Ash/Hutt’s Aidan Elvines in action at line-out time in a game against Roncalli College earlier this season. Photo Erin TaskerThe Ashburton College and Mt Hutt College girls’ first XV will today have home ground advantage in the Aoraki secondary school girls’ rugby competition semi-finals for the first time ever.

The Ash/Hutt girls are the defending champions and have a proud history in the competition in recent seasons, but this was the first year they’d been granted a home semi-final fixture.

The semi-finals and finals were traditionally held in Timaru, and the players were excited to get a chance to play finals footy on their home turf against Timaru Girls’ High School (TGHS) today.

“We have beaten TGHS on the two previous occasions this season, so fingers crossed we can make the final in Timaru next week,” Ash/Hutt coach Grant Elvines said.

In last week’s final round robin games, Ash/Hutt were due to play Geraldine High School and although Geraldine had to default the match due to a lack of players, they still played a 10-aside match to give the girls a bit of a run around heading into the finals, Elvines said.

Ash/Hutt were the defending champions, after going through the season unbeaten and defeating TGHS 64-40 in the final.

The year before that they lost just one game, and the year before that, they were unbeaten.

This year their biggest opposition had come from another all-girls school, Timaru’s Craighead.

Craighead had handed Ash/Hutt their only loss this season.

That 27-20 loss was in the season opener and when the two sides met for a second time this season it was Ash/Hutt that came away with the win 17-10.

If today’s semi-finals went the way they should on paper, then Craighead and Ash/Hutt would be the two teams left fighting it out for the title in Timaru next week.

Today’s semi-final against TGHS will kick off at 4.30pm at the Celtic Rugby Club on Keenans Road, and Elvines and his team were hoping they’d get a heap of home-town support along to cheer them on.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 22 August 2018