Members of Tauranga City United AFC will be representing our city when they head up to Auckland for the World Masters Games on Friday.

The squad of 19 will be playing in the over-40s competition, against players from all over the world.

Team manager and player Dav Sheahan says they've been planning on sending a contingent for several months.

'A lot of us have played for Tauranga City United over the years - we're all local lads really. At the end of last year's season, one of the boys mentioned the Masters Games, so that's when we started thinking about it.

'We've been training twice a week since the start of February. We've been lucky – there's been no significant injuries during the training.

'We're hoping to be quite competitive, so the squad has definitely been selected on merit.”

He imagines all the team's players will be used to good effect, while he says (half-jokingly) that their strategy involves ‘putting the younger boys out' first.

The games will be sixty minutes, and Dav estimates around 2000 footballers from as far afield as Europe and Brazil will be playing.

'We're going up to do our very best. We're relishing the challenge of playing in a world competition.”

The World Masters Games are being held in Auckland from April 21 -30. The event, which is held every four years, generally focuses on athletes over 35-years-old, and will bring almost 28,000 competitors to the country's largest city.

The Tauranga City ‘Relics', backrow from left: David Brown, Dion Bartosh, Geoff Rickard, Nick Pidgeon, Rhys Bresnahan, Garry Board, James Beale, Richard Gray, Andre Pratt, Scott Pilcher, Ian Gray. Frontrow, from left: Andy Veal, Davitt Sheahan, Huatahi Wilson, Craig Flowerday, Chris Prosser, Vladimir Batista Calette, Jason Estall.