Ross Shield rugby: Central win crucial country match, Napier and Hastings East unbeaten

Aratana Te Kahu about to score for defending champions Napier in the opening match of the 2023 Ross Shield Hawke's Bay Primary Schools rugby tournament, against Central Hawke's Bay in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor

Central Hawke’s Bay bounced back from a heavy first-day defeat to win its second match at the 2023 Ross Shield Hawke’s Bay Primary Schools rugby tournament by drawing first blood in the race to be the top country team in the competition.

CHB were beaten 71-0 by defending Ross Shield champions and city side Napier in the six-team tournament’s opening match on Tuesday but in Wednesday’s opening game beat Wairoa 29-7 in the first game of its defence of the Life Members Salver, symbol of supremacy among the two sides and fellow country sub-union Dannevirke.

The second-day win was all-but sealed with a 19-0 lead by halftime, with CHB ultimately scoring five tries, including 2 to Lockie Singer, who also kicked 2 conversions.

Central Hawke's Bay's haka at the start of the day. Photo / Paul Taylor

For CHB it was also a successful defence of the Tino Amato Shield, played in memory of a player who grew-up in Wairoa but who died after being injured while playing a Hawke’s Bay Premier-grade match for Waipukurau club Central in 2002.

Napier kept their try-line intact with a 59-0 win over Dannevirke, and Hastings East drew first-blood in the clashes of the big three with a 38-22 win over Hastings West.

Hastings West and Hastings East, which drew 7-7 at last year’s tournament in Dannevirke. Hastings East won 34-12 on the way to winning the tournament in 2021, after Hastings West had won the tournament in each of the three years before it was cancelled in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dannevirke players biding their time watching the opening game. They were later beaten 33-5 by Hastings East. Photo / Paul Taylor

There were no surprises in the other two games on Tuesday with Hastings West beating Wairoa 31-5, after it was 7-5 at halftime, and Hastings East beating Dannevirke 33-5, after leading 14-5 at the break.

In Thursday’s games unbeaten sides Napier and Hastings East meet first-up at 1pm, CHB plays Hastings West at 2pm, and Dannevirke plays Wairoa, starting at 3pm.