2023 Hawke's Bay Club Rugby
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Just this minute back from Park Island and am delighted to report to @Magpie_in_aus that our Texans triumphed in very satisfying order over @Stockcar86 's Napier Old Boys by the tune of 35 - 24 on a field right in their backyard. It would have been classified as mightily satisfying if NOB-M didn't get the four try bonus but sometimes you don't always get what you want. Mr. Bredin surprised us with nowhere near the number of penalties expected by the soothsayers and hardly anything that drew the ire of either team's supporters.
The Napier Old Boys outfit looked will drilled and did not make many mistakes but despite probably shading the possession and territorial statistics did not really look like winning at any stage. My Tech side were a bit of a mixture with some really good fast striking backline moves and quite a few half breaks by the one and two out runners and about three or four real big line breaks by various players (my old eyes aren't quite as sharp as they used to be in the dark!) that looked certain tries but alas an equal number of dropped passes and some pretty sold Napier Old Boys defence put paid to the try being scored.
Napier Old Boys also had a few line breaks, with most of them from broken play, through a slightly out of sorts defensive performance by the Texans. Having two new guys in midfield playing together for the first time probably contributed to that but at least now we have something to work with in plugging the leaks now that the guys know more about each other.
Both teams had a few wonky lineouts and by the end of the game the Texan's scrum was well on top. It was with a bit of chagrin that I had to grit my teeth at least twice as a result of penalties being awarded for early pushes when it was patently obvious that the real problem was Napier Old Boys were struggling to hold my guys almost from the engage call much less before push was allowed.
All in all a nice evening for rugby that was not cold but the rugby was not quite as solid and slick as it could have been, at least for my side anyway. Still I'm pleased to have reduced my indebtedness to @stockcar86 to about five or six jugs now after the Texans consecutive punishings of his mob on their home ground!
Final Score if it has not been mentioned above
NOB-M 24 - 35 Altherm Napier Tech Old Boys
Not sure of the other results so will have to await @Stargazer to ferret those out.
Tech are at home to Hastings Rugby and Sports on Saturday in the next game. -
@Higgins said in 2023 Hawke's Bay Club Rugby:
Just this minute back from Park Island and am delighted to report to @Magpie_in_aus that our Texans triumphed in very satisfying order over @Stockcar86 's Napier Old Boys by the tune of 35 - 22 on a field right in their backyard. It would have been classified as mightily satisfying if NOB-M didn't get the four try bonus but sometimes you don't always get what you want. Mr. Bredin was a surprise with hardly anything that drew the ire of either team's supporters.
The Napier Old Boys outfit looked will drilled and did not make many mistakes but despite probably shading the possession and territorial statistics did not really look like winning at any stage. My Tech side were a bit of a mixture with some really good fast striking backline moves and quite a few half breaks by the one and two out runners and about three or four real big line breaks by various players (my old eyes aren't quite as sharp as they used to be in the dark!) that looked certain tries but alas an equal number of dropped passes and some pretty sold Napier Old Boys defence put paid to the try being scored.
Napier Old Boys also had a few line breaks through a slightly out of sorts defensive performance by the Texans. Having 2 new guys in midfield playing together for the first time probably contributed to that but at least now we have something to work with in plugging the leaks now that the guys know more about each other.
All in all a nice evening for rugby that was not cold but the rugby was not quite as solid and slick as it could have been, at least for my side anyway. Skill I'm pleased to have reduced my indebtedness to @stockcar86 to about five or six jugs now after the Texans consecutive punishings of his mob on their home ground!
Final Score if it has not been mentioned above
Nob-M 24 - 35 Altherm Napier Tech Old Boys
Not sure of the other results so will have to await @Stargazer to ferret those out.
Tech are at home to Hasting Rugby and Sports on Saturday in the next game.well done. My missus is sick, so couldn't come out tonight, but result was not unexpected.
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Sadly my inaccurate scoring run starting late last season somehow continues with the Official HBRFU Results Board showing the following
Taradale 59 - 20 Clive
Hastings Rugby & Sports 39 - 11 Tamatea
Central Hawkes Bay 31- 05 Havelock North (still in progress)
NOB-M 22 - 34 Altherm Napier Tech Old Boys (could have sworn it was 24 - 35 but there you go!)
