Top player honour to Bay’s Nepia

On the rise . . . Hayze Nepia crashes into the Ngāti Porou East Coast defence on debut for Poverty Bay in the King’s Birthday Weekend derby in June. Nepia was the star of the Hurricanes under-20 series. He was named player of the series and was selected, along with teammates Israel Fox and Nelson Moran, in the 26-man Hurricanes u20 squad. Picture by Paul Rickard

Poverty Bay finished the Hurricanes  Heartland Under-20 series winless but provided one of the individual highlights.  Prop Hayze Nepia was named player of the series which finished with a doubleheader weekend in Bulls.

Nepia and Poverty Bay teammates Israel Fox (halfback) and Nelson Moran (lock) were named by chief selector Darren Larsen in a 26-man Hurricanes squad to compete in the Central Region Trophy against Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu and Wellington.

The Hurricanes team will also face their Chiefs counterparts in a one-off match for the Glen Osborne Cup.

The Clint Pirihi and Anthony Kiwara co-coached Bay placed fourth out of the four provinces in the Hurricanes series.

Having been beaten 48-7 by Whanganui the previous weekend, they narrowly lost 27-22 to Horowhenua Kāpiti on Saturday and 53-0 to Wairarapa Bush on Sunday.

YMP forward Nepia, who made his senior debut for Poverty Bay in their King’s Birthday Weekend derby against Ngāti Porou East Coast, was the standout.

Nepia said it was a great experience  and he had learned a lot. He found his biggest challenge was as a leader.

“Trying to guide the boys around the field   . . . keeping everyone up so no one would drop or give up, backing the bros up and trying to lead,” he said.

“It was a hard competition and the boys were put under pressure. I just tried to keep everyone pumping.

To their credit, “our boys never gave up, kept playing until the end”.

“There were a lot of skilled players from other teams and it was good to see and play against them.

“Playing in the prems (Poverty Bay Premier champions YMP) side has really helped me develop — playing with older and skilled players.”

Wairarapa Bush won the overall title for only the third  time in 20 years.

They ended on 15 points, with Horowhenua Kāpiti second on 10, Whanganui eight and Poverty Bay two.