Former Hastings 1st XV players crack national rugby teams

Mefi Tupou scoring for Hastings BHS in June last year. Less than 15 months later he's off to South Africa with the New Zealand Under 19 rugby team. Photo / NZME

The Hastings Boys' High School 1st XV rugby teams have churned out more national representatives with the naming of three former members in the New Zealand Under 19 team for four matches in South Africa.

They are centre Mefi Tupou and loose forward Cooper Flanders, both still in Hawke's Bay, and halfback Jordi Viljoen, who shifted from Palmerston North BHS to Hastings BHS last year, is now based back in Manawatū, and who is a son of former Springbok scrumhalf Roelof "Joggie" Viljoen.

They were named in a 30-player squad announced by the New Zealand Rugby Union on Monday, taking to eight the number from the school that have been selected for New Zealand Under 19 or Under 20 teams, or the All Blacks, in the past four years.

Hawke's Bay player Harry Godfrey, who played for Whanganui Collegiate before joining Waipukurau club Central, was listed as unavailable for the trip.

In the footsteps of his brother, Cooper Flanders captaining and scoring for Hastings Boys' High 1st XV, and now in the New Zealand Under 19 team heading for matches in South Africa. Photo / NZME

Other former HBHS players who have made it into national sides since leaving high school in the past four years are Magpies Folau Fakatava (an All Black this year), Devan Flanders (New Zealand Under 20 in 2019 and 2018, and brother of Cooper Flanders), Kianu Kereru-Symes and Danny Toala (both New Zealand Under 20 in 2019), and Jeriah Mua, a 2019 Under 20 representative now based in Bay of Plenty.

The 2022 squad assembles at Lincoln University on Sunday, and flies out two days later for the first match against Cape Town-based the Stormers Under 19 at Stellenbosch on September 19.

Further matches against age-group opposition are on September 24 against KwaZulu Natal team the Sharks in Durban, on September 29 against North West Province side the Leopards at Potchefstroom, and on October 4 against Gauteng side the Lions at Ellis Park, Johannesburg.