Napier Pirates 37 - 24 MAC -
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@Number-10 Oh, that's nice to know. Now knowing that does make me a bit miffed that it was a midweek night game and the opportunity to enjoy the spoils of victory in the vanquished's clubrooms was not an option!
Come to think of it there was some sort of presentation centrefield immediately after Mr. Bredin blew for full time so guess the handing over of the trophy was what must have been happening. Having said that I did not notice a trophy on display when I dropped the gear I helped carry back from the sidelines to the changing rooms afterward, must have got there too soon.
Presumably the trophy must only be at stake in the holder's home games? -
The women's Marsh Cup competition starts today, and I've gone quickly through the squad lists.
Positive: Teilah Ferguson back playing for Tech. Hopefully she will be available for the Tui this year, because we need a good replacement for Amelia Pasikala, and she won't return to Wellington.
Positive: Kahlia Awa seems to be in the MAC squad, so hopefully also returning to the Tui and not poached by Wellington.
Negative: I haven't seen Harmony Kautai on any list.
A few other Tui missing, too.
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Handy graphic if you want to know how the premiers competition works, this year.
They still haven't returned to the "new" format they announced for the 2020 season, which was postponed due to Covid to 2021, and changed again due to Covid for 2022. In that "new" format, the top 8 teams from the Nash Cup were to progress to the Maddison Trophy, and the bottom 2 teams were to compete with the 6 best Town & Country teams for the Hepa Paewai Memorial Trophy in round 2 Division 1. Now, it's the top 6 Nash Cup teams progressing to the Maddison Trophy and only one Town & Country team will go into Division 1.
Is this again temporary, or will they settle on this format? I wish the HBRU would make up its mind and clearly explain what the format is from now on, with Covid at this stage no longer interfering with the comp
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Can't really give too much insight into the Altherm Tech match against Hartings RSC as I was slightly delayed getting there after celebrations for my Metro Direct Tech Colts' thumping 51 - 28 away win over Napier Old Boys kind of took presidence! Anyway I got there at halftime where it was Tech 19 - 05 Hastings. Apparently Hastings thumbed their noses at my guys by scoring first and proved more than annoying during the remainder of the half.
Frankly the second half was a real old sytle slogfest with the forward packs battling it out with plenty of vigour but with my guys holding an advantage out in the backs. Hastings had the sea breeze behind them in and most times they snaffled the ball off my guys when in their own half they hoofed it back downfield and Tech had to start all over again. It remained deadlocked at the 1/2 time score until right on full time when a penalty from right in front was smacked right over the black dot and Hastings was denied a close loss bonus point (but it also denied my guys a chance of the four try bonus.). The kick was a certainty whereas the try was at longer odds so I was quite happy to deny them a point in the circumstances. There were some pretty fierce clashes in the forward play and I suspect there would be a good number of sore bodies when the guys try to get out of bed in the morning.The Tech backs always looked more threatening with Bethel Malasia proving a bit of a handful when he got his mitts on the ball in the wider channels. Closer in it was my Mr. Popoali'i that was responsible for some nice breaks as well as some crunching engagements that often had him breaking the tackle. I certainly would not like to have to tackle him if I could avoid it! Once again, much like the win over Napier Old Boys on Wednesday night, there were a number of very near misses that when everything is on song would have been converted into points/tries.
Up front it was pretty even but similar to Wednesday night the Texans got on top in the scrums toward the end and managed to snaffle at least half a dozen opposition lineout throws, so I was pleased about that. Liam Udy-Johns was again into everything but he was ably supported by the rest of the pack where no one played poorly. I suppose you could almost say the same about the Hastings side which looked to have a fair bit of youth in it. They were certainly more competitive than I thought they might be so kudos to them for that.
Despite seeing only the second half it was enough to further confirm that Tech will flog someone when everything sticks but also showed that there is a fair bit of grit amongst the opposition teams that my guys have come up against.
Next challenge for the Hawkes Bay Challenge Shield are the vastly improved Napier Pirates who take on The Texans at Whitmore Park next weekend. It promises to be a much close encounter than the big margin there was the last time the two sides met.
