New Hawke's Bay Magpies head coach Brock James (grey top) during an early-season squad hit-out in May, ahead of this week's naming of his first NPC squad. Photo / Paul Taylor
New Hawke's Bay Magpies head coach Brock James (grey top) during an early-season squad hit-out in May, ahead of this week's naming of his first NPC squad. Photo / Paul Taylor
Three members of new Hawke’s Bay Magpies head coach Brock James’ first NPC squad could be playing in Saturday’s American Major League Rugby final.
They include new Magpies selection and Fijian wing Paula Balekala, second-to-top try scorer in the competition this year (with 13) and who plays in the New England Free Jacks, along with Magpies front row forwards Kianu Kereru-Symes and prop Joel Hintz.
All three played in last weekend’s Free Jacks 25-7 Eastern Conference final win in Chicago, ending the run of Old Glory DC, where 2022 Magpies coach Josh Syms has been on the staff ahead of his move to a club in Italy.
The trio are all in the 36-man Bunnings NPC squad named by the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union on Tuesday, Kereru-Symes, a former New Zealand Under 20 and Hastings Boys’ High School First XV captain, has two Super Rugby appearances and 44 Magpies NPC appearances to his name, and Hintz has 51 NPC appearances, including 38 for Hawke’s Bay.
The Free Jacks, in their first MLR final since the competition started in 2018, will meet Western Conference champions San Diego Legion, who include former All Blacks Ma’a Nonu, now aged 41, and Isaac Ross.
Several other Magpies’ squad members have been playing in the MLR, taking to about 25 the number
who have played in either Super Rugby Pacific or the MLR.
That’s without such others as Stacey Ili, Daniel Toala, Ereatara Enari and Solomone Funaki, all of whom are unavailable for the NPC this year and are expected to be at the Rugby World Cup in France representing Manu Samoa or Tonga.
In the squad are such players as recent All Blacks halfbacks Brad Weber and Folau Fakatava, currently in Japan for two matches with second-string New Zealand side the All Blacks XV but also still possibilities of Rugby World Cup selection, leading to a decision to bring-in 21-year-old Ponsonby club player Sam Wye, who played in one match for Moana Pasifika in this year’s Super Rugby.
James, who has been with the Magpies now for more than a year but who was named head coach just two months ago following Syms’ departure, says he’s pleased with the balance, noting that while there was such a deep involvement with the professional competitions there was still room for 19 of the squad to have played some club rugby in Hawke’s Bay this season, 11 of them regularly.
They include 33-year-old lock Tom Parsons, who reached a career tally of 100 first-class matches last September and has appeared for the Hurricanes in two Super Rugby matches and 56 matches for Hawke’s Bay, and who is being retained as captain after a big season for Waipukurau club Central, who just missed out on a place in the union’s Maddison Trophy premier club semifinals, also being played this weekend.
Tom Parsons leading the Magpies out in his 100th First Class match last year against Wellington. Alas, Hawke's Bay lost the Ranfurly Shield that night, but Parsons is retained as captain for the new season. Photo / Ian Cooper
The only significant injury worry has been that of centre Kienan Higgins, recovering from a leg-bone fracture suffered in a squad match in Napier in May.
James says it’s a short preparation time, but the Magpies will get in two pre-NPC games in Taupo, against Auckland on July 23 and Waikato on July 28, ahead of what is a short competition season opening with a match against North Harbour in Napier on August 5, with a Friday-Wednesday-Sunday “storm week” soon afterwards, giving the Magpies an opening run of four games in just 15 days.
He says “one-or-two” other players are in consideration, and others could be called-on from development team the Saracens, who have five matches against Heartland Rugby teams, other NPC-union development teams or from Academy level.
