Hurricanes region Finals tomorrow in Palmerston North and Porirua

Who wants it more? Scots College and St Pat’s Town meet tomorrow at the Porirua Park for a place at the National Top 4 tournament in Rotorua next weekend.

Berths at the respective National Top 4s are on the line this weekend for four Wellington schools; St Patrick’s College Wellington, Scots College, Bishop Viard College, and Aotea College.

The major clash has been moved from Palmerston North to Porirua Park, where less than three weeks after they fought out the Wellington Premiership title, St Pat’s Town and Scots will face off for the third time this year to determine who will represent the Hurricanes region at the national Top 4 in Rotorua next weekend against the South Island champion (either St Bede’s, Christchurch, or Otago Boys’ High School).

Its unchartered territory for St Pat’s Town, but that didn’t prevent them beating Scots, nor last week where they gritted their way to a 20-13 win over a well-performed Hastings Boys’ High School side on Evans Bay Park. As defending co-national champions (and the only one left standing after Hamilton Boys’ High School were beaten last week) Scots are familiar with this stage, but have to thank a reshuffle of the qualification process brought on by Taranaki’s move to the Chiefs region. The Premiership decider loss to Town meant they had have had to travel in successive weeks, firstly to face wildcard challengers Wanganui High School (won 57-11) and then to take on Gisborne Boys’ High School, only emerging from there after a 33-all draw with the perennial powerhouse through scoring five tries to four.

Onto Saturday, the sides will be fielding similar, but altered looks to those that took to the park three weeks ago. For Scots, lock Jarimar Schuster will miss the rest of the year with a leg fracture, Alex Fidow will start at No. 8 rather than his usual place at tighthead as he has in those last two games, while captain Peter Umaga-Jensen joined twin brother Thomas in midfield against Gisborne and will do so again with Connor Garden-Bachop missing from the line-up.

For Town, centre Billy Proctor, the star man of the premiership final, will again look to shine while skipper and flanker Jack Nelson-Murray and their big forward pack anchored by Hannon Brighouse, Kevin Fauatea, Xavier Numia and their own twins in Peteli and Penieli Poasa will want to achieve the same dominance they did in the final. The tactical kicking of Zac Donaldson, who often pinned Scots inside their own territory in that game, could be crucial again.

Kick-off at the JCS is at 1pm and coverage is live on St Pat’s Town Radio on 1161AM.

For the Bishop Viard College boys and the Aotea College girls the road leads to Palmerston North and the outer grounds at Arena Manawatu where they will each face Feilding High School in their respective Hurrianes regional finals.

Feilding’s reputation as a rugby school is well known, having produced current All Blacks Aaron Smith and Sam Whitelock, along with the other Whitelock brothers, and current Black Ferns 7s captain Sarah Goss; and both their boys and girls sides are perennial contenders in these two competitions. Their motivations will be to go one better than last year when both lost at the national semi-finals stage.

Aotea progressed to this final by winning the Premier 1 Girls final last Thursday night in a cliffhanger against Wainuiomata High School. Aotea scored six tries to five and led 30-17 with just minutes remaining, but conceded twice, the second right on full-time and had to wait out the conversion attempt to win 30-29. Saturday’s assignment will be an enormous step up, not just to 15-a-side (the Wellington competition is played at 12-a-side) but against a side that expects to challenge nationally each year. The experience of captain Phoenix Collins – a member of this year’s victorious Norths Women’s side and niece of Helen, Brenda, and the late Jerry – will be critical if they are to cause what would be considered an upset result.

Bishop Viard’s band of brothers - there’s seven sets of siblings in the squad - reached this stage by accounting for Naenae (53-7), Aotea (17-12), and then Tawa (24-21) in the local knockout stage, then three weeks ago travelled to Masterton and beat Wairarapa College 17-15 in the regional semi-final.

They come into this game, their 23rd outing of the year, on the back of last Saturday’s Premier 2 Final where they withstood a late assault on their line from St Bernard’s to win 27-24. Once again they will look to first-five Foliga Vaalepu-Austin, who attended the Hurricanes U18 camp, to guide the team around the park while the loose forward trio of year 12 Bailey MacDonald and year 11’s Darius Patau and the highly-regarded Adam Tone will be combative at the breakdown. Outside backs Roy Maiava and Tai Manava – who scored a double in the Premier 2 final – have real speed while the scrum, anchored by big tighthead Dorian Tato, will look to achieve the same dominance they had against St Bernard’s despite being the smaller pack. Feilding returned to this stage by accounting for Palmerston North school Tu Toa 49-12 last week though before that they lost to Cambridge’s St Paul’s 19-36 in the final of the Central North Island competition, having also lost to them in the round-robin. Their star players are through the spine of the side; fullback Vilimoni Koroi, halfback Tom Stewart, and hooker Chris Cairns.

Scots College and St Pat’s Town teamlists for Saturday (subject to change):

Scots College:

1. Moala Katoa
2. Lotonu’u Haueia
3. Matthew Sisson
4. Henry Mexted
5. Harry Saker
6. Jack Loader
7. Ezra Dunlop
8. Alex Fidow (VC)
9. Ollie Whiteman
10. Sam Fox
11. Joe Boswell
12. Thomas Umaga Jensen
13. Peter Umaga Jensen (c)
14. Malo Manuao 
15. Jack Gray

Reserves:
16. Christian Lee
17. George Jacobs
18. Daniel Brown
19. Tommy Prescott
20. Jack Royal
21. Joshua Wilson
22. Alec Cannon
23. Isaiah Peachy

St Pat’s Town

1. Xavier Numia
2. Penieli Poasa
3. Ben Amua-Peseta
4. Gus Stone
5. John Tuia
6. Kevin Fauatea
7. Jack Nelson-Murray
8. Hannon Brighhouse
9. Luke Georgeson
10. Zac Donaldson
11. Conor Fitzsimmons
12. Willie Schutz
13. Billy Proctor
14. Teichmann Collins
15. Siosaia Paese

Reserves:
16. Ethan Meredith
17. Meinrad Fitisemanu
18. Peteli Poasa
19. Tom Brazil
20. Tom Noble-Campbell
21. Grayson Whitman
22. Sam Bayliss
23. Eamonn Carr