St. Bernard’s College – 70 Years of Rugby

A book chronicling the History of St. Bernard’s College rugby has been produced for the period 1946-2016.

The book itself follows the fortunes of each First XV since 1957 with selected match reports and full results from 1960 onwards. There is an account of all the Lower Hutt school’s traditional matches, past and present, including the background to each fixture.

Author, Mark Keating, a former old boy and First XV Coach, found that knowledge of our past was scattered amongst generations but no one had the full picture of the college’s proud history in rugby or its achievements. “The book has allowed us to piece this together and show just how strong the college has been over an extended period of time,” said Keating.

St. Bernard’s have been Wellington Premier 1 Champions in 1988, 1989 and 2001, they have won the Marist Quadrangular tournament multiple times beating the likes of Sacred Heart and St. Paul’s, both of Auckland.

Keating described the genesis of the book. “The inspiration to start the book came in 2011, prior to the match against St. Pat’s Wellington when we found out the true meaning of the Jonathan Collins Memorial Cup that is contested between the two schools and this inspired us to a famous win that year.”

“Just as important are the students that have gone on to play representative Rugby for the likes of Wellington, the Hurricanes or the Pacific Islands including the Afeaki brothers and current Wellington Lion’s Head Coach, Earl Va’a. In more recent years we have provided a large number of prominent rugby league players including Ben Matulino, Isacc Luke and Sam Tagataese.”

A number of old boys in recent years have held the famous Jubilee Cup aloft, including Va’a for Petone in 2005 and a group of Hutt Old Boys Marist players in 2007 and 2014. St Bernard’s College maintains its strong ties with the HOBM as a feeder school to the senior club.

There are 200 pages and 200 photos in the book.

A book release will be held at St Bernard's College (TBC) on 14 December. It can be purchased for just $25, to order please contact Nicola Graham at the college on ngraham@sbc.school.nz