Rugby: Tauranga Boys' College ready to battle St Paul's

Tauranga Boys' First XV captain Connor Fifita in action against Hamilton Boys' last season. Photo / File

A new look Tauranga Boys' College First XV are in action from noon at Nicholson Field on Saturday.

The team will run out in newly-designed jerseys against St Paul's Collegiate from Hamilton in round 2 of the Chiefs Cup, after they started with a solid 26-8 win over St Peter's School of Cambridge last weekend.

The Chiefs Cup is a two-pool competition of eight teams involving the Chiefs franchise regions of Waikato, Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty.

Tauranga Boys' co-coach Joel Baker says after a decent build-up, particularly a tough game against Auckland Grammar, the victory was only satisfactory.

"Our first game was against an opposition we knew very little about in St Peter's School," he said. "The team had trained well during the week with a large focus placed on defence and setting in place our systems of set piece and general play. As coaches it was great to have a win but there are certainly areas of our game that need to continue to improve if we are going to be competitive."

Baker says they have opted for a larger squad after a large number of injuries last year. "The season started with a large number of students trialling for the First XV. We initially selected a squad of 50 boys, which was divided each week to create two teams. One team was coached by Jason Spice and myself, the other team coached by Steve Kelly and Graeme Newlands (2nd XV coaches).

"This concept allowed us to further view boys in training and game situations and ensured we selected the best possible First XV. Each boy was given a number of opportunities to put their best foot forward. While we ran this squad of 50 we played three tough games [Massey High School, Sacred Heart and King's Colleges]. We only won one of the three games but the result was not the focus, it was to see how boys played and responded to various scenarios within the game."

Other Western Bay First XV teams are in action tomorrow. Bethlehem College are away to Papakura High School in the second-tier Chiefs Trophy after their first round 53-7 win over Thames High School.

In Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools division 1 matches, Tauranga Boys' 2nd XV host Opotiki while Otumoetai travel to play Rotorua Boys' 2nd XV. In division 2, Aquinas College are home to Katikati College, Mount Maunganui College host Rotorua Boys' 3rd XV, and Te Puke College are away to Taupo-nui-a-Tia College.