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Wellington Academy first-five Thompson Tukapua lines up a conversion on Saturday.
This is our regular Monday morning news and happenings column. It is a collaborative effort, so to contribute please get in touch. Our content remains sparse and patchy, but that is because it is still mid-February!
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Monday afternoon updates: As for rugby coming up this weekend that we know of, the Hurricanes play the Fijian Drua at home in Napier. While the Hurricanes missed out to the Crusaders on Friday, the Drua lost 32-36 to the Brumbies on Saturday.
The Hurricanes Poua play the South Island Matatu in their second pre-season fixture at the NZCIS at 12.00pm on Saturday.
For the most part, rugby clubs are hard at work in pre-season training and organising mode. Still a couple of weeks away at least until the start of meaningful pre-season and internal trial matches to confirm Senior squads.
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Lots of injuries heading into the start of the Super Rugby season. Any particular reason why?
On that subject, Look out for some big news on Billy Proctor in the next couple of days.
Proctor’s and Riley Higgins‘ omissions from the Hurricanes with no explanations was a curiosity of the first team naming late last week.
Update: The Stuff website reported that Riley Higgins has a broken hand and will be out for sometime. The same article quoted coach Clark Laidlaw as saying they are hoping to have Proctor back this coming weekend, so we hopefully that is the case. The link to the story is here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360583095/hurricanes-suffer-fresh-injury-blow-after-riley-higgins-breaks-hand-training
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A dream debut for Old Boys University halfback Kyle Preston for the Crusaders against the Hurricanes on Super Rugby’s opening night on Friday.
The fit as fiddle Preston came on in the seventh minute as an injury replacement for Noah Hotham with his side down 0-14 and had scored two tries by early in the second half and soon almost scored a third. That third try did come with just under five minutes to play as the Crusaders won 33-35.
Preston has scored 33 tries in last 47 matches for Old Boys University.
Harkin’s OBU teammate Callum Harkin made his Hurricanes debut at fullback and kicked a 50 metre penalty in the second half and missed a late kick for a bonus point.
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Expect some good players to miss out across multiple positions when the initial 34-player Hurricanes U20s are named publicly early this week (as early as Monday). The rugby between the Wellington, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay Academies was just as competitive on Saturday as it had been last week.
The Wellington team at the presentation on Saturday at Massey.
Wellington were fast out of the blocks in the first game against Hawke’s Bay, scoring tries through first year lock Johnny Falloon out of Rathkeale College and Thompson Tukapua out of St Pat’s Silverstream. Hawke’s Bay made numerous errors including several passes thrown into touch and Wellington won 22-0. Lookout out for Wellington’s flankers, Drew Berg-Mclean out of St Pat’s Silverstream and Braith Ingram out of Petone and formerly captain of Gisborne Boys’ High School. Both were turnover merchants in this game and the match that followed against Manawatu.
In the second game, Manawatu broke through for two tries to lead Hawke’s Bay 12-0. The first was after Hawke’s Bay had been pressing to score but a breakout saw left wing Malachi Kurei soon cross for the Junior Turbos. Kurei in distinctive pink headgear, is out of Bay of Plenty and a former student at Trident High School perhaps best known in recent years for producing triathlete Hayden Wilde.
No. 8 Mosese Bason is a player who seems to time his impact on games perfectly. When his team needs someone to step up and do something special, Bason is that player. Reminds us of a young Filo Tiatia back in the day. Like Tiatia, when the tryline is near and he is hunting it, he is hard to stop. Both tries he scored on Saturday were like that, particularly his second against Wellington in the third game.
Trailing Manawatu 0-12, Hawke’s Bay conceded a third from close range to go down 0-19 and they were flagging. They then scored one of the tries of the day through second five Sio Folau who was the inside for the final pass, after some earlier good work in broken play by the fleet-footed right wing C.J. Mienie and good support play on the far touchline by captain and blindside Oscar Ritchie.
Manawatu backed up in the third game against Wellington who had a rest in between and Wellington soon scored to make it 7-0. Manawatu then scored two quick tries to go ahead 14-7. Bason scored from close range and then fullback Kami Ratuiba showed good pace and good swan dive technique to score. Manawatu’s defence was good and held Wellington out. Left wing Kurei would also go close to scoring a breakout try but he was brought down in an excellent covering tackle by Tawa fullback Jacob Denyer. Wellington finally crossed again to flanker Berg-Mclean and first five Tukupua’s conversion made it 14-14.
With several minutes still to play, both sides had chances to win. First, Manawatu attacked through several phases off an scrum near the line but turned it over. Second, Wellington missed a similar opportunity but knocked on.
The trophy was presented to Wellington centre and captain Jacob Kennedy, representing the Johnsonville club, with the late Sam Doyle’s family there to present it, his wife Tracey and three children.
The Hurricanes U20s meet the Chiefs this coming Saturday in Taupo in a ‘Scenarios’ game, before a full game against the Crusaders at Wellington Stadium on 1 March and then the Super Rugby U20s tournament in Taupo from 12-23 March.
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The Hurricanes Facebook page administrator went missing on Thursday, on the eve of the season, and has yet to resurface at the time of publishing this.
As well as the Hurricanes themselves, the Hurricanes Hunters (Development) team played the Crusaders Development on Friday afternoon as the curtain-raiser to their season opener. There might have been some interest in that team selection or their result or how it happened if it was publicised.
It can be reported that the Crusaders Development team beat the Hurricanes Development side 36-24 – although that is the extent of publicly revealed anywhere about this match, and the Crusaders website was also empty of current information as of Monday morning. It is almost as if all these communications people are all on strike.
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Streakers at sports events. In New Zealand they are lauded but in some countries overseas like Australia there are heavy fines and long or life bans for such behaviour. In the US (or in some states) they are put on the sex register’s list.
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Perhaps related to rugby’s early season injury toll alluded to above, it was also a shame that several leading U20s players from the three teams in Saturday’s Sam Doyle Trophy/Hurricanes U20s trials weren’t able to play at Massey on Saturday because they were in action for the Hurricanes Hunters in Christchurch the previous afternoon. For example, last week’s Wellington captain Harry Irving and Wellington Lions Stanley Solomon were Wellington’s water boys.
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Just one Wellington player named across two teams for this coming weekend’s SVNS tournament in Vancouver – that being Dhys Faleafaga in the Black Ferns Sevens.
Congratulations to Manawatu’s Manukura school-leaver Maia Davis for making the women’s team.
Wellington’s Justine McGregor missed out on making the trip, not listed in the media release as injured, while Roderick Solo was listed in it as injured. Solo had an operation but that was three months ago. We emailed the sevens media contact asking for more information but there was no reply.
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Going forward, should provincial rugby unions prioritise their limited resources on Tik Tok and Instagram over statistics and record keeping?
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An ouch’ for Highlanders fans, their team conceding a last-gasp try to lose their first match to the Waratahs on Friday, while the Chiefs took down the Blues at Eden Park.
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Club Rugby is still working on trying to get a Swindale Shield ‘tipping competition’ off the ground for this year – 50/50 on this happening and we will find out really soon if this is viable!
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