NBHS v HBHS is always a good contest, but a wet pitch adds to the spectacle. Photo / Paul Taylor
NBHS v HBHS is always a good contest, but a wet pitch adds to the spectacle. Photo / Paul Taylor
Some of the exuberance may have tamed over the years, but amid an Auckland-driven furore over televising of school first-15s rugby, it will be televised, or live-streamed, to use the modern variant.
But it’s otherwise all good for Saturday’s high-noon annual derby between the first 15s of Napier and Hastingsboys’ high schools, with even the forecast of heavy rain in Napier as much an inducement as it is a discouragement.
A feature of the Super 8 boys’ high schools’ first 15s and one of the bigger annual matches at any level in Hawke’s Bay, it comes with a near-guarantee of wet weather on the second weekend of June each year.
But the usual crowd of over 1000 is unlikely to see anything too exuberant on the sidelines, certainly not such as the days when a goat was painted blue and called a mascot, or when chainsaws were revved up at the end of the pitch.
The Super 8 schools, from Hamilton to Palmerston North, have an agreement with Māori TV, and two cameras will be at the ground for the live-streaming.
There is some need for decorum as old boys mix with the students, but host school principal Jarred Williams, whose appointment as leader of Hawke’s Bay’s biggest school came just days ahead of the 2021 match, says the fact there haven’t been any issues in recent years comes down to the nature of the Super 8 collective, which has at least eight sports as well as cultural and educational challenges.
“It is a really strong rivalry, and we respect Hastings and what they have done,” he said, reflecting on the rugby re-emergence of HBHS over the past decade. “And a lot of the boys play representative rugby together for Hurricanes and Hawke’s Bay, so we haven’t had anything happen for a while — touch wood.”
Perhaps the only touching of wood that will take place involves that of the base of the game’s Ebbett Challenge Trophy, presented in 1970 by Owen Ebbett, who played for Hastings BHS in 1932-33, and son Nigel, who played for Napier BHS in 1968-69.
A sign of things to come in the schools' 2015 match - Marino Mikaele-Tu'u, running the ball for Hastings BHS. He's since played over 100 matches at the top levels, for An All Black XV, the Highlanders and the Hawke's Bay Magpies, and at the age of 25 is off to Japan at the end of the year. Photo / NZME
Napier’s had the rub for much of the history dating back to the first two matches between the schools in 1931, won by Napier 26-3 and 52-3.
A decade ago, in 2013, Napier won 60-10, in Napier, but it sparked what has been one of the game’s bigger decades, with Hastings winning the following year (its first win in the match since 2004), now having won six of the past 10, including the last two.
Its keenness was highlighted from 2017 to 2021, when the visiting teams won each time, and it is Hastings, in particular over the past decade, that has propelled numerous players into the professional sport of Super rugby, including Marino Mikaele Tu’u, Devan Flanders, Folau Fakatava, Keanu Kereru-Symes, Lincoln McClutchie, Danny Toala, Kini Naholo and Jacob Devery, and now two players named this week in the New Zealand Under 20 world championships team.
While Hastings won in Hastings last year, it was Napier that shone through the rest of the season, going within seconds of winning the national secondary schools championship final.
It’s also started this year strongly with 10 games, including a five-match tournament in Japan, and away wins over Gisborne and Rotorua boys’ high schools in their first two Super 8 matches.
Hastings opened its Super 8 campaign last Saturday with a home loss to Palmerston North BHS.
On Saturday, Napier will be honouring the achievement of captain and prop Tasman Soanai-Oeti, with a 40-games cap presentation, albeit in his 46th match, which is the side’s first on the home ground this season.
Halfback Joel Russell, son of coach Dave Russell, is heading for his 50th in the next game, the two players each being in their third season.
The team’s top points-scorer for the season is first five-eighth Luke Thomas, with 61 including 46 from the boot, and second five-eighth CJ Mienie has scored 10 tries.
Each side has a new coach, with a former Magpies, Māori All Blacks and Super Rugby player in charge at Hastings, after the departure of former Magpies and New Zealand Sevens player Tafai Ioasa, who is now director of rugby at Wanganui Collegiate.
The match is one of four between the two schools at NBHS on Saturday, including the second 15s, while in Hastings St John’s College will be hosting St Paul’s Collegiate, of Hamilton, in the Central North Island first 15s competition.
Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay club rugby, restricted to just Ray White Premier Maddison Trophy and Hepa Paewai Memorial Trophy games at King’s Birthday weekend, resumes in full with 20 matches from Premier to Colts, while there are also 19 secondary schools matches, part of the weekly pressure on refereeing numbers in the region.
In Maddison Trophy second-week matches, Nash Cup winners Napier Tech Old Boys have a second away game in a row, against Hastings Rugby and Sports, in Hastings, with Tech seeking to extend their unbeaten record this season to 12 and to bounce back from the closest call, a draw with Central in Waipukurau last Saturday.
The aim for all six teams is to qualify for the semifinals, with Tech beaten finalists last year in their only loss in 2022, but having not won the major title since 2013 (unable to make even the semifinals in either the season beforehand or the season following).
Hastings R&S won the Maddison Trophy two years ago, and started this season’s campaign with an away loss to Taradale, who continue their drive towards a third Maddison Trophy title in a row with just one loss this season, to Tech in Nash Cup rugby, and playing Napier Old Boys Marist at Taradale in the sides Napier derby.
In the other Maddison Trophy match Central host MAC, who were beaten by OBM last Saturday, while in Paewai Memorial matches Napier Pirate (against Clive) and Havelock North (against Tamatea) will each be looking to make it two from two in the championship round, each with home-ground advantage.
