Rugby: Hastings No 8 Flanders worth of NZ schools trial

Try Time: Hastings Boys High School fullback Gideon Kautai dives over for one of his two tries on Saturday. Photo/Duncan Brown

Quiz Hastings Boys High School No 8 Devan Flanders about his individual work ons and it's easy to gauge why his team remain the No 1 secondary schools rugby side in the country.

"Definitely a little bit of fitness and tiny bits of everything else," Flanders remarked after unbeaten defending champions HBHS walloped Gisborne Boys High School 70-0 in a third-round Super 8 fixture in Hastings.

It's easy to learn Flanders and his teammates are just as hard on themselves as the All Blacks, the Black Sox softballers or the Black Ferns Sevens players are in the pursuit of excellence. For those who missed Saturday's game the ground conditions were atrocious but the hosts skill levels matched what most teams would be proud of on a firm ground on a sunny day.

"We got the systems last year. Hopefully we can keep building on those so we can take the extra step this season," Flanders, 17, said referring to his school's second placing in the 2016 national top four competition.

A third-year 1st XV player as he made a couple of appearances off the pine in 2015, Flanders can do the core skills well in similar fashion to All Black captain Kieran Read and he can also produce the freakish-type stuff similar to what Zinzan Brooke did in his prime. It's a tribute to his training schedule with the Havelock North Sevens premier team and on the surf lifesaving scene during the summer.

It will be a surprise if he doesn't get a New Zealand Secondary Schools team trial at the end of the year. Saturday's game was only two minutes old when he scored the first of the hosts' 12 tries.

Something spectators may not have realised was the fact Hastings started the game with six regular first stringers on the subs bench and it wasn't until the second half that they were unleashed.

"This helps build competition," a delighted Hastings head coach Mark Ozich said after his side's 12th consecutive win for the season.

He was impressed with the way his troops worked on what they learned from the previous week's win over Napier when Napier had them under the pump in the physicality department for long periods. He admitted there were errors but these came because his players were prepared to move the ball in the difficult conditions.

Winger Trent Hape was thirsty for work and deserved his two tries. Centre Dennon Robinson busted the defensive line regularly and set up his outsides well.

Prop Zac Southwick carried and scrummaged well while openside flanker Jeriah Mua was a workaholic again.

Gisborne did well to keep Hastings scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Blindside flanker Billy Priestly shone with his workrate and hooker Amaanaki Tonga and lock Ofa Tauatavalu combined well at lineout time.

Napier Boys High School were beaten 34-26 by Tauranga Boys in Tauranga after leading 26-17 at halftime.

"We didn't stick to our structures in the second half," NBHS manager Dave Russell said before singling out captain and flanker Josh Bokser, lock Josh Gimblett and wing-centre Nathan Giles as the best of the visitors.

Ben Lewis scored two tries for Napier and Luke Russell and Leo Thompson one each. Henry Williams kicked three conversions.

Scorers:
Hastings Boys High School 70 (Trent Hape 2, Gideon Kautai 2, Folau Fakatava 2, Devan Flanders, Zac Southwick, Shamara Brooks, Tane Hohipa, Josiah Metcalfe, Jordan Thompson-Dunn tries; Thompson-Dunn 5 cons), Gisborne Boys High School 0. HT: 31-0.