Whatever the result of the Magpies' semifinal clash with Bay of Plenty at McLean Park on Saturday, the season will have been a successful one for our team. Photo: Paul Taylor
Whatever the result of the Magpies' semifinal clash with Bay of Plenty at McLean Park on Saturday, the season will have been a successful one for our team. Photo: Paul Taylor
Whatever the result of the Magpies' semifinal clash with Bay of Plenty at McLean Park on Saturday, the season will have been a successful one for our team.
Hopefully the result will be a resounding victory - remember we did beat the Steamers 23-17 in a Ranfurly Shield match fourweeks ago - and we will go through to the ITM Cup final and win it this time.
Yes, even though we lost the Shield to Waikato last week, our boys can still be proud of what they have achieved. The squad is coming together nicely and they can be proud of hanging on to the Log o' Wood for so long.
The coaches, Craig Philpott and Danny Lee, who have both just signed on for an extra two years, can also take credit for bringing the best out of the team. Under them the team won the Ranfurly Shield for the first time in 44 years in 2013 and later that year the team was narrowly defeated in the ITM Cup Championship Final. Last year the team was runner-up in the final again. The Shield was also won again and retained through four defences into this season, where we had seven defences of it before the Waikato match. Those are good statistics in anyone's book.
But what the team needs now is the support of the fans.
Tickets went on sale yesterday and are still available. They can be purchased from Tumu ITM stores Napier, Hastings and Havelock North as well as at Hawke's Bay Rugby Union office, McLean Park; www.ticketdirect.co.nz, or by phoning TicketDirect on 0800 224 224.
