There's more rugby than just the Hawke's Bay Magpies

Former Māori All Black and Magpies rugby star Mutu Ngarimu, now coach of the Saracens Hawke's Bay Development side, pictured after returning to the Bay as a club rugby coach in 2017. Photo / File

The Saracens Hawke's Bay Development rugby side will be going for two-from-two in a three-match schedule of matches against national Heartland Championship sides when it plays Whanganui on Saturday.

Opening a programme of six matches in 2021, the side beat King Country 70-12 in Taupo last Saturday, and also plays Poverty Bay on August 14 in Napier.

The big win last week pleased Saracens coach and former Hawke's Bay Magpies, Ngāti Porou East Coast and Māori All Blacks player Mutu Ngarimu, who expects a tougher encounter this weekend in Whanganui.

The side comprises a mixture of Hawke's Bay Magpies squad members and other up-and-coming players taking on a union which consistently finishes around the top of the table in the Heartland Championship.

Among the Saracens' remaining matches are two against the Wellington Development side.

All of the Hawke's bay Rugby Union's most senior sides have away games this week, with the Big Barrel Hawke's Bay Tui women's team having a Friday night Farah Palmer Cup championship-division match against the Manawatu Cyclones in Palmerston North, and the Hawke's Bay Magpies opening their Bunnings Warehouse NPC Premier competition campaign on Saturday against Taranaki Bulls at well-known cricket ground Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, on Saturday afternoon.

The Hawke's Bay Under-19 team, coached by former Magpies captain Jason Shoemark plays Wairarapa-Bush Under-19 in Masterton on Saturday.

Another Heartland Championship team, Horowhenua Kapiti, will be playing in Hawke's Bay with a match against Central Hawke's Bay Sub-Union at Otane Domain on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Hastings Boys High School First XV hopes to complete Super 8 round-robin series unbeaten on Saturday, playing defending champion Hamilton BHS in Hamilton ahead of the final next week.

The Napier Boys' High School finished its Super 8 First XV rugby competition by holding up the school's honour with a 27-17 win over Palmerston North Boys' High School in the schools' annual Polson Banner match on Wednesday.

It was not such good news for NBHS in other matches in the annual exchange in Palmerston North, being the only win across a range of five rugby matches, three football games, a golf match, a clay target shooting and three debating contests.

Napier was beaten 24-14 in Under-14 rugby, 51-19 in the Under-15 match, 19-5 in the clash of the Third XVs, and 22-12 in the Second XVs' match.

The Colts football match was drawn 3-3, but Palmerston North won the 1st 11s match 4-1 and the Second 11' 5-1, and also won the clay shooting by 42pts.