2023 School Rugby

[Bovidae]

Weather permitting I am looking to go to the St John's vs FDMC game.

There are a couple of tasty CNI games in the next month, which should be a good watch (if there isn't a clash with the Super 8 home games).

[Stargazer]

Late result from Wednesday 17 May 2023

Sports exchange
Westlake BHS 34 - 12 Tauranga BC

[Stargazer]

The World Schools Festival will be held from 12 to 17 December 2023. They'll add more competitions to the Cup competition, but no further explanation yet, than this:

We are planning to go bigger and even better in 2023 and adding 3 new 8 team competition categories for U18s men and women to compete. These new competitions will be added to the WSF week, alongside the Cup competition, and ensure more opportunities for schools and teams to participate

[Bovidae]

They have already announced some participating teams - Cardiff and Vale, and Hartpury College (Eng).

[Stargazer]

Results - Saturday 20 May 2023

Auckland 1A
Round 3

• St Kentigern 17 - 10 De La Salle College
• Liston College 9 - 5 Kelston BHS
• Sacred Heart College 36 - 7 St Paul's College
• Mt Albert Grammar School 17 - 15 King's College
• Dilworth School 10 - 31 St Peter's College
• Auckland Grammar School 44 - 0 Tangaroa College

Harbour 1A
Round 4

• Massey HS 10 - 8 Rosmini College
• Westlake BHS 68 - 7 Takapuna Grammar
• Rangitoto College 3 - 24 Whangarei BHS
• Orewa College 23 - 3 Manurewa HS

Central North Island
Round 2

• St John's College, Hamilton 34 - 17 Francis Douglas MC
• St Peter's Cambridge 12 - 36 Whanganui Collegiate School
• Wesley College 58 - 0 Lindisfarne College
• Feilding HS 34 - 13 St John's, Hastings
• Rathkeale College 20 - 28 St Paul's Collegiate

Super 8
Round 1

• Gisborne BHS 5 - 29 Napier BHs

Wellington Premiership
Round 1

• St Pat's Silverstream 47 - 5 Wairarapa College
• Tawa College 10 - 36 Rongotai College
• Mana College 5 - 87 Scots College
• Hutt International BS 11 - 7 St Bernard's College

Miles Toyota Premiership
Round 2

• Christchurch BHS 10 - 14 Nelson College
• Marlborough Boys College 8 - 22 St Andrews College
• Timaru BHS 17 - 24 St Bede's College
• Selwyn Schools Combined 8 - 11 Christ’s College
• Shirley BHS 26 - 39 St Thomas of Canterbury College

Otago Schools Rugby Championship (Division 1) - part 1
Round 3

• King's HS 12 - 21 Otago BHS
• Waitaki BHS 12 - 38 John McGlashan College
• Wakatipu HS 10 - 55 Southland BHS

The CNI results aren't the official results (not published yet).

[Higgins]

@Stargazer That Feilding result looks to be a bit of a surprise considering Feilding had been going good in their pre-season games.

[Stargazer]

@Higgins Ha, that's because I wrote it down wrong! Thanks for noticing. Correcting it now!

[Bovidae]

An improvement by St Paul's College as I expected Sacred Heart to win by 50+. The St Paul's team is full of RL players.

[mimic]

Liston with the HUUUUGGGEEEE upset over Kelston.

I thought it was an error in publishing the result. 9-55 sounds a lot more likely than 9-5
Struggling to think of a bigger upset in Auckland 1A history?

[Stargazer]

There may be more games, but these are the ones I've been able to find:

Mid-week fixtures: 22 - 26 May 2023

Tuesday 23 May 2023
Sports exchange
Hutt International BS v Rathkeale College - 1.00pm

Thursday 25 May 2023
Super 8 (part of sports exchange)
Round 1
Hamilton BHS v New Plymouth BHS

Friday 26 May 2023
Miles Toyota Premiership
Round 3
Christ's College v Timaru BHS - 6.30pm

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Livestream:

[Bovidae]

Not that I ever used it, but I understand that the Sideline crew won't be covering games either. So apart from the Super 8 games there won't be any livestreams of games unless the schools themselves do it.

[Stargazer]

@Bovidae Yeah, the last good year of sideline live was 2020. Then they changed ownership and the quality went down. Last year, I had to ask my money back (which they fortunately did) because they announced games and then didn't stream them. Or the stream didn't work and they moved the game to Facebook (for free). Totally unreliable. I think schools just weren't interested in using them anymore.

This is a YouTube channel where sometimes games are streamed without any commentary.

There's also a FB page where sometimes games are streamed. Mostly games in Waikato/BOP.

https://www.facebook.com/bevsbroadcasting

[Stargazer]

https://www.nzrugby.co.nz/get-involved/schools/competitions-and-events/moascar-cup-history/

[Bovidae]

You think they would update the records.

[Pepe]

@Stargazer

Amongst the many prestigious winners of the Moascar Cup the mighty Okaihau District High School stands out as my favourite.

[Bovidae]

In the past the schools tended to play against other schools from their own region, hence the list of Northland schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

Another interesting point is that two more recent previous holders no longer exist anymore - Church College and St Stephen's.

[Bovidae]

Played in sunny and hot conditions (for winter).

Hamilton BHS 64 - 14 New Plymouth BHS (HT: 40-7)

[Stargazer]

@Bovidae That's a big score. I expect Hamilton Boys' to dominate Super 8 again, unfortunately. How do they do that? More resources than other schools? Scholarships?

[Bovidae]

@Stargazer Coaching. HBHS doesn't usually have the best athletes but are always very fit and well-drilled. There are a few players from out of Hamilton (greater Waikato, Northland) but the scholarships were usually for a Fijian (e.g., Reece, Narawa), and there are none of those in the team.

They only have 3 Super 8 home games and others are against the other top schools (Rotorua and Hastings).

BTW, they actually released a team list on their FB page before the game.

[Chester Draws]

Coaching, yes. They put a lot of their school budget into that, which other schools might spend on, you know, teaching.

But also a couple of other factors greatly help Hamilton BHS.

Sheer size. Some of the Super 8 are big too, but not all. Hamilton BHS is three times the size of Hastings BHS, for example, and twice the size of Rotorua BHS.

The lack of alternatives for good rugby boys in the Waikato. St John's is something of an alternative, but you have to accept being "Catholic" and they are only recently any good. The other good rugby schools in the area are all private. The other big state schools in the area have very poor rugby programs for their size. Cambridge, for example, don't produce anything like what they should.

A HBHS "ballot" for out of zone boys that magically has every good rugby boy selected. That combined with an aggressive targeting of young rugby boys to go to HBHS, means that they hoover up from the whole province.

Success breeds success, so the likes of Warren Gatland choose to send their sons there, when he could afford a private school.