First fifteens: Napier target first win over Hamilton BHS since 2011

Napier Boys' High School captain Tasman Soanai-Oeti leads the side's haka. Photo / Ian Cooper

The crucial Super 8 first fifteens rugby match between Napier and Hamilton boys’ high schools, will be played at Napier Boys’ High School on Sunday, with the home side seeking a rare win in the match.

The match had been scheduled for June 24 but was unable to be played because of a storm which closed State Highway 5, preventing the champion Hamilton team from travelling to Hawke’s Bay.

A match between Hastings BHS and Rotorua BHS, which was also postponed, will be played in Hastings on July 18.

Near-perennial Super 8 champions Hamilton are unbeaten this season and if they beat Napier will probably host this year’s final, while a Napier loss would be their second in a row and leave the side scrambling for a place in the final.

The sides meet at least once every year, and having already met in a tournament Hamilton won in Japan earlier this year could meet four times this year, if they both reach the Super 8 final, and a repeat of last year’s national schools final, in which Napier was beaten only in the last 30 seconds.

But Napier has not beaten Hamilton since a 30-28 win in Napier 2011, Napier’s only win over Hamilton in the last two decades, much to the consternation of such players as eventual Hawke’s Bay Magpies and Super Rugby player Sam McNicol, now part of the Hawke’s Bay Magpies and Academy coaching set-up and who has just finished his first season as a Premier club coach.

He had two seasons in the Napier first fifteen, in 2012-2013, but Hamilton was always “a fantastic side” .

“I don’t think I ever beat Hamilton,” he said. “I’m sure I would remember it. The match is one feature of the rugby weekend in Hawke’s Bay, among others being the Premier club rugby Maddison Trophy semi-finals in Napier, in which defending champions Taradale play Hastings Rugby and Sports at Tareha Recreation Reserve and Napier Old Boys Marist play Napier Tech Old Boys at Tremain Field, Park Island.

In other weekend sports features in Hawke’s Bay, five-times Chatham Cup winners Napier City Rovers play Wellington side Waterside Karori in a 2023 round-of-16 knockout match in Napier on Sunday, starting at 2pm.