Chiefs Cup goal beckons for Rotorua Boys' High

SKIPPER: Hayze Perham will captain Rotorua Boys' High School First XV in the Chiefs Cup final today. PHOTO/BEN FRASER 010617bf5.JPG

Keeping his players' feet firmly on the Waikato Stadium turf will be one of the jobs of Rotorua Boys' High School First XV coach Ruki Tipuna this afternoon.

Boys' High have reached the final of the Chiefs Cup secondary schools rugby competition and will take on Hamilton Boys' High School as a curtainraiser to tonight's Chiefs v Waratahs Super Rugby game.

"Hopefully they don't get too overawed with the stadium or playing before the Chiefs game," he said. "Hopefully they just get out there and get the win against what is a pretty good Hamilton Boys' team."

Rotorua Boys' High won their place in the final by winning all three pool games, two relatively straightforward wins, 41-12 over St Johns College and 34-14 over Francis Douglas Memorial College. In between it was a backs-to-the-wall 9-5 win over Wesley College.

Tipuna lost two of his mainstay forwards before the game and two more during it.

"It was pretty impressive, the way we gutsed it out against Wesley. Of our four big forwards, none were playing in the second half.

"We had a bunch of young, smaller guys who really gutsed it out against a big, tough Wesley team, so we know they've got a bit of toughness in there, which is great. I was happy with that one."

Winning the Chiefs Cup - which pits the top school first XV sides within the Chiefs region against one another, was one of the season goals.

"We've got a few of them done so hopefully this is another chance for us to tick another box from our goal setting session we had [pre-season]."

Rotorua Boys' High haven't played since their third pool game two weeks ago, but Hamilton Boys' played on Thursday, going down by a single point to Auckland Grammar School.

"Otherwise, they seem pretty strong - I've seen some of their results and they've given teams a good towelling most of the time. They're good, they are one of the benchmarks.

"We had a good tough training [last] Saturday so we are all ready to go."

Today's game kicks off at 2.30pm and will be the first of three meetings between the two sides this season.