Hawkes Bay Schoolboy Rugby

[Stargazer]

Knock on Hastings Boys .. such a pity. That passage of play was awesome. Hamilton's dominance totally gone after their third try.

[Stargazer]

Rotorua have scored their bonus point try, so Hastings must win this to reach the final. A draw isn't enough. They need a converted try and have about 3 minutes to do it. No pressure.

[Stargazer]

Hastings Boys steal the ball from Hamilton's line-out (in Hamilton's half).

[Stargazer]

Penalty Hastings. Line-out far into Hamilton's half. Come on boys!!

[Stargazer]

Line-out maul .. Hastings advantage ...

[Stargazer]

Another penalty to Hastings. Hamilton are warned by the ref.

Hastings opt for the scrum.

[Stargazer]

Time's up.

[Stargazer]

Another penalty to Hastings. Not rolling away.

[Stargazer]

Another scrum close to Hamilton's try line.

[Stargazer]

Another penalty to Hastings. The ref blows his whistle twice, but doesn't have the guts to give Hamilton a card.

[Stargazer]

Another Hastings scrum.

[Stargazer]

Another penalty to Hastings. It's a yellow for Hamilton. Finally. Not sure who was sent off. Hopefully a forward.

[Stargazer]

Hastings scrum.

[Stargazer]

By all means, Hastings seemed to score but the ref says Tali Ioasa knocked on. Bugger, bugger, bugger.

Full time: Hastings Boys 21 - 26 Hamilton Boys

Hastings so deserved that win, but it's not to be!

No Hawke's Bay school in the Super 8 Final this year.

Rotorua has beaten NP 26 - 10.

[Stargazer]

Lindisfarne lost 27 - 34 to St Peter's in their last CNI game.

[Stargazer]

Both Hastings Boys and Napier Boys will now focus on winning the Hurricanes Cup, which is the qualifier for the Top 4. Hastings' Boys will go in as first seed from the Super 8 and play the Wellington runners up (whoever they're going to be).

Napier Boys will have to wait whether there will be a challenger for the semi-final spot against the Wellington winners. Most likely that challenge will come from Palmerston North, who they've already beaten this season. It's kind of ridiculous that Palmy may get a second shot, but very rarely there are challenges from other schools. The challenges were originally meant for schools from the Hurricanes regions that don't play Super 8, but they never do (thinking, particularly, of CNI schools from the Hurricanes region like Feilding HS or Whanganui Collegiate) or even lower ranked schools.

[Nepia]

@Stargazer said in Hawkes Bay Schoolboy Rugby:

By all means, Hastings seemed to score but the ref says Tali Ioasa knocked on. Bugger, bugger, bugger.

Full time: Hastings Boys 21 - 26 Hamilton Boys

Hastings so deserved that win, but it's not to be!

No Hawke's Bay school in the Super 8 Final this year.

Rotorua has beaten NP 26 - 10.

So close. That loss to Palmy hd a big impact as it was a game they should have won.

Hopefully they progress through to the Top 4 and get another shot at the evil empire.

[Stargazer]

@Nepia Yep, and the only reason Rotorua is in the Super 8 Final is because of bonus points. They didn't win more games.

[Nepia]

@Stargazer said in Hawkes Bay Schoolboy Rugby:

@Nepia Yep, and the only reason Rotorua is in the Super 8 Final is because of bonus points. They didn't win more games.

They did over Hastings but not over Napier. Napier had more wins than Hastings but far fewer bonus points, personally that makes Hastings finishing higher than them on the table even sweeter, as after all Napier is the HB evil empire.

TBF, only three games count - Top 4 final, Super 8 final, and v Napier Boys. So 1/3 for the season so far.

[Stargazer]

@Nepia Hurricanes Cup final counts, too. Especially because in recent years that has been a game between Napier and Hastings Boys' and it's the ticket to the Top 4.