Women’s rugby: Tui face defending champions in cup-points showdown in Hastings

Tui veteran, captain and former Black Fern Krysten Cottrell pictured last year leading her team onto the field at the Regional Sports Park in Hastings, where the side plays defending national women's rugby champion Canterbury on Saturday. Photo / Ian Cooper

The huge Hawke’s Bay Tui rugby revival in Farah Palmer Cup national women’s rugby competition faces another big test with a match against defending champion Canterbury on Saturday at the Mitre 10 Park in Hastings.

The last time the Tui played Canterbury was when rugby bounced back from level 1 Covid-19 lockdown in September 2020.

But Canterbury, also defending champions at that time, extended a series of sizeable victories over Hawke’s Bay and won 72-15 — on the same night that the Hawke’s Bay Magpies men’s side beat Canterbury for the first time since 1982.

Hawke Bay Rugby historian Adrian Hill said Hawke’s Bay has won just one of the 12 women’s matches between the two unions, a 17-11 victory in 2006.

This time the Tui are in an ascendancy, having won promotion to the top division after winning the championship-grade final in Balclutha and starting this NPC season with a lightning-bolt 32-31 win over Auckland Storm in Hastings.

Coached by former Hawke’s Bay men’s Maddison Trophy premier championship-winning mentor Sione Cherrington-Kite, the Tui, after a bye week, then conceded a late try in being beaten 14-10 by Waikato, and last Saturday in Lower Hutt scored a dramatic 33-32 win over Wellington Pride.

The Tui go into Saturday’s game just a point behind Canterbury and with a match against win-less Bay of Plenty in Whakatane a week later, and will qualify for at least the quarterfinal, where teams ranked 3-6 will play two positions in the semifinals, for which the top two in the round will automatically qualify.

Cherrington-Kite has had issues to face in selecting a team, from a lineup that still had “some sore bodies” when it gathered on Tuesday.

Two key forwards had to be left out, in No. 8 Kathleen Brown, with an automatic stand-down after a head injury assessment, and Ashley Palu, who was awaiting the outcome of a citing for an alleged high tackle in the match against Wellington.

Then there is the opposition, the coach saying: “They’re a classy team.”

A feature will be that it’s the 70th Tui match for the ever-versatile Gemma Woods, who after three games on the flank this season moves to No. 8. She was an established halfback when first selected as a teenager 19 years ago.

The 2.05pm match, inside the athletics track in the William Nelson Precinct, is part of possibly the biggest weekend in the 13 years of the Regional Sports Park.

It was built to replace the track and grandstand lost in the closure of Nelson Park to make way for big-box retailing, now the site of The Warehouse and Mitre 10, off Karamu Rd, Hastings. A big weekend at the Regional Sports Park.

In addition to the Tuis game, the park will stage the first round of the Rugby League Hawke’s Bay senior competitions, with five matches being played, and the national short-course swimming championships in the Aquatic Centre, all in addition to regular netball, junior rugby, football, and hockey.

Mitre 10 Sports Park acting chief executive Ryan Hambleton said: “The Sports Park and Hawke’s Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust will be showcasing its wide range of facilities and will be at full capacity. The swimming nationals is a huge event on its own.”

Sports Park staff and contractors had been busy preparing for the weekend to ensure participants and supporters have a great experience, he said.

Hawke’s Bay Tui team for match against Canterbury at Regional Sports Park, Hastings, on Saturday, at 2.05pm: Tori Iosefo, Tamia Edwards, Denise Aiolupotea, Leah Tuhi, O Mua, Hope Hakopa, Tuia Edwards, Gemma Woods, Raedeen Blake, Krysten Cottrell, Michaela Baker, Leilani Hakiwai, Teilah Ferguson, Tee Aiolupotea, Sharn Heenan. Subs: Leikyn Rowlands, Laura Parsons, Tali Wilson-Munday, Journey Otene, L Kendrick, Jade Tangaere-Tuhua, Jaimee Robin, Nicolette Adamson.