New Zealand politicians went head to head on the rugby field today with an aim to raise $10,000 for the Waitemata Rugby Club & Piha Surf Lifesaving club.
National MP Alfred Ngaro says “It’s about raising funds and the local charity is the Piha North Surf Life Saving Club and it’s a good chance for people to see MPs maybe have a bit of a swing or you know have a little bit of a laugh.”
Every year the Parliamentary rugby team raises funds, and this year’s hosts Waitemata Rugby Club are taking the opportunity to raise as much money as they can at the event.
Labour’s Damian O'Connor says “Been going for 20 years so we take great pride in being able to put on a black jersey and occasionally play for NZ.”
Former North Harbour player and parliamentary player Jack Tarrant says “We got quite a good bunch of boys our MPs are really good as well, Damian O'Connor good tackler, Alfred’s a good player too so we should be alright.”
The NZ Parliamentary team are the current Parliamentary world cup title holders and coach Richie Guy wants to maintain that standard of play.
Guy says “We're going off to the Parliamentary World Cup at the end of the year and this is our trial game to see who we are going to select on our tour so it’s a very important game of us."
Ngaro says “The most important thing is you give it all out on the field and you just have a lot of fun, so you know were confident we’ll play hard, play well but they got some good guys on this other team."
The Parliamentary team won with a whopping 43 to 12 against Waitemata.
In September the Parliamentary team will be heading to the World Cup in England.