Rain fell steadily until late in the second half of a game that roared into life after one minute’s play. Gisborne Boys’ High took a tighthead off Sacred Heart at the first scrum — a magnificent effort from the Gisborne forward pack.
In the eighth minute, Sacred Heart first five-eighth Bono Napota opened the scoring for 3-0; his left boot, three first-half penalty goals and right wing Ravuni Uluilakeba’s try in the 22nd minute were enough to get the visitors home. It was wet-weather rugby with relish.
Gisborne Boys’ High openside flanker Amos Roddick made a great tackle on big lock Petero Mailulu between the Sacred Heart 10-metre line and halfway at the 17-minute mark but, 60 seconds later, Napota got another opportunity to score on the Gisborne 22m line, ever so slightly to the left. He landed his second penalty: 6-0.
Twenty minutes in, Boys’ High went a man down for 10 minutes with an awkward tackle by fullback Braedyn Grant on Sacred Heart openside flanker Milan Kriletich — and Sacred Heart took advantage.
Kriletich’s fellow flanker, Luke McDuff, found Uluilakeba 15m to the right of the posts with a goalline pass for 11-0.
Gisborne Boys’ High starting left wing TK Reihana, acting fullback and right wing Matt Proffit — spatially tested as they were by Napota — had sure hands. Reihana almost broke Sacred Heart on a right-side play and Napota, uncharacteristically, erred in kicking the ball dead in the 28th minute.
At the half-hour mark, two things happened: firstly, head-on 15m into Gisborne territory, the left-footed Napota kicked his last goal for 14-0; secondly, Grant returned.
Gisborne No.8 Nikau Maxwell and centre Niko Lauti both hit Sacred Heart’s best as hard in the second half as in the first. Roddick hammered Napota 35 seconds after the resumption and blindside flanker Khian Westrupp got to Sacred Heart loosehead prop Peter Meredith, forcing a knock-on, shortly after.
The home team continued to put pressure on their guests at scrum time and Westrupp won a lineout at No.2 in grand style on the left touch.
In the 51st minute, there was a break in play during which one player from each side was sent off.
Seven minutes later, Grant surged through Sacred Heart’s goalline defence to score beneath the crossbar. First-five Ricardo Patricio quickly took the conversion attempt as a drop goal and was successful, to close it to 14-7.
At the 65th minute, Reihana led his own kick, chase, tackle and recovery off the right touch in Sacred Heart’s 22; three minutes later, Roddick welcomed Sacred Heart debutant reserve Curtis Finnigan to first 15 rugby with a jarring tackle.
Sacred Heart defended their goalline with desperation, try-scorer Uluilakeba receiving a yellow card from referee Damien Macpherson to leave them with only 13 men on Rectory No.1 at fulltime.
Gisborne Boys’ High MVP (most valuable player) McFarlane said: “I’m extremely proud of my boys and how they played, the effort they put in. We couldn’t have asked for more.”
Sacred Heart’s game-day captain, Sionekau Lokeni, said: “It was a tough battle up front, and when the crowd got rowdy, Gisborne played harder.”
Gisborne Boys’ High School’s next traditional interschool opponents are St Peter’s College, in Auckland on July 20, before the Super 8 game against Hamilton Boys’ High in Gisborne on July 27 and the away game against Tauranga Boys’ College on August 3.
