NPC rugby: Will the real Magpies please stand up against Auckland?

In the modern rugby world of rotation, there might be not too much significant about the Hawke’s Bay Magpies team named for the mission of redemption against Auckland in Saturday’s Bunnings Warehouse NPC clash.

But there are big changes from the side that started the frightful Friday night of a week ago that saw the Magpies hammered 63-19 by champions Taranaki, also at the park, when fans hoped to see the Bay eke some payback for their narrow loss to the Bulls in last year’s final.

Just eight of last Friday night’s run-on team get to start in what will be, in the ninth round, the Magpies’ first Saturday afternoon game of 2024, which in normal circumstances might draw McLean Park’s biggest NPC crowd of the season.

Hastings Rugby and Sports prop Joshua Smith, pictured playing for the New Zealand Under-20 side, is on the bench on Saturday with a potential Magpies debut in sight against Auckland at McLean Park. Photo / Photosport

After conceding 113 points in the last two games, the match could be the last of the season at home if they don’t win.

Notably back in the XV named on Thursday, apparently recovered from injury, are Tongan international Josh Kaifa on one flank, Harry Godfrey at fullback and Pouri Rakete-Stones in the front row, while back on the subs bench is hooker Tyrone Thompson.

Some minutes on debut are in store for 20-year-old prop Joshua Smith, who played for New Zealand earlier this year in the Under-20 World Cup in South Africa, who is in the reserves, as is Smith’s flatmate and Hastings Rugby and Sports teammate Patrick Tuifua, who played for France in the same tournament.

Among those still on the injured list midweek were No 8 Devan Flanders and halfback Folau Fakatava, while wing Neria Fomai joined the casualty list from a night on which cross-sideline traffic was at its most prolific in years.

It’s clear what the Magpies will need to do in a match where despite having the better overall form-line for the season, they are not the favourite to win.

The TAB had Auckland at $1.72 to win, the Magpies at $2.05, and as far as winning the championship, the Magpies have slipped to $15, with Auckland at $12.

The Magpies have only once in the eight NPC games this year scored first, five times they’ve been down by at least two tries before getting points on the board, and only twice have they been in front at halftime.

But, in the space of three games over a fortnight, Hawke’s Bay slid from having their best-ever winning start to an NPC first division or premiership season to the loss of the Ranfurly Shield and then two of the worst defeats in the 19 seasons since being invited into the new professional sphere of the NPC in 2006.

They had started with five wins in a row, which as an unbeaten run compared with the seven matches unbeaten, including a draw, at the start of the 2019 season.

The total of 113 points conceded in the latest two reversals is the most in back-to-back matches in the 213 outings the Magpies have had in the last 19 seasons.

With the Bulls having beaten North Harbour on Wednesday night, the Magpies have slipped to fifth place, and could slip to seventh if they are beaten and both Canterbury and Waikato win away games on Sunday, when Taranaki also have a home game against bottom-of-the-table Manawatū.

The good news is the Magpies have all but qualified for the playoffs, which Auckland are yet to do.

There’s history about this game. The two unions first met, with a Hawke’s Bay win, in 1889, and they played the NPC’s inaugural first division game, at McLean Park, with an Auckland win, in 1976.

But they have met just seven times in the last 19 seasons, Hawke’s Bay winning twice and achieving a 34-34 draw at Eden Park in 2010.

The two wins were a 47-13 victory as Napier celebrated the opening of McLean Park’s Graeme Lowe Stand in 2009, and a 17-12 Ranfurly Shield defence triumph on the same turf in 2015.

In the last two clashes Auckland won 25-24 at McLean Park in 2016, and 41-22 at Eden Park two years ago.

Hawke’s Bay Magpies team to play Auckland at McLean Park, Napier, on Saturday, starting at 2.05pm:

Pouri Rakete-Stones, Kianu Kereru Symes, Joel Hintz, Geoff Cridge, Tom Parsons (captain), Josh Kaifa, Sam Smith, Hugh Renton, Ereatara Enari, Lincoln McClutchie, Ben O’Donnell, Kienan Higgins, Nick Grigg, Freedom Vaha’akolo, Harry Godfrey. Reserves: Tyrone Thompson, Hadlee Hay-Horton, Josh Smith, Hunter Morrison, Patrick Tuifua, Sam Wye, LeRoux Malan, Andrew Tauatevalu.