Devan Flanders scores against the Turbos at McLean Park in 2020. Photo / NZME
Devan Flanders scores against the Turbos at McLean Park in 2020. Photo / NZME
The two unions that formed the short-lived Central Vikings to combat provincial rugby decline 25 years ago now face a similar battle on Friday night at McLean Park, where that dream ended.
The enigmatic Hawke’s Bay Magpies and Manawatū Turbos meet with both teetering on the possibility of missing out on the top 8 for the Bunnings Warehouse NPC semi-finals, on a competition ladder headed by major metropolitan unions Wellington, Auckland and Canterbury.
A win for Hawke’s Bay, in the side’s last home game of the season, would keep the side within the top 8 with away games to play against Southland and, in a possible Ranfurly Shield challenge, against Wellington.
Manawatū, placed 13th on the 14-team ladder, need the win to go with just two others. That includes the biggest surprise of the season, victory over currently second-placed Auckland at Eden Park in Auckland. The Turbos have an away game against Counties Manukau and a home match against Southland to follow.
Ironically it was a Hawke’s Bay second division final loss to Southland, and the failure to win promotion to the first division, that sparked the controversial merger plan which first became public in 1996.
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Under the watchful eye of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and some opposition in the regions, the unions formed a NPC teams merger under the banner of the Central Vikings amid hopes that the regions might become a sixth New Zealand franchise base in Super Rugby which was emerging at the same time.
While the team dominated second-division rugby for two seasons, it was hammered in the 1997 final after the NZRU determined it would not be promoted even if it won and more time was needed to prove the case. After victory in the 1998 final, the experiment collapsed amid crippling financial effects on the two unions.
Amid the notion that it’s always the next match that counts, and the history that doesn’t, the facts are that in a background of neighbourly rivalry where away wins were once rare, Hawke’s Bay has had a series of mainly comfortable triumphs in seven NPC matches between the two unions since Manawatū last beat Hawke’s Bay in 2014. That included the Magpies four times scoring more than 40 points.
Manawatū has beaten Hawke’s Bay just once in an NPC game in Hawke’s Bay in 1981 when Manawatū were the defending champions.
To get the Magpies back on track, after two big away losses to Northland and Auckland and then last Saturday’s three-point loss to Bay of Plenty at McLean Park, head coach Brock James has retained the tight five in the forwards from the weekend’s match. In a revamping of the loose trio, he retains flanker Josh Kaifa, who will become the sixth player in Friday’s forward pack to achieve 50 appearances for the Magpies.
He came from Auckland to play for the Bay in 2018 and is joined in the starting line-up by centre and former Onehunga High School first-15 teammate Stacey Ili, who has appeared in 57 matches for the Bay, also since 2018.
The goal-kicking style of Lincoln McClutchie, who has now scored 404 points for Hawke's Bay. He is heading for a place in the top five in 140 years of Hawke's Bay rugby. Photo / NZME
Halfback Brad Weber gets his 46th appearance for the Magpies, needing the side to get to at least the semi-finals if he is to reach the half-century before heading for a contract in France at the end of the season.
First five-eighths Lincoln McClutchie continues as the only Magpie to have appeared in every game for the team this year, being the NPC’s top-scorer for the season to date with 75 points.
With 12 points last Saturday, McClutchie, aged 24, passed 400 points for the Bay, and with 404 to his name for Hawke’s Bay since 2018 he’s within sight of becoming No 4 on the list of top Magpies scorers in the near 140 years of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union.
Heading the list is the late Jarrod Cunningham who scored 1007 points from 1990-1998 (plus 173 points for the Central Vikings). Ian Bishop scored 631 from 1963 to 1972, including the 1966-1969 Ranfurly Shield era, and Ihaia West, a hero of the Magpies next Ranfurly Shield win, in 2013, scored 628 points from 2012 to 2017.
Next are the late Tony Small (435pts from 1956 to 1965) and Matthew Berquist (423 from 2006-2014).
The Hawke’s Bay Magpies team for the NPC game against the Manawatū Turbos at McLean Park, Napier, on Friday, starting at 7.05pm, is: 1 Pouri Rakete Stones, 2 Tyrone Thompson, 3 Joel Hintz, 4 Geoff Cridge, 5 Tom Parsons, (captain), 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Sam Smith, 8 Marino Mikaele Tu’u, 9 Brad Weber, 10 Lincoln McClutchie, 11 Jonah Lowe, 12 Stacey Ili, 13 Nick Grigg, 14 Ollie Sapsford, 15 Caleb Makene. Subs: 16 Kianu Kereru Symes, 17 Tim Farrell, 18 Bo Abra, 19 Frank Lochore, 20 Patrick Tuifua, 21 Sam Wye, 22 Chase Tiatia, 23 Paula Balekana.
