Wai Utd U19's ready for Napier

The Wairarapa United U19 team travel to Napier on Friday to compete in the annual Napier City Rovers U19 National Tournament. In its 50th year, the tournament is considered to be the country’s biggest and most prestigious U19 competition. Coach Patrick Wootton is happy with the team’s first round draw, “it’s probably the nicest pool we’ve had in the last couple of years."

The U19 squad stop to pose for a quick photo during Monday evening's final training session

“Taradale didn’t do amazing last year, Fencibles haven’t been great so far this year in the national league, and we nearly beat Bay Olympic last year.”

When pressed if he was confident, Patrick gave his usual reply: “I am. Like I’ve said, I’m always, always, always confident. And, the team has been training well, particularly in the last couple of weeks.”

The team met for their final training session on Monday evening, and Patrick says that they’ll have “a bit of a run” when they arrive in Napier on Friday afternoon in preparation for their first game on Saturday morning against North Wellington.

Although the games are only 50 minutes, the tournament schedule is pretty hectic. Wairarapa’s first game is at 11am on Saturday followed by two fixtures that afternoon. The team have two more pool games on Sunday then if all goes well there’s a quarter final later in the afternoon. The semi finals are played first thing Monday morning, followed by the final at 11am.

Wairarapa United’s draw

The team proudly show off their sponsors-emblazoned training kit

(vs) North Wellington 11am Saturday

(vs) Port Hill Utd 2pm Saturday

(vs) Bay Olympic 5pm Saturday

(vs) Fencibles Utd 10.30am Sunday

(vs) Taradale AFC 2pm Sunday