Randall Bishop – Tawa’s Mr. Reliable set to play his 200th Premier match

Randall Bishop gets his kick away last Saturday in Tawa’s one-point win over Paremata-Plimmerton. Photo: Stewart Baird.

• By Steven White

Some 15 seasons after making his Premier debut, and three Jubilee Cup titles two more finals appearances and a Horowhenua-Kapiti title later, Randall Bishop is set to run out to play his 200^th match for Tawa against Marist St Pat’s at Evans Bay Park this Saturday.

The first-five, wing and fullback has been a mainstay in Tawa’s team over the course of all their success in the modern era and is known as the sort of dependable, reliable player that every team in the competition wants in their line-up.

The fact that the opposition for his milestone match is MSP is special, a team that himself and Tawa have had many big battles with over the years.

“Right from the start of my career, MSP have been one of our toughest games and they have always had really good players,” Bishop said this week.

“When I played them the first time back in 2011 in the changing room that week [then Tawa centre] Willie Lafaele said to everyone put your hand up if you have beaten MSP and only one guy did.”

“MSP are coming off two wins to start this year, and it looks like they are building momentum, so it should be a memorable occasion for me to play my 200^th game for my club.”

Bishop was starting fullback in Tawa’s team that won their first Jubilee Cup final in 2013 their second in 2016 and their third in 2021. The second two of these wins were over MSP, while there were some other big matches over them such as this last round Swindale Shield below in 2013 that was a draw but enough for Tawa to win the Swindale Shield.

An early highlight and a game and season that still sticks out for Bishop was two years before that triumphant 2013 Swindale Shield-Jubilee Cup success – winning the Hardham Cup.

“That 2011 season [also Bishop’s first with Tawa] was special as we were a new group coming together and we faced our own challenges. At one point we were one loss away from being relegated and dropping down to the old Senior second grade, as Rimutaka were rising and making their bid for Swindale Shield promotion.”

Rimutaka actually beat Tawa 12-8 out at Maoribank Park, but a win over HOBM B and then a 20-0 win over the Wests Roosters propelled Tawa to the semi-finals. They then played Rimutaka in their semi-final, this time winning 62-20, before meeting Old Boys University in the final.

“A lot of that group stayed together and became part of those Jubilee Cup winning teams in 2013 and 2016.”

One of those players was Junior Togia, who was the previous Tawa player to bring up 200 Premier games for the club.

“In 2013 our backline was full of awesome players. There was Steve So’oialo at halfback, his brother James at first-five, Jeff Makaulu, Shaun Treeby, Alfred Pelenise who had played for the Crusaders and Timoci Serawalu at centre.”

Bishop at the front on the right in Tawa’s famous all-club photo following the 2013 Jubilee Cup win. 

Three years later Bishop was joined in the backs by some new young players like Kemara Hauiti-Parapara, Pepesana Patafilo and Elijah Va’a Brooking and together they beat MSP 24-20 in the final.

Bishop running hard in the 2016 Jubilee Cup final. Kemara Hauiti-Parapara on this inside. 

Reflecting on the first two weeks of this current season that has seen Tawa lose badly 3-48 to Petone in week one and then pip Paremata-Plimmerton 26-25 at home, there was plenty to work on at training.

“We just made too many errors all over the park against Petone, and we knew if we could just fix those small mistakes we were going to be a completely different team.

“Paremata-Plimmerton are also a very good team, and it is just one of those local battles that could have gone either way.”

Tawa wrapped up their win with a few minutes to play when George Risale rumbled over to score his second try. They then had to watch for Mika Cooper-Finau’s penalty attempt to sail wide.

“Mika played a few games for Tawa before moving to Paremata-Plimmerton, along with some others such as James and Tony Coburn, and lock Ihakara Masoe, who is also me and my brother Evan’s cousin. So there is a lot of familiarity between the teams which showed on the field.”

