Boys’ High have dominating victory against Mount Maunganui

Vice captain and No.8 Luke Bidios looks at the defence head on during the Gisborne Boys’ High School first 15 preseason match against Mount Maunganui yesterday at the Rectory Field. They left their visitors scoreless winning the match comfortably 32-0. Picture by Liam Clayton

Yesterday the Gisborne Boys’ High School first 15 began their rugby season as they mean to go on.

The Duane Hihi-coached side scored six tries in a 32-0 win at home on the occasion of their first-ever game against Mount Maunganui College.

A crowd of 300 braved teeming rain and were rewarded with a fast, open game played in three periods on the Rectory’s hard No.1 ground.

GBHS Year 12 student Joel Pearson, 16, with the assistance of Poverty Bay Heartland head coach Miah Nikora and assistant referee 2 Jahrdin Mackenzie, did an excellent job of controlling the match.

Pearson, in only his second year as a rugby referee, kept up with play, was in good position to make calls and was decisive. He made his signals clearly and was both consistent and fair.

Before the pre-match haka, Mount Maunganui College openside flanker Marlowe Orr laid the Gisborne High School cap of his late great grandfather William Alfred Bell (Gisborne High School first 15, 1930-31) at halfway in his honour.

Orr, who had visited Gisborne only once before this trip (an exchange three years in the making, delayed by Covid-19), said: “My grandma Gydene, who grew up in Sponge Bay and attended Central School, Tuarangi and then Gisborne Intermediate, gave me the cap this week.

“It has pride of place on my desk – I look at it and reflect on the history.

“It was a privilege to play at the Rectory, to have the awesome opportunity to play against a Super 8 school. It was a great challenge for us.”

Gisborne Boys’ High tryscorers in the first period were fetcher James McKay and left wing Timuaki Stewart for 10-0, first five-eighth, fourth-year man and captain Puna Hihi and tighthead prop Whetu McGhee in the second period for 20-0, and hooker Oakley Brown-Terekia and No.8 and vice-captain Luke Bidois for 30-0. Impressive fullback Isimeli Vono, one of 14 GBHS debutants playing the Mount, converted the Bidois try for 32-0.

While “golden oldies scrums” in the third period were agreed to before the match, the home team scrummaged well in their first outing. Loosehead prop Franco Ludwig made the first dominant tackle of the season 10 metres on his own side of halfway, and Vono made the season’s first one-on-one try-saving tackle on a runaway bus made flesh in the form of Mount Maunganui captain No.8 Dylan Douglas.

Douglas and fullback Kahn Southby were outstanding for the visitors, who eschewed the power game and heavy-contact approach favoured by many Super 8 sides and chose instead quick interplay and ball in hand.

Gisborne Boys’ High, with a bigger pack, responded with a mix of driving play and ball-movement.

Vono and many of his fellow debutants were keen to get the ball in their hands and play running rugby, and they did.

Both teams tackled hard, with commitment from both sets of forwards and backs. It was an entertaining game and the players showed a high degree of skill. It was played in a fine spirit, with feeling. The hosts have made a good start to the new season.