College Sport Media:
National First XI football champions Sacred Heart College could claim to be the fifth best team in the World.
The Auckland powerhouse recently finished fifth at the International School Sport Federation World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic.
Sacred Heart was the first New Zealand team selected to participate in the tourney which featured 36 teams, 24 counties and 640 players.
Sacred Heart boasted the best goal differential and held runners up Germany to a 1-1 draw. Striker Matthew Palmer netted 11 goals in eight games to finish the tournament as leading scorer.
The event was won by Qatar who Sacred Heart lost to 0-1 in the quarter finals. It was a defeat that left a sour taste explains defender Jono Ansley.
“I don’t want to be too critical and come across as a bad sport, but the night before we had a dinner with all the teams who performed a cultural item. We chose to do the haka and were booed by the Qatar table. After their win they weren’t very gracious either. It was pretty disrespectful.”