Rugby League: Hawke’s Bay Unicorns get win in first game for six years

The Unicorns in Palmerston North on Sunday, putting Hawke's Bay back on the map in men's inter-provincial rugby league.

Hawke’s Bay dipped its toes back into the waters of inter-provincial men’s rugby league with a win and a loss in a one-day Rugby League Lower North Island competition in Palmerston North on Sunday.

With just two training sessions and multiple and late defections in the week since selectors and coaches Tairea Ioane, Raymond Rima and Graeme Sua were able to name a team just four rounds into the Hawke’s Bay club competition.

The Unicorns scored seven tries when beating Manawatu Mustangs 36-6 in the first of two matches of 30 minutes each way — the Bay’s first at the level since 2017.

Omahu Huia wing Waitangi Tuisuga scored three tries, while others went to Jayden Burton, Chazz Gillies, Jordan Thompson-Dunn and Gibson Popoalii, who also kicked four goals.

The side was then beaten 42-18 by the Wellington Orcas, the league that in 2017 beat the Unicorns 86-6 in Hawke’s Bay’s only other men’s representative rugby league match in the past eight years, since they last played Manawatu, in 2015.

Popoalii, who played at fullback, took his points tally for the day to 22 with another try and three goals, while the Unicorns’ other two tries were scored by captain Liam Udy-Johns and Petera Kahui.

The Orcas then beat Manawatu 32-16, and won the right to play a Northern Zone winner later this month for a place in a national final, in a competition that is now the second level of the men’s provincial rugby league structure in New Zealand.

Popoalii and loose forward Udy-Johns both play for unbeaten Omahu in the Hawke’s Bay competition and played in Napier Tech’s Maddison Trophy Hawke’s Bay Premier rugby union champion side earlier in the year.

The pair were key players, while others to particularly impress coach Ioane included Bay Bulldogs players Tama Hawkins and Braxton Robinson.

An attempt to return the Unicorns to inter-provincial rugby league in 2021 was blocked by a pandemic lockdown.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.