Rugby: Magpies hanging on in the flips and flops of the NPC

The kicking style of Lincoln McClutchie, who has scored 378 points in 56 matches for Hawke's Bay since 2018. He is likely to be the first to 50 points in the NPC this season. Photo / NZME

An odd week in the Bunnings NPC has left the Hawke’s Bay Magpies a winner despite last Saturday’s 19-points loss to Auckland.

Three of the four previously unbeaten teams chalked their first losses of the season and Auckland’s shock defeat by Manawatū on Wednesday night in Auckland means the Magpies are effectively back about where they were boarding the plane for the big city a week ago.

Going into Friday night’s match against Northland Taniwha in Whangarei, they’re in third place half-way into the 14-team, 10-rounds competition, behind only unbeaten side and Ranfurly Shield holders Wellington and second-placed Taranaki.

They’re one point ahead of Canterbury and Auckland, with Canterbury having played one less game.

The target remains a place in the top eight for the quarter-finals on October 6-8, preferably in the top four to claim a home playoff, but already some eyes are glancing towards a possible Shield challenge against currently unbeaten defending NPC champions Wellington on September 30, should Wellington have successfully fended off challenges by Counties Manukau (on Saturday), and North Harbour (September 24).

The big question is how well the Magpies travel for their second match in the north in six days, against a Northland side whose major successes this season have been a home win against Tasman, a draw with Southland in Invercargill, and a one-point loss to Manawatū in Palmerston North.

It will be the first match between the Magpies and the Taniwha in the NPC in three years, since a 36-24 win in the championship division final in 2020 and a 33-17 Ranfurly Shield defence win a few weeks earlier, both in Napier. The Magpies beat Northland 43-28 in Whangarei in 2019.

Of most interest in the 23 named by head coach Brock James is first five-eighths Lincoln McClutchie’s continuation as the only player named in the starting line-up for all matches on the schedule to date.

As a result, he is likely to be the first to reach 50 points in this season’s NPC. He and Canterbury player Felix Burke are going into the weekend with 49 points while Auckland player Zarn Sullivan has 46.

McClutchie has scored 378 points in 56 matches for Hawke’s Bay since 2018, in the 2016-2017 New Zealand secondary schools representative’s first year out of high school.

The team for Friday’s match, starting at 7.05pm, is: 1 Pouri Rakete Stones, 2 Tyrone Thompson, 3 Joel Hintz, 4, Frank Lochore, 5 Tom Parsons (captain), 6 Marino Mikaele Tu’u, 7 Josh Kaifa, 8 Devon Flanders, 9 Folau Fakatava, 10 Lincoln McClutchie, 11 Ollie Sapsford, 12 Stacey Ili, 13 Nick Grigg, 14 Paula Balekana, 15 Harry Godfrey. Reserves: 16 Hisamitsu Shimada, 17 Kianu Kereru Symes, 18 Bo Abra, 19 Geoff Cridge, 20 Patrick Tuifua, 21 Sam Wye, 22 Kienan Higgins, 23 Lolagi Visinia.

The Magpies’ remaining matches are on September 9 (Saturday), 4.35pm, v Bay of Plenty, at Napier; September 15 (Friday), 7.05pm, v Manawatu, at Napier; September 23 (Saturday), 2.05pm, at Invercargill; September 30 (Saturday), 2.05pm, v Wellington, at Wellington.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience, first covering rugby in the region in 1973.