A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
The Sky Blues won't disappoint in 2021.
And rugby fans nationwide now know on the quality of their match-effort against the reigning Meads Cup holders, that Ngati Porou East Coast can and will break their nine-year winless streak in the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship this season.
On Saturday, in the competition opener, North Otago beat the Sky Blues 39-31 in Oamuru: in that, second-year NPEC head coach Hosea Gear has already brought the mercurial Coast as close to victory as they've come since August 31, 2019, and the seven-point, Round 2 loss (22-15) to Mid-Canterbury at Whakarua Park in Ruatoria.
While former All Black Gear doesn't dress up defeats as wins, he knows, too, that his men's showing is worthy of praise.
“I'm proud of the effort they put in — now I need even more as, yes, it was a tough first game up but it won't get any easier against Thames Valley here next weekend. We'll have no choice then but to be better than we were, against North Otago,” said Gear.
“Our fitness was great — our boys have worked hard during this lockdown — and I was proud of our defence; that was the best it's been. Yet we let North Otago in to score from set-piece, from errors, so we'll look at tidying those up.
“Our line-out options won us ball, but our set-piece was put under pressure by one of the best forward packs in the competition. It's an area in which we need to be better, that we're still working on.
I was pleased with our back-line's effort. We haven't spent a lot of time on our back play; North Otago's backs were big and difficult to bring down.”
NPEC captain blindside flanker Hone Haerewa, his team's pick as their Most Valuable Player for (as listed by his head coach) his tackling, carries ball-in-hand, ability to turn ball over quickly on behalf of NPEC (and conversely slow North Otago down in that key phase of play..).
North Otago head coach Jason Forrest, whose Old Golds beat the Sky Blues' 61-29 at Ruatoria in 2019 when last they met, was impressed by what he saw from NPEC on Saturday.
“They were very physical at what we call contact points,” said Forrest, who came to Ruatoria with the Old Golds as their trainer in 2012.
“That was certainly the fittest Coast team I've seen for some time.”
North Otago skipper hooker Sam Sturgess, noted that: “The Coast beat us up at the breakdown a bit, and they played a nice brand of running rugby.”
Haerewa won the toss and NPEC chose to play with a nor' westerly breeze at their backs in the first half: North Otago kicked off, under Delta 2 restrictions, with 176 in attendance all-up.
The Coast opened the scoring with a penalty goal to big first-five Te Rangi Fraser in the 13th minute for 3-0, before the hosts struck back with a try to openside flanker Tony Taufa in the 17th minute for 5-3 to North Otago.
Three minutes later, the plucky Coast grabbed their first try through second-five Te Manu Herewini — converted by Fraser: Haerewa's crew then led 10-5. In the 22nd minute, halfback Jake Matthrews got the Old Golds' third try and repeated the dose himself four minutes later, this time with a conversion by first-five Abel Magalogo, for 17-10.
In the 33rd minute, Fraser was inspired to score and then convert his own try to draw the Coast level with North Otago at 17-all — and with half-time upon them, NPEC halfback Sam Parkes scored and Fraser's conversion of the Parkes try gave the Sky Blues a 24-17 lead at the break.
There had been nothing tentative or skittish about NPEC's play in the first-half: they were deserving of their lead, had utilised width and tested the opposition's defence.
Again, as in previous fixtures this year, the Coast's discipline was first-rate. After the game, South Canterbury referee Jackson Henshaw was moved to say: “Hone was very good to deal with — approachable — and he kept the chat relevant.
His boys played well for the whole 80 minutes and in my opinion, they're a team to watch out for.”
A quarter of an hour after the resumption, Sturgess scored and with Magalogo's conversion, the score was 24-all. In the 63rd minute, reserve openside flanker Mathew Duff scored — which with Magalogo doing the try justice, gave the home team a 31-24 advantage.
In the 65th minute, Parkes muscled his way over the try-line and Fraser — who contributed 16 points (including a try) to the NPEC cause — made it four-from-four conversions for 31-all in what had been a thrilling battle.
The Old Golds knew that a confident Coast team remained dangerous and so, in the 69th minute, Sturgess made the call and Magalogo kicked his second penalty goal for 34-31. A try to fullback Levi Emery, well-taken, decided the contest at 39-31 to North Otago.
Both sides took a bonus point for scoring four tries and the competition is on notice: this year, the Sky Blues are casting a critical eye over everything they do to prepare, in-game, and in recovery while retaining the unique spirit of NPEC rugby. They were focused going into Game 1 and, having worked not just hard but intelligently and purposefully in the lead-up, were in an excellent position to be competitive and do themselves justice.
Five players made their Heartland debut for NPEC against North Otago on Saturday: former Otago front-rower Peter Mirrielees at loosehead prop, former Magpie Trent Boswell-Wakefield at lock, Te Manu Herewini at second five-eighth, Gabe Te Kani for Boswell-Wakefield, Myles Lardelli-Muir Tawa for Perrin Manuel at tighthead prop.