With a bank of phone cameras looking on, Te Wero finalists Bridge Pā (left) and Māhia face-off after their 24-all draw. Photo / Doug Laing
With a bank of phone cameras looking on, Te Wero finalists Bridge Pā (left) and Māhia face-off after their 24-all draw. Photo / Doug Laing
The 50th anniversary of a Hawke’s Bay rugby tournament inspired by a moment which occurred during a reunion of opposing forces in North Africa in World War II has ended in a draw between two sides emerging out of a modern-day battle – against nature.
All but stranded in Northern Hawke’s Bay after four weeks spent recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle, Nūhaka and Māhia were unable to travel to the six-team commemorative tournament on Saturday at Mitre 10 Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings.
As a result, Bridge Pā was invited to fill the gap left by the absence of Nūhaka, which requested the tournament go ahead despite the ongoing calamity of Gabrielle.
Mahia called on its Napier-Hastings and other Hawke’s Bay associations to field a team in its name and colours.
Without a pre-tournament gathering, tossing the ball around constituted a training session on the morning of the game, and with Bridge Pā having the final all but in the bag, Māhia scored near the posts in the last minute.
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With the landing of the conversion, they drew the match 24-all, in front of at least 600 spectators from the estimated 1000-plus who crowded the field during the day.
The finalists were thus unbeaten, Bridge Pā having defeated hosts and Hawke’s Bay Premier competition club Tamatea 24-5 and Napier side Maraenui 17-12 in pool play, and Māhia having beaten Central Hawke’s Bay side Ōtāne 19-7 and drawn 7-7 with Dannevirke club Aotea.
Ōtāne player Jaharlym Graham spreads the wings in an attempt to thwart Aotea, which won their Te Wero section match 14-3. Photo / Paul Taylor
In other matches, Aotea beat Ōtāne 14-3 and won a third-fourth-place playoff 24-7 against Maraenui, while Ōtāne beat Tamatea 7-0 in a fifth-sixth playoff.
Te Wero stems from a 1970 reunion of the German army’s Afrika Korps, to which the 28th Māori Battalion was the only other party invited.
Two taiaha were presented to the Germans, whose respect for the battalion was captured in the words of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the famous commander of the German Afrika Korps, often quoted as having said: “Give me a Māori Battalion and I will conquer the world.”
The hosts asked that one of the taiaha return to New Zealand as a symbol to encourage peace through sport and aspiration, leading to the establishment of the tournament, traditionally a quadrangular aimed at getting mainly-Māori clubs better prepared for the club rugby season.
Tamatea chairman Stewart White expected the idea of expanding the tournament to as many of the clubs as possible from those that had taken part at times over the years to be a success, but was still surprised by the response. It was “huge”, with all the “wairua” and “whakamanaakitanga” that was anticipated from the outset, he said.
Three originals who were present were acknowledged afterwards - Tamatea’s Henry Tomoana and Phil Warner, and Manahi Paewai from Aotea.
But also acknowledged were some modern-day toa in Australia, Canadian, US and New Zealand members of Taskforce Kiwi, a mass of former defence and service people volunteering in the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery, including some helping with the swamped marae in the Napier-Hastings area.
On a rare day off, they were invited along to experience a bit of Kiwi rugby, culture and hospitality.
