Hawke’s Bay’s First XVs: In their league - Te Aute to play Manly in Sydney

Te Aute College First XV rugby captain Ariki Rossiter will play both codes on a school trip to Sydney in July.

Historic Hawke’s Bay school and former national First XV rugby champions Te Aute College will play a rugby league match against a youth team from NRL club Manly Warringah in title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/sydney/">Sydney this year.

Assistant principal and co-coach Shane Foster, a former Hawke’s Bay Unicorns rugby league player and later league referee, said a party of 39 players (more than half the school’s roll of 76) will travel to Australia with nine adults for rugby (union) games against the Randwick club on July 4 and Waverley College on July 7, and the league match against the Manly Sea Eagles age group development squad on July 10.

The rugby league game will be played the day after the party join 80,000 other fans at State of Origin III, potentially the decider in the iconic annual rugby league series between New South Wales and Queensland.

Te Aute, one of New Zealand’s oldest schools, with a history dating back to the 1854 opening of Ahuriri Native Industrial School, has an historical link with Manly, through former pupil Billy Weepu, who played 13 A-grade games for the club in 1995-1997.

But the club didn’t have to call on whānau connections to get the game, Foster saying it came through the Sportslink tour agent who had contacts with the club.

Te Aute have had three rugby games this season, beaten 24-17 by Maraenui Colts, and 48-24 by Auckland school Tangaroa College, before their first win of the season, 36-24 against St John’s College, Hastings.

Next up is an annual match against Horowhenua College on Wednesday, ahead of the Hawke’s Bay secondary schools competition opener against Lindisfarne College in Hastings on Saturday.

But a big highlight later in the season, on a date to be set, will be the revival of the once annual game against fellow Māori boys boarding school Tipene (St Stephen’s).

The schools’ matches, including a duel for the Moascar Cup at the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s, were once a highlight of North Island first XV rugby.

In 1984, they were the finalists in the national secondary schools championship, which Te Aute won 7-4. Tipene, closed since 2000 but now rebuilding as a charter school, had their day 12 months later when they beat Napier Boys’ High School in the final.

Lindisfarne College teams have two games on Thursday against Argentinian school St George’s College, of Buenos Aires, with big hopes in the air for the season after the recent 98-19 drubbing of leading Wellington school Scots College in the Presbyterian Schools Rugby Tournament in Hastings.

Lindisfarne and fellow Hastings school, St John’s College, start their Central North Island schools competition, on May 10.

Napier Boys’ High School hosted Marist College, from Canberra, on April 19, the First XV winning 33-21, after it was 21-21 at halftime, the Second XV winning 50-19.

On Saturday, both sides travelled to play Pukekohe school Wesley College, the First XV being beaten 31-28.

The Hastings Boys’ High School First XV opened with a match against St Kentigern in Taupō on March 23, and have since played Westlake Boys High School, St John’s College and Kelston Boys’ High School, and last week played Auckland school Sacred Heart College in Taupō, with Sacred Heart winning 22-18.

The North Island provincial boys’ schools championship, the Super 8, starts on May 24.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.