In an excellent curtain-raiser to the Hunter Shield match at Dannevirke's Rugby Park Dannevirke Sports Club Colts and Central Hawke's Bay Colts fought out a 12-12 draw in a pre-season match.
Despite having only had one practice the CHB colts gelled well in the first 30 minutes taking a 7-0 lead with a crash-over maul try after 10 minutes.
![Fullback Aaron Herbert was a threat from the back.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/UZ7GFPPTHHHB6M4YQ2PO25CRFY.jpg?auth=5bfb618b9c9e065abb58c94d2fe601bb987e94909e7e8751076991c2a8ffab2b&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
Dannevirke began to find its rhythm with forwards and backs starting to link well but handling errors and penalties kept the team scoreless until a forward drive yielded a try similar to that of CHB's try.
The remainder of the half was pretty much stalemate but very entertaining for a large crowd until a brilliant solo kick-through and catch had Quinn Fogharty from CHB in the corner, giving CHB the half-time lead at 12-5.