Imagine the excitement when there were three.
Jake Fowler (boys under-18), Demi McAlwee (girls under-18) and Hamish Faulks (men’s under-20) were named MVP of their respective New Zealand teams at the recent Asia Pacific Youth Touch Cup in Australia.
Faulks, who made his Touch Blacks debut weeks earlier, was also the flag-bearer at the tournament.
New Zealand sent six teams to the tournament — losing in the finals of all the grades — including a mixed under-18, mixed under-20 and women’s under-20.
Otago coach Damian Burden, who was the New Zealand under-20 mixed lead coach, was thrilled Otago picked up half of the MVP awards.
"We were blown away," Burden said.
"For those three kids, they’re all super hard-working kids and that’s what came through as well.
"Obviously they’re brilliant on the field, but all their coaches spoke about their attitude and their coachability."
Otago had 17 athletes compete at the youth cup with Brooke McAlwee captaining the under-20 women, and three referees in Michael Buttery, Trey McLean and Carlie Rua.
Dayna Turnbull was the assistant coach of the under-20 women.
Otago’s success was down to "quality people" creating a positive, family focused culture in the region, Burden said.
"Right from the grassroots level, we’ve really put a focus into whanau and into opportunities for kids.
"There’s great systems running in a lot of our schools.
"There are so many people doing a fantastic job there, right through to rep level and we’ve really built our capacity in terms of coaches as well.
"We’ve got some really, really good coaches coming through the ranks, and again, who are really player-focused and provide a really positive culture for the kids that come into those teams."
