A former top rugby hopeful who played for Napier Boys’ High School first XV in a national final is now planning to go right to the top in another pursuit – as a shearer in Australia.
Sam Henderson, who played when NBHS was beaten 31-28 by Auckland school St Peter’s College in the 2017 final, is one of three listed as aiming to establish a three-stand crossbred lambs record for nine hours in West Australia on November 4.
His father was part of an eight-stand merino lambs world shearing record in West Australia in 2002. Henderson spent his first six years at Boyup Brook, near where he will be making his own record bid with fellow New Zealand shearers Levi Neil, from Taumarunui, and Jimmy Samuels, of Marton.
They work for Shear Pride, a family firm run by Neil’s brother, Floyde. The brothers are already in the record books for a two-stand merino ewes effort over nine hours in April.