Ashburton’s Ryan Muriithi played for the Aoraki Eels at the South Island under-15 rugby league tournament in Greymouth last week. Photo supplied.A young Ashburton rugby league player is in with a shot of making the South Island under-15 league team.

Ryan Muriithi, 14, was part of the Aoraki Eels team at last week’s South Island under-15 rugby league tournament in Greymouth and thanks to his performances was asked to trial for the South Island team.

He was one of three players from the Aoraki team to make the South Island team trials, despite it not being the best week for the young Eels side.

They were well beaten in their first game against West Coast, but Muriithi and his team-mates had a much better outing against Southland, winning 56-6.

In game three against Canterbury Under-14, Muriithi scored a try before having to leave the field injured after getting his leg stood on.

He wasn’t the last one to get injured either, a number of his team-mates followed and it got so bad they had to call the game off early.

The injuries meant they were short on numbers for their last game against Canterbury’s second team at the tournament, the Canterbury under-15 team, but by that stage the two Canterbury teams were well out in front overall so the decision was made that Aoraki could borrow a few players so the game could go ahead.

From there players were selected to trial for the South Island team, and a second trial would be held in August, with a team then picked to head to a tournament in Auckland.

There would be just one South Island team, and five from the North Island teams at the tournament.

Ashburton had a player make the South Island under-15s last year – Mac Kaitao, who had gone on to get a scholarship to St Thomas of Canterbury College.

Whether Muriithi would follow in Kaitao’s footsteps and also play for the South Island though, he’d have to wait and see.

With no junior rugby league competition in Mid Canterbury, Muriithi played rugby for Hampstead’s under 14.5 side as a flanker or lock, but he wasn’t sure whether rugby or rugby league really featured in his future.

He said he mainly played them for fitness and he was thinking of trying his hand at basketball next year.

With a number of players from this year’s Aoraki Eels under-15 team too old for that grade next year, it was hoped Aoraki might also be able to field an under-17 team in 2019.

By Erin Tasker© The Ashburton Guardian - 17 July 2018