Hawke’s Bay rugby: Tui to play against Heat in curtain-raiser for Magpies v Stags

The Hawke’s Bay Tui start the Farah Palmer Cup national women’s rugby championship tomorrow with some fresh faces and lofty goals as they start the short road to emulating the heroic feats which landed a place in the semi-final in the Bay’s first season back in the top grade last year.

Krysten Cottrell kicks the points in the Hawke's Bay Tui's last venture on to McLean Park, for a division 2 semi-final win over Northland Kauri two years ago. They're back on the park for Saturday's Farah Palmer Cup match against Counties Manukau Heat. Photo / NZME.

After a bye in the seven-team championship’s first round last weekend, the Tui will field seven players on debut for the match against Counties Manukau Heat at McLean Park Napier.

There are three starting line-up newcomers in lock Caterina Poletti, flanker Tempryss Lauvao and wing Monique Clark, and off the bench Willow Rowland, Biba Poletti, Charlotte Tuliau, and Maleta Pailate.

The match, the first Tui match at McLean Park since a division two semi-final win over Northland Kauri in September 2022, will have possibly the biggest crowd for a Tui match in Hawke’s Bay, as a curtain-raiser to the Hawke’s Bay Magpies’ Ranfurly Shield defence and Bunnings NPC match against Southland Stags.

The women’s match starts at 2.05pm, and the men’s match at 4.35pm, both being televised live.

With just six matches to play before the semi-finals, the Tui will be out to reverse the result from last year’s match against the heat, when they travelled to Pukekohe with a semi-final place already confirmed and were beaten 63-26.

But also big in the memory is the boilover with which the Tui started last year’s campaign, a 32-31 win in Hastings over 2022 beaten finalists and eventual 2023 champions Auckland Storm.

Of the 23 named for that match 13 months ago, 10 are in the 23 for this match, in which captain, first five-eighths, Auckland women’s Super Rugby place and former international Krysten Cottrell will make her 85th appearance for Hawke’s Bay, needing just six points to crack 400 in her career in the black and white.

The Metservice forecast for the afternoon in Napier is for partly cloudy conditions and northwesterlies developing in the morning, with the chance of a shower from afternoon, with temperatures up to 19deg.

Hawke’s Bay Rugby chief executive officer Jay Campbell says ticket sales have been “excellent” during the week, and a crowd of more than 6500 is expected for the double-header, the first Magpies-Tui home double-header in three years.

He said the union encourages people to be early “to avoid a repeat of last game” - the July 27 shield defence against Whanganui.

The average attendance for Magpies matches over the last two years has been 6400.

Both the Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay Maori and Wairoa sub-union sides have matches on Saturday in preparation of an invitation tournament in Wellington a week later, when Hawke’s Bay matches will include a challenge against Wellington for the Tirakatene Shield, a Maori rugby equivalent of the Ranfurly Shield.

Te Matau a Māui play a taonga match against Hawke’s Bay Pasifika on Saturday starting at 2pm, at Elwood Park, Hastings, while Wairoa play Tūranga Tuatara in Gisborne.

Meanwhile, Napier Boys’ High School is out of the national secondary schools first fifteens championship after being beaten 27-26 by Gisborne BHS in a Hurricanes Region quarterfinal in Napier on Thursday. Napier scored four tries to three, but was behind for much of the match. The home side was, however ahead 26-24 with three minutes to go, and Gisborne won the match with a late penalty goal.

Hastings BHS play Palmerston North BHS in another quarterfinal in Hastings on Saturday.

The Hawke’s Bay Tui team for the Farah Palmer Cup match against Counties Manukau Heat at McLean Park, Napier, on Saturday, starting at 2.05pm: Denise Aiolupotea, Tamia Edwards, Tori Iosefo; Nina Hyslop-Pineaha, Caterina Poletti; Leah Tuhi, Tempryss Lauvao; Jaimee Robin; Raedeen Blake, Krysten Cottrell; Tee Aiolupotea, Teilah Ferguson, Leilani Hakiwai, Monique Clark; Michaela Baker. Reserves: Hayley McKay, Willow Rowland, Nina Poletti, Journey Otene, Kaya Whaitiri-Dee, Kahlia Awa, Charlotte Tuliau, Maleta Pailate.