Napier through to Top Four rugby by a whisker

Napier Boys High No 8 Jared Martin offloads during another surge towards the national first fifteens championship layoffs. Photo / Supplied

A vagary in national secondary schools rugby has propelled Napier Boys' High School first fifteen into the national secondary schools First XVs championship Top Four playoffs at Massey University this week.

They featured in a three-tries-to-two, 17-17 Hurricanes Regional final draw with Wellington school St Pat's Silverstream in Palmerston North on Friday night.

There was no extra time and Napier won the right to a playoff by scoring the most tries in the game.

Hooker Tyrone Chrystal scored two tries, one each side of halftime, at which time Napier led 5-3. Captain Max Ratcliffe scored midway through the second half and with first five-eighths Cory Berkett having also kicked a conversion, Napier led 17-10 and faced a torrid last seven minutes after losing its half-back to a yellow card.

St Pat's scored a converted try at the end, but it was too late.

In the Top Four semi-final on Friday, Napier plays Westlake which beat fellow Auckland side Kelston 23-20 in Saturday's Blues region qualifier.

Dunedin school John McGlashan College, coached by former All Black and Hawke's Bay Magpies halfback Stu Forster, beat Nelson College 29-26 in Nelson in the South Island qualifier and in Thursday's other semi-final will play Hamilton Boys High School, which beat New Plymouth BHS 8-7 in the Chiefs region playoff in New Plymouth.

Hamilton is in the playoffs for a fifth time in a row, and it's the fifth year in a row a Hawke's Bay school has qualified. But Neither Westlake nor John McGlashan College has reached the Top Four in the 40 years since it was first played in 1982.