NPC 2024: Hawke’s Bay Magpies ring the changes

The Hawke’s Bay Magpies will be without at least four more of their most experienced regulars for the 2024 NPC rugby campaign, which starts with an away game against North Harbour on August 11, followed by a home match against Southland six days later.

Each aged 28, the four have had combined totals of almost 200 appearances for Hawke’s Bay in NPC rugby and about 130 in Super Rugby.

Confirmed by Hawke’s Bay Rugby as not available for the Magpies this year are utility backs Ollie Sapsford, Caleb Makene and Chase Tiatia, and wing Jonah Lowe is injured. Their absence follows the departure of halfback Brad Weber for overseas, all five having been in the 23 for last year’s Ranfurly Shield win over Wellington and the Magpies’ first-ever NPC final, against Taranaki.

Jonah Lowe in try-scoring form for the Hawke’s Bay Magpies in 2018. He has been a Magpie since 2016 but a Super Rugby Championship injury in April is expected to keep him out of the Magpies line-ups in the NPC. Photo / Paul Taylor.

From Mid-Canterbury, Sapsford has played in 51 matches for the Magpies since 2019, and 38 in Super Rugby for Australian side the Brumbies, and Makene, from Napier, has played in 46 Magpies matches since 2019. He played briefly for the Crusaders and the Highlanders before heading for New Zealand off-season rugby in North America, where he has played in 42 Major League Rugby matches for the Utah Warriors.

Tiatia has played in more than 80 NPC matches, including 61 for Bay of Plenty before transferring to Hawke’s Bay and playing 21 times in the black-and-white in 2022-2023. He has also played in 57 Super Rugby matches, for the Chiefs, the Hurricanes and the Australian side Western Force.

Also being named in the squad but not expected to play, is wing and centre Jonah Lowe, who suffered a knee injury while playing Super Rugby Pacific at centre for the Highlanders in April and with surgery in line, was soon ruled out of both the rest of the Super season and the NPC.

A St John’s College pupil in Hastings before moving to Auckland school King’s College, the brother of former Magpies loose forward and Super player Karl Lowe has played in 73 games for the Magpies since 2015 and scored 137 points.

A New Zealand Under-20 representative in 2016, he has had 53 Super matches, playing for the Hurricanes and the Chiefs before signing with the Highlanders. He has, like his brother, played for the Māori All Blacks.

The absences follow the departure of former All Blacks halfback Weber, who had his 50th Magpies appearance last winter before heading for a contract with French side Stade Français Paris. He played in 19 matches in a season culminating with a French Top 4 semifinal in front of 60,000 people and losing by two points to eventual champion Bordeaux.

A team of Hawke’s Bay club competition players opened the Magpies’ 2024 campaign with a Ranfurly Shield defence win over Heartland union King Country in Hastings on June 26, but several frontliners are expected for the next defence, against second Heartland side Whanganui in Napier on July 27.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.