Rotorua Boys' High School will be keen to get flyer Ngarohi McGarvey-Black into space against Wesley College on Saturday. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua Boys' High School will be keen to get flyer Ngarohi McGarvey-Black into space against Wesley College on Saturday. Photo / Ben Fraser
Just two sleeps remain until two traditional heavyweights of New Zealand secondary school rugby meet to decide who stays alive in the bid for a national title.
The winner of Rotorua Boys' High School's home game against Wesley College will book their place as one of the final eight teamsin the country, and confirm a contest with Hamilton Boys' High School for a spot in the top four.
The home side could hardly have had a better build-up than last weekend's 47-34 demolition of Tauranga Boys' College, especially since a relatively poor second half has given the coaching staff plenty of reason to stop players from getting ahead of themselves.
Rotorua Boys' coach Bruce Buckton knows Wesley will be a different proposition to the side his team narrowly beat earlier in the season. "Wesley is a bit of an unknown - they've got no sort of programme back in Counties for them to come through so they really build for this time of year," he said.
"We know what they are capable of, we just have to trust our game and trust our offence and defence. There's a lot of belief in this team and I know we can do it."
Wesley come into the match on the back of a 66-0 defeat of Rosehill College a fortnight ago and a 30-10 defeat of Manurewa High School to retain the Counties Manukau secondary school title last weekend.
The matchwill kick off at 12.30pm. Saturday also marks Bay of Plenty Secondary School finals day at Rotorua International Stadium. Aquinas College meets Whakatane High School at 1.30pm, with the day's first game at 10am.
