A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Forget about a game of two halves — the Gisborne Boys' High School-Hamilton first 15 clash of 2022 was made up of three parts.
On Saturday, Hamilton Boys' High School had a 59-0 Super 8 rugby win against Gisborne Boys' High.
After Hamilton's initial assault, Gisborne came back into the contest in terms of possession and territory, before the home team were visited by genius as the game wound down.
Against Hamilton reserve tighthead prop Rarahui Palmer and captain and openside flanker Ollie Mathis at game's end, GBHS did all that they could to recover and scramble in defence. Vice-captain and blindside flanker Dylan Bronlund was still dragging the opposition down and putting fires out wherever they appeared.
Five-time Super 8 defending champions Hamilton retained the Moascar Cup, Arkenstone of secondary schools' rugby, and the Vesty Thomas Cup at the weekend.
Their brilliant fullback Payton Spencer scored the opening try seven minutes in, with no conversion, and Mathis grabbed the first of his two tries 23 minutes in. Lock Jamie Brewer — with a Superman dive — brought up Hamilton's third five-pointer after 28 minutes, and first five-eighth Rangiwai Lunjevich landed the first conversion on a brisk day for 17-0.
The last two first-half tries — to tighthead prop Will Martin (32 minutes) and right wing Zac Coffey (36 minutes) — were unconverted, with the home team up 27-0 at the break.
After halftime, the Duane Hihi-coached Gisborne team lifted their defensive effort and that was never more clearly shown than in the 46th minute.
Three times, the visitors made goal-line stops.
Reserve halfback Mitchell Swann scored Hamilton's sixth try (53 minutes) for 32-0. Lock Tama Hodgson (59 minutes, converted by Lunjevich), reserve second-five Hiraka Waitai-Haenga (63 minutes) and reserve tighthead prop Rarahui Palmer (67 minutes, 70m) with a double and Mathis picked up his second in the 73rd minute to wrap up the scoring, for 59-0.
Duane Hihi said: “Our boys competed well for 20 minutes but Hamilton are classy: when they find their groove, they're hard to stop. We've taken positives from this game but sustaining that level of rugby is the challenge.
“It's been a tough week. Trying to prepare for the toughest game of the season and have members of two of our boys' whanau pass away is never easy.
“Losing hooker Boston Morete and scrum-anchor Nathaniel Hauiti to injury left a huge hole in our team.”
Hihi said that as a fourth-year team member, Hauiti brought priceless mana, experience and leadership to the team.
“He had set a goal at the beginning of the season that if he played every game, he'd finish with 50 caps,” Hihi said.
“A lot of responsibility has fallen on Carlos. he's coped well with it and, with Dylan's assistance, has done a great job.
“As the coach's son, the expectation of him is higher than of anyone else; it's been that way for him his whole life. It's hard for me to praise him because he's my son, but he deserves that and he's stepped up. The boys respect him and he's one of the main targets of many of our opponents' game-plans.
“He's our backbone.”
Hamilton Boys' High deputy principal and head coach Nigel Hotham said: “We took several opportunities to score from mistakes, while playing into the wind in the first half. Our attacking game improved when our bench sped the game up in the second half.
“We have great respect for the quality of young men from Gisborne both on and off the field. They are respectful, well-mannered and genuine.”