The Scout: The best of the weekend's First XV rugby

Want to know who the next Beauden Barrett or Kieran Read will be? In his weekly column for the Herald, schoolboy rugby expert Herschel Fruean singles out the best First XV matches of the weekend, and some rising stars to watch. Fruean will travel New Zealand looking for the best talent the country has to offer, preview the big games every Friday, provide a wrap of all the results on Sunday, and rank the top 15 First XV teams (based on their performances throughout the season) every Monday morning.

St Kents go down hard

If King's College's win over St Kentigern College wasn't a surprise, the scoreline certainly was. Kings thumped New Zealand's top ranked team 52-19 on Saturday, sending a message to the rest of the competition. It's the first time since the mid 2000s anyone has scored 50 points against St Kents.

King's standout Meihana Grindley was the main man for the winners, and look for the Chiefs or Blues to make a play for his services for the upcoming U18 regional selections.

Grindley is from Taranaki but has been at King's since Year 9 and has a big future ahead of him.

Elsewhere, De La Salle beat Mount Albert Grammar School 36-7. Watch out for De La Salle captain Kitiona Vai who was the game's standout at openside.

In other games, Rosmini College had a big win and are putting things together quicker then I thought they would, thrashing Orewa College 51-17, while Manurewa HS edged Massey HS 19-11.

Whangarei BHS are still working hard to get all their combinations right and when that happens they are going to be a problem for all the teams in the Harbour Comp, including Westlake BHS. Whangarei BHS beat Takapuna GS 31-0, while Westlake BHS won 41-0 over Rangitoto College.

This week's Top 15 schools

1. St Kentigern College
2. Hastings Boys' High School
3. Rotorua Boys' High School
4. Otago Boys' High School
5. Hamilton Boys' High School
6. Auckland Grammar School
7. King's College
8. Kelston Boys' High School
9. Scots College
10. Sacred Heart College
11. Nelson College
12. St Bede's College
13. Tauranga Boys College
14. New Plymouth Boys' High School
15. St Peter's College

St Andrews triumph

Last week St Thomas of Canterbury College stunned Christchurch BHS for the first time in in the UC Championship, and we all knew whoever that next team was to play Christchurch BHS was going to be in for a long day.

We also knew that St Thomas had a real opportunity to grab this moment and try and extend their run for as long as they could. However, they came up against a St Andrews College team who has not lost a game, and St Andrews were too good, claiming the Trust Bank Cup 26-14.

As for Christchurch BHS, well, poor Ashburton Combined had to suffer that CBHS wrath that had been building up all week after that shock loss.

This game was in the books before it started, but the question was how big the win would be, and Christchurch BHS put up a basketball score - winning 108-0. I have this strong feeling that they won't lose for the rest of the regular season.

Close games in Central

Southern Cross Campus has started the year very strongly and so I thought I would go see them and I wasn't disappointed. This school really has some talented boys playing, but the only thing is that they are all league players - so much so that on kickoffs they set to receive the ball like a league team would.

Southern Cross won 26-13 over Mangere College, but if Southern Cross gets a rugby coach I think they could match up well with the bottom five teams of the 1A.

The CNI Comp (Central North Island Comp) had a bunch of close games with St Paul's Collegiate beating Lindisfarne College 21-19, while down in Feilding there was a tight win to Francis Douglas MC over Feilding HS, 25-22.

Wesley College came down to St Peter's School Cambridge and went home with a 17-all draw, before St John's College Hastings went at it with Rathkeale College in a massive game and won 19-15.

The only blowout came with Wanganui Collegiate coming into Hamilton and smashing St John's College Hamilton, 59-14. The CNI is a competition definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Underway in Wellington

The Wellington competition got underway with some pretty interesting scores as well.

St Patrick's College Silverstream only beat Wairarapa College 19 -12, with Tafa Tafa, the No 8 for Wairarapa College, having a massive game. Silverstream may have rested some key players though, because they have a clash with (14) New Plymouth BHS on Wednesday, which is going to be a massive game.

(9) Scots College won 48-19 over Rongotai, Wellington College got a big score on the board, beating HIBS 59-0, Aotea College thrashed St Bernard's College 43-7 and St Patrick's College Town won 62-18 over Kapiti College.

Down South

Down in the "Deep South" Waitaki BHS won big over South Otago HS 52-0 which was expected. South Otago probably have a year or two of rebuilding before they have a strong team, which is the usual time period for schools of that size.

Mt Aspiring College beat the new Otago Combined team 47-5, and we also have to be patient with this Otago Combined team, because they will need two or three years to sort it all out.

Dunstan HS and St Kevin's College would have been the game to go to, because they couldn't sfind out a winner and went home with a thrilling 21-all draw.