It perhaps needn’t have been so tight at the end, and in large part because of Bishop’s kick into the in-goal that forced a 5-metre scrum, only for Tawa to concede an attacking scrum penalty and lose their chance. See below:

Bishop’s sporting journey started at Mana College – where he is back at in 2026 as a teacher and head coach of the basketball team and assistant rugby coach.

In a previous story with Bishop, which was published on Club Rugby on the eve of the 2016 Jubilee Cup final, Bishop reflected on his school sporting career in which he played three major finals.

In 2005 Bishop helped Mana make the Premier One final for the first time ever. Though they lost to Wellington College in the decider, the semi-final win over St. Patrick’s College Silverstream was a herculean triumph.

“That was supposed to be Silverstream’s year. They had a stacked side. Guys like Mat Luamanu and Simon Malaeulu were huge for schoolboys, but we dug so deep that day. I reckon it’s still my favourite game of rugby.”.

Bishop made an even greater impression as a point guard in basketball. Mana only lost two games to two years and they were National finals to Avondale College in 2004 and Westlake Boys’ High School in 2005.

“It was pretty disappointing to lose twice, but it was a huge achievement for a school like Mana to make a National final. We cleaned up Wellington which was a bit of a shock. I remember Westlake had Thomas Abercrombie in their team. They were great days.”

He left school and travelled to Minnesota on a basketball scholarship for a year, but returned home early and spent four seasons playing for the Saints and was a regular NBL player in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2010 he helped the Saints win the National Basketball League, but his minutes on court were diminishing as the team was stacked with Tall Blacks and imports.

In 2011 Bishop returned to rugby. What prompted the change?

“I was looking for something different and that summer I was playing touch locally and Steve So’oialo had just come back from England and joining Tawa and was looking for a first-five and asked me if I was interested.

“I went down to pre-season that year and I loved it and have stayed ever since.”

There was later a brief stint playing for local team Toa in the Horowhenua-Kapiti competition. In 2018 Bishop and his brother Evan and several other notable players such as two of the Fermanis brothers, TJ and Ezra, won the Ramsbotham Cup with Toa, adding another title to their resumes.

Bishop returned to Toa in 2019 to play half the season as they made the semi-finals, returning to basketball for the majority of that rugby year to play for the Auckland Rangers in the NBL.

Having played his 100^th match for Tawa during the 2016 season, Bishop became a Tawa regular again from 2020 and he played his 150^th for Tawa in June 2022.

Above: Bishop pounces on an error and scores a runaway try in the 2021 Jubilee Cup semi-final against Hutt Old Boys Marist. Tawa won 29-18 and went on to beat MSP 36-7 in the following week’s final.

As a current teacher at Mana College and with a rich history in both basketball and rugby camps, Bishop has seen the change in young people’s priorities and habits.

He agrees that time is a valuable commodity in getting engagement and attention amongst the youth, and has watched the rise in basketball as a leading sport.

“Back in the day everyone was playing rugby and that was the thing to do, it feels like these days it has switched and now it is basketball.

“When we used to go to basketball nationals tournaments whoever was hosting it could run it on two courts, now these days you need six, seven or eight courts.”

Back to the rugby field, an emphasis at this time of the season is encouraging young players to get the small things right before trying to win the game on their own.

“Over the past few years we have had the big young loose forwards come to our club. Big lads, big ball runners, but we find that they might not have had much experience blowing out and cleaning out at rucks because at school they were the ball carriers and less so the supporting players.

“This is one reason why in the past few seasons it has taken Tawa several weeks to build into the competition.”

As for Bishop’s playing future, he is unclear about how long he will play for, citing outside and family commitments rather than a desire to stop playing as why he might hang up his boots when that day eventually arrives.

The next generation of Bishops are coming up through the ranks in basketball, netball and hockey, so there is lots on in his household.

Marist St Pat’s v Tawa, Evans Bay Park, Saturday at 2.45pm.