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GISBORNE BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL CO-CAPTAINS: Nathaniel Hauiti, above, and Carlos Hihi, (see the following photo in this gallery), will lead Boys’ High against Lindisfarne College in Gisborne tomorrow. File pictures by Paul Rickard

Tomorrow is the grand opening of the Gisborne Boys' High School first 15 rugby season at home.

The Duane Hihi-coached team take on Lindisfarne College of Hastings from 12.30pm, at the Rectory ground.

Lindisfarne beat GBHS 44-5 on April 1 last year, having led 32-0 at halftime. The sides' last Gisborne meeting was on April 6, 2019, in the home team's opening game. That resulted in a 10-try, 66-12 win to Gisborne Boys' High, on a hot day very different from what is expected tomorrow.

Boys' High lost all 16 games last year but tasted victory, 41-0, against Rotorua's Western Heights High School in Whakatane on March 19 to open their latest campaign.

Scrum anchor and co-captain Nathaniel Hauiti and his fellow forwards aim to lay a platform tomorrow, as they did a fortnight ago. They are little concerned with the rain forecast or the expected high of 19 degrees.

“We've done a lot of work on both our scrum and lineout,” he said.

“Against Heights, our pack did well on defence and were strong on attack.”

Co-captain and first five-eighth Carlos Hihi was as positive about Gisborne Boys' High School's back play in Game 1 against Western Heights as he was about their prospects tomorrow: “I want us to score points and finish this weekend, but I also want our backs to have a really tight game in defence.

“Nobody should break our line.”

To keep Lindisfarne scoreless would be ideal from the point of view of all of the home-town fans, but the team's longtime supporters simply want to see every first-up tackle that can be made, made. Good judges, such as former GBHS first 15 coaches, expect to see discipline, structure, purpose and cohesion.

They know well that cohesion takes time to achieve but organisation, communication, execution at set-piece, stopping Lindisfarne's ball-runners: these things are a must. The basic skills — such as ball-handling under pressure, spacing and body position in contact — are things developed and mastered on training grounds over months.

Much is expected of the back row of Dylan Bronlund, Ben Phelps and Luke Bidois, with No.8 Bidois (for Reuben Whaitiri) making his first start tomorrow.

Two other Boys' High players will make their first start in this clash with Lindisfarne: centre Luka Russell (for Xavier Tuapawa) and fullback Kaiaio Tangira-Kerekere (for Cohen Loffler).

Ex-Stade Français Paris Rugby prop Laurent Simutoga and his co-coach former Marist-Albion development officer Strahan McIntosh's Lindisfarne crew include nine returning players. Game-day captain will be head prefect and first-five Tuawhio Porima.

Lindisfarne are in a rebuilding phase, according to old boy Simutoga.

“Although our teams are never huge, we have some size in our forward pack and the boys are really keen,” he said.

“We hope there'll be a good crowd in tomorrow.

“Life is starting to get back to normal.”

Simutoga is correct, although Lindisfarne had to cancel their away game with Palmerston North Boys' High School last weekend, as Gisborne Boys' High had to cancel their scheduled home game against Mangere's De La Salle College.

The last game GBHS played on the Rectory ground was against Hamilton Boys' High and Gisborne's last competition match was the 54-0 Super 8 loss to Tauranga Boys' College at their Nicholson Field on August 7 last year.

The match officials for GBHS v Lindisfarne College tomorrow are Mark Greene, who controlled GBHS v Hamilton in 2021, Aaron Brown (assistant referee 1) and Les Thomas (AR2), all of Poverty Bay.