Country rugby in Hawke’s Bay is bouncing back

The scene in the Central Hawke''s Bay rugby sub-union team changing room at Tikokino after a Bebbington Shield win over Dannevirke in 2021. Photo / Paul Taylor

NPC Heartland rugby union Ngati Porou East Coast will play in Hawke’s By this year in vastly different circumstances from the day the coasters attracted well over 10,000 to Napier’s McLean Park 22 years ago.

The Coast will play Central Hawke’s Bay rugby sub-union in Waipukurau or Otane on July 29, in a match both preparing the Coast for the August 12 start of amateur rugby’s Heartland provincial championship starting on August 12, and helping CHB continue its revival of sub-union and country rugby in the Bay.

Such is the gap between the professional rugby of the Magpies and the Heartland teams, East Coast - best remembered in Hawke’s Bay for the sea of blue packing McLean Park for an unlikely 2001 NPC Division 2 final - rarely play the Bay any more, although there was a Ranfurly Shield match two years ago.

This year East Coast will be one of three full unions playing Heartland warm-up games again the accommodating CHB, with already-established opposition Wairarapa-Bush and Horowhenua-Kapiti also on CHB’s five-match schedule., as Heartland sides seek pre-competition games against sides they won’t meet in the championship.

CHB open their programme on King’s Birthday (June 5) against Wairarapa-Bush in Waipukurau, the visitors defending the Stu Smith Memorial presented in memory of a veteran player who had links to both areas.

The scene at McLean Park, Napier, in 2021, when Ngati Porou East Coast played an NPC Division 2 final against the Hawke's Bay Magpies. Times have changed, and this year East Coast play an NPC Heartland championship warm-up match against Central Hawke's Bay sub-union in Central Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME

The match against Horowhenua-Kapiti is scheduled for August 5, and CHB then play the Hawke’s Bay Māori representative team (Te Matau a Maui) on August 12 at Porangahau and Manawatū Māori in Palmerston North on August 19.

Sub-union official Jacqui Cudby said the sub-union had been unable to find any challengers for the Bebbington Shield, which CHB holds and which has a century-long history contested on an annual sub-unions challenge basis among CHB, Dannevirke, Puketoi (of Pongaroa), Bush (since 1970 a part of Wairarapa-Bush), Rangitikei and Northern Whanganui - and even with Horowhenua, including when it was a sub-union of Manawhenua in 1925-1933.

The last Bebbington match was in 2021 but CHB is already trying to make sure competition is revived next year.

Starting to also make a country rugby revival is the Wairoa sub-union, holder of the Barry Cup, a northern Hawke’s Bay, Poverty Bay and East Coast sub-unions challenge trophy.

Wairoa won the trophy last year for the first time in more than a decade and coach Sid Ropitini has already secured a match, against Te Matau a Māui, in Wairoa, in preparation for the first defence in what is the centennial year of the Barry Cup.

Central Hawke’s Bay rugby has been generally upwardly mobile, with five clubs in the Hawke’s Bay competitions, including Waipukurau-based club Central, who are looking at a possible third place in the first round competition for the Nash Cup, which ends on Saturday and puts the top six into the Maddison Trophy championship round starting seven days later.

Wairoa currently has three clubs playing in the Poverty Bay Senior 1 competition (one level below Premier), with Tapuae unbeaten after five games, Wairoa Athletic in second place with just one loss and Nuhaka fourth, after two losses.

In the last round of Hawke’s Bay Nash Cup rugby on Saturday, cup-holders Napier Tech OB are set to complete their defence unbeaten with a home match against Hastings side Tamatea, who haven’t lodged a point on the ladder and conceded 100 on the pitch last weekend, while Central will be favoured for a home win in the division’s country teams battle against Dannevirke side Aotea to climb into third place over Napier Old Boys Marist, which has the last-round bye.

Tech and Tamatea have gone for an early start at 1.15pm, to enable more time to get to the rugby league match between the Warriors and Brisbane Broncos, of special interest to Tamatea with Warriors captain Tohu Harris from Hastings and having started his rugby with the club.

Taradale are expected to retain second place, up against hosts Napier Pirate at Tamatea Park, Napier, while, in a match where a Pirate win would become crucial to the makeup of the top six, MAC host Hastings Rugby and Sports at Flaxmere Park.

In the other match, Havelock North host Clive, also with an early start, but with both sides out of the running for a place contesting the Maddison Trophy.

Among other matches, the Hawke’s Bay women’s championship final will be between Napier Tech and Clive, with an 11.45am start at Whitmore Park, Napier, and the Lindisfarne College first XV are at home against St John’s, of Hamilton, in the first round of the Central North Island schools competition.