freedom Crichton Ropati as Samoa took down Tonga 18-10 in the U16s grand finale.

Tries to Jewel Faaui and Sienna Iosefa either side of halftime ensured Samoa broke free of the 6-6 deadlock to push the scoreline out to 14-6. The two sides traded another try each but Samoa had set up the buffer.

Samoan captain Amelia-Grace Filoa accepted the winner’s trophy with her right arm in a sling due to a second-half elbow injury, but still managed to hoist the cup.

In the men’s youth division, Italy celebrated their maiden Harmony Nines Under 16s win while NSW Samoa lifted the Harmony Nines Under 18s trophy.

• NSWRL