Hawke’s Bay Magpies NPC squad: New centres added, no Tyrone Thompson amid talk of code switch

Lincoln McClutchie in the Hawke's Bay Magpies match against the Southland Stags last season. McClutchie is back this year, and the Ranfurly Shield is at stake at McLean Park on August 17. The last time they met in a Shield match at McLean Park in 2022, Hawke's Bay won 69-24. Photo / Warren Buckland

Two more players from overseas have been named in the Hawke’s Bay Magpies squad for the Bunnings National Provincial Championship (NPC).

While most of the squad has been named player-by-player over recent weeks, the full squad of 40 was unveiled at a season’s launch on Monday.

Centres Luke Ripley, 22, from now shut-down Super Rugby Pacific franchise the Melbourne Rebels, and 25-year-old Le Roux Malan, a Namibian playing for the New England Free Jacks in the American Major League Rugby competition were the most notable of those not earlier listed.

Last week, the union announced the signing of Welsh fullback Mat Protheroe, and wing and former Australia sevens star Ben O’Donnell, who, with Highlanders wing Freedom Vahaakolo, recruited from Otago, made an immediate impact as a new back three, between them scoring four of the Magpies’ 12 tries in Saturday’s 80-5 Ranfurly Shield defence against Whanganui.

The most notable absentee is hooker Tyrone Thompson, a former Napier Boys’ High School student who has starred for the Chiefs in Super Rugby Pacific and had become an All Blacks contender, but who has been reported to be heading to join his twin brother in rugby league’s NRL at the Newcastle Knights.

Departures already included such players as now-former All Blacks halfback Brad Weber and loose forward Marino Mikaele-Tu’u, who departed for overseas contracts at the end of last season, and recently announced departures Ollie Sapsford, Caleb Makene, Chase Tiatia and Anzelo Tuitavuki. Another now plying the trade elsewhere is utility outside back Lolagi Visinia, who has signed back with Auckland, who he played in 40 matches for in 2012-16.

Of the 36 named in the 2023 squad in July last year, 10 are not in this year’s squad.

But there’s strength in such players as two-test All Black Folau Fakatava, who has missed selection for this year’s Rugby Championship tests, and a range of others who have had international experience since Super Rugby Pacific ended five weeks ago, including New Zealand Under-20 players Tom Allen and Josh Smith and New Caledonian French U20 representative Patrick Tuifua.

Another is first five-eighths Lincoln McClutchie, back from North American rugby and expected to add to the 454 points that place him fourth on the table of the Magpies’ most prolific scorers in the 140 years of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union, and to build on the reputation gained from being the top points-scorer in last year’s NPC, in which Hawke’s Bay reached the final for the first time.

The 40 include wing Jonah Lowe, who is not able to play during the season because of injury, and six others listed as injured or unavailable in the build-up, which includes a hit-out against Waikato in Hamilton on Saturday, before the opening match against North Harbour at North Harbour Stadium on August 11.

Meanwhile, the Hawke’s Bay Tui women’s squad have taken their first strides in a bid to emulate the 2023 highs with a training “match of three halves” in Palmerston North, and being beaten 43-27 by the Wellington Pride.

The match was played as the two teams stepped up preparations for the 2024 Farah Palmer Cup championship, which the Tui open with a match against Counties Manukau on August 17 as a curtain-raiser to the Hawke’s Bay Magpies’ defence of the Ranfurly Shield against Southland.

The Tui were beaten semifinalists last year in their first season back after being promoted back to the top grade.

In other representative games on Saturday, a Te Matau a Maui Hawke’s Bay Māori tāne team – including former Māori All Black, Hurricanes, Highlanders and Magpies prop Brendon Edmonds – also scored 12 tries, in beating a Wairoa sub-union XV 68-14 at Tareha Reserve, Taradale.

The Magpies have a pre-NPC hit-out against Waikato on Saturday and play their first match of the season against North Harbour at North Harbour Stadium on August 11, and the first home game, a Ranfurly Shield defence, against Southland on August 17.

The Hawke’s Bay Magpies squad for the 2024 Bunnings NPC are:

Jacob Devery (Hastings R&S), Kianu Kereru-Symes (Napier Tech OB), Dylan Homan(Napier Old Boys Marist), Pouri Rakete-Stones (Napier Pirate), Tim Farrell (Napier Tech OB), Lolani Faleiva (Taradale), Joe Apikotoa (Taradale), Joel Hintz (Central), Josh Smith (Hastings R&S), Frank Lochore (Central), Tom Parsons (Central), Isaia Walker-Leawere (Clive), Geoff Cridge (Central), Hunter Morrison (Taradale), Tom Allen (Havelock North), Hugh Renton (Hastings R&S), Patrick Tuifua (Hastings R&S), Josh Gimblett (Napier Old Boys Marist), Sam Smith (Havelock North), Cooper Flanders (Havelock North), Josh Kaifa (Central), Devan Flanders (Havelock North), Semi Vodosese (Central), Folau Fakatava (Hastings R&S), Ere Enari (Tamatea), Sam Wye (Taradale), Lincoln McClutchie (Tamatea), Harry Godfrey (Taradale), Nick Grigg (Central), Le Roux Malan (New England Free Jacks), Danny Toala (Hastings R&S), Kienan Higgins (Taradale), Meni Manase (MAC), Jonah Lowe (Clive), Lukas Ripley (Melbourne Rebels), Neria Fomai (Hastings R&S), Freedom Vahaakolo (Otago), Mat Protheroe (Ospreys), Ben O’Donnell (ACT Brumbies), Andrew Tauatevalu (Napier Pirate).