Luke Campbell looking forward to NPC season with Steamers

Above: Luke Campbell playing for Te Puke Sports in Bay of Plenty club rugby this year. Photo credit: Rick Moran.

Former Wellington U19 tournament Graham Mourie Cup winning halfback and captain and 2015 Jubilee Cup winner Luke Campbell is looking forward to his maiden National Provincial Championship season with the Bay of Plenty Steamers.

One of several ex-Wellington players in Bay of Plenty’s playing and coaching staff, Campbell made the move north to Steamers country at the start of this season.

In July he was named as one of fourteen new players in the initial 37-man Steamers squad for the competition, which starts for BoP in Tauranga on Saturday against Taranaki with Luke in line to make his maiden NPC appearance off the bench. 

“The boys are pretty pumped, everyone’s in a positive mood after we trained hard for a good six-week block,” he said.

The Steamers have had two pre-season wins as well. “It was good to beat Northland and then Auckland and reinforce that positive vibe within the group. We had a strong win over Northland [49-26], which gave us confidence in meeting Auckland and we won that by a point in the last play [22-21].”

Luke explained that his move north was partly instigated by Steamers Head Coach and former Wellington U19 coach Clayton McMillan. “He asked me if I would be happy to make the trip up and the opportunity was a great one to pursue. Also the decision was made easier with a few other people being here who I knew like the group of other players from Wellington and former New Zealand U20 training squad mate Dan Hollinshead.”

Other former Wellington-based players in BoP's NPC squad include Solomona Sakalia, Shahn Eru, Henry Stowers, Ruki Tipuna, Chase Tiatia and James O’Reilly who has recently joined BoP after captaining Hutt Old Boys Marist to the Hardham Cup title a fortnight ago.

Luke said there’s good banter amongst the Wellington group. 

“Especially with those Wainuiomata boys [Shahn and Henry] - I won a bet off them when Old Boys University played Wainuiomata. Those Wainui boys are pretty proud of where they’re from and I love OBU. “

“Also with Henry Faifili, who is one of our fitness trainers. He loves to put Marist St Pat’s out there so there’s always a bit of rivalry when we turn up on a Monday.”

Luke plays for Te Puke Sports, who like OBU finished fifth in this year’s eight-team club rugby championship. “We had to win our last game to make the semi-finals. Unfortunately we didn’t turn up in the first half and lost that, but we’d won well in the two games prior, getting ourselves from seventh up to semi-final contention.”

“We definitely have a group that could have gone further, but it just didn’t seem to fall our way.”

The Bay of Plenty club competition is very similar to Wellington, with the Baywide Premier competition the equivalent of the Jubilee Cup. Rangataua, featuring Chase Tiatia for much of the season and former Poneke/Wellington halfback Ruki Tipuna when he returned from overseas, won the title this year.

Luke played most of the season for Te Puke at halfback, in combination with Steamers first five-eighth Dan Hollinshead. “I knew Dan well from previous New Zealand U20 camps and when I came up here he took me along to Te Puke and I teamed up with him.”

Like in Wellington, club rugby is closely followed. “Every time clubs like Rangataua and Rotoiti came and played against us they were well supported with big crowds, and our own supporters up in our stands came out in good numbers.”

Unlike Wellington, the Baywide competition has been playing under the new ruck laws that will be in use during the NPC. What does Luke think of them?

“It’s a bit harder on fitness, but it’s fast paced and in club rugby there’s a lot of holes opening up around the rucks. It creates for more open running footy so it will be good to see how it translates to the higher level.”

Luke has been selected on the reserves bench to make his NPC debut against Taranaki this Saturday. Of note, Chase is at fullback, Henry at blindside flanker, Shahn at lock, Solomona at prop and James O’Reilly at hooker.

The Steamers play the Wellington Lions at Westpac Stadium in round five on Friday 16 September, and Luke is keen to make that trip, and possibly line up against former OBU teammate Tomasi Palu.

“I’ll definitely be putting my best foot forward to be selected for that game. My friends and family are pretty excited ahead of that weekend and will be giving it my best to make sure I’m out there.”

Follow the 2016 National Provincial Championship here