Hawke’s Bay beat Otago 35-24 at McLean Park on Friday night to move to six wins from six matches, leaving them the only unbeaten side in the NPC at the halfway point of a season that marks 50 years of provincial rugby in New Zealand.
The Magpies scored five tries in Napier, to Folau Fakatava, Kianu Kereru-Symes, Cooper Flanders, Bailyn Sullivan and Harry Godfrey, and Godfrey landed all five conversions. Otago scored four tries of their own, two to Lucas Casey and one each to Jae Broomfield and Henry Bell, but every one of them came inside the first half hour. Hawke’s Bay scored the last three tries of the match, the final two arriving in the closing eight minutes, and Otago did not add a point after the break. Details of the scoring are recorded in the 2026 Hilux NPC season summary.
What makes the run unusual is the trophy cabinet it sits in. Hawke’s Bay have never won the top provincial title. Their honours list runs to a second division North Island title in 1979, second division titles in 1988, 1990, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005, and Championship division titles in 2011, 2015 and 2020, but the union has never been overall champion of the national competition, as set out in the record of Hawke’s Bay honours. In the competition’s fiftieth year, the team leading it is the one that has never lifted it.
They lead by a distance. Hawke’s Bay have 30 competition points from six matches, with the next best side, Otago, on 22. They have scored 276 points and 42 tries, more tries than any other union, and they have collected a bonus point for scoring four or more tries in every match they have played. The NPC standings put Northland third on 21 points from five games, with Tasman and Canterbury level on 20.
Canterbury got there the hard way on Saturday night, winning 36-14 at FMG Stadium Waikato after a first half in which they held most of the territory and little of the scoreboard. They led 12-7 at the break, and the two sides swapped tries early in the second spell before Canterbury pulled clear. Dallas McLeod and Finn McLeod scored two tries each, Andrew Knewstubb kicked a penalty in the 68th minute and then scored and converted his own try in the last three minutes. Waikato’s tries went to Manaaki Boyle-Tiatia and Austin Anderson, both converted by D’Angelo Leuila. RNZ reported that Canterbury held 73 percent of territory in the first half without turning it into points.
It was a useful night for a side that has had a rough month. Canterbury took the Ranfurly Shield off Otago in Dunedin on 9 August with a 19-15 win, defended it at home against Bay of Plenty 33-28 six days later, then lost it in Christchurch on 20 August when Northland won 36-12. A week after that they were beaten 40-26 by Taranaki in New Plymouth. The Hamilton win is their fourth of the season and puts them back inside the quarter-final places.
Northland still hold the shield. They defended it against Tasman on 30 August, winning 20-10 at Semenoff Stadium, and they play North Harbour at North Harbour Stadium on Sunday evening in a match where the shield is not on the line, because challenges only happen at the holder’s home ground. Their next mandatory defence comes on 12 September against Waikato.
The rest of round six went to form in places and not in others. Taranaki opened the round on Thursday with a 28-12 win over Auckland at Stadium Taranaki, JJ Pokai scoring twice. ManawatΕ« won 29-12 at Tauranga Domain on Saturday afternoon after trailing Bay of Plenty 12-0 at the break, then scoring every one of their 29 points in a second half in which the home side did not add anything at all. Tasman beat Wellington 42-28 in Blenheim, running in six tries including one to David Havili and one to Kyren Taumoefolau.
Wellington remain the story nobody in the capital wants. Six matches, six losses, 282 points conceded and 43 tries against, both the worst figures in the competition. They are not being outclassed everywhere, though. Wellington have scored 23 tries, more than Southland or Counties Manukau have managed, and all five of their competition points have come from bonus points rather than results. They have picked up four bonus points for scoring four or more tries in a match and one for losing by seven or fewer.
Two matches remain in the round on Sunday, with Counties Manukau hosting Southland at Navigation Homes Stadium in the afternoon and North Harbour hosting Northland in the evening. Both are matches between sides with something to protect, Northland guarding third place and Counties Manukau trying to climb off the bottom rungs alongside Auckland and Southland.
Individually, Northland’s Rivez Reihana leads the competition with 64 points and Tasman winger Kyren Taumoefolau leads the try count with 10.
Four rounds of the round robin remain. The top eight sides go through to quarter-finals, with the higher ranked team hosting each time, and the final is set down for 24 October. On current form the home semi-final that matters most may be in Napier, at a ground where the home union has spent half a century getting close and never quite finishing the job. The full draw and results are on the Provincial Rugby website.
Do you think Hawke’s Bay can finally win it this year, or will one of the big unions run them down in the finals? Let us know in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
Leave a Reply