Break time before the party for Magpies trojan Tom Parsons

After 99 games for the Hawke's Bay Magpies, mainly in the No 5 jersey, captain Tom Parsons gets a rare break on Saturday ahead of possibly bringing up his century at McLean Park next week. Photo / Photosport

Looming Hawke’s Bay Magpies match centurion and captain Tom Parsons is taking a break from the NPC as the team heads for Saturday’s Round 5 match against Northland in Whangarei.

Having played his 99th match for the Magpies in Friday night’s 26-7 loss to Canterbury at McLean Park, Napier, his 100th match is tipped to be the Saturday-afternoon match at the park against Wellington on September 6.

He has played 152 matches across the first-class rugby levels of the NPC, Super Rugby, and the Japanese League, his 100th having been also against Wellington at McLean Park, when the Ranfurly Shield was lost in 2022.

Isaia-Walker Leawere will run on in the No 5 jersey, while hooker Jacob Devery, named co-captain for the season and with 40 matches for the Magpies to date, will take the reins in Whangarei.

In two other changes in the starting 15, former All Black Folau Fakatava gets a chance to possibly help the All Blacks selectors resolve their current halfback issues with a starting run in a swap with Ereatara Enari, and 33-year-old Neria Fomai makes his start of the season, on the wing in place of Luka Ripley.

Set to make a Magpies debut off the bench is 2023 Crusaders Under-20 squad member and Napier Pirate centre Anaru Paenga-Morgan, following fellow former Gisborne Boys’ High School player Nik Patumaka, who is in the 23 again after making his debut as a second-half substitute last Friday.

Paenga-Morgan’s inclusion means the 23 will have seven players who were in this year’s Maddison Trophy Hawke’s Bay Premier club final between Taradale and Napier Pirate.

In their last match against each other, the Magpies beat the Taniwha 55-30 in defending the Ranfurly Shield in Napier last year, but Northland won 44-21 in Whangarei a year earlier.

New Zealand Rugby announced on Wednesday that 16 All Blacks squad members will be released to their provinces for this weekend’s NPC games.

But it won’t have any impact on the Magpies team, who are surprisingly-warm $1.42 TAB win favourites, despite Northland’s 43-24 Eden Park win over Auckland last weekend.

The Hawke’s Bay Magpies team for the Bunnings Warehouse NPC match against Northland in Whangarei on Saturday, starting at 4.35pm:

Hadlee-Hay Horton, Jacob Devery (captain), Pouri Rakete Stones, Geoff Cridge, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Miracle Fai’ilagi, Cooper Flanders, Devan Flanders (vice-captain), Folau Fakatava, Harry Godfrey, Neria Fomai, Kienan Higgins, Nick Grigg, Jonah Lowe, Zarn Sullivan. Subs: Kianu Kereru-Symes, Nik Patumaka, Lolani Faleiva, Hunter Morrison, Frank Lochore; Ereatara Enari, Anaru Paenga-Morgan, Andrew Tauatevalu.

Doug Laing has been a reporter for 52 years, more than 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, at the Central Hawke’s Bay Press, the Napier Daily Telegraph and, Hawke’s Bay Today. He has covered most aspects of general news and sport.