Best mates Lise Soloa and David Filipo guiding Eagles young guns

Above: Lise Soloa on the charge for HOBM against Petone last year and inset David Filipo calling the shots in the lineouts.

Loyalty and friendship go a long way in binding rugby clubs together.

None more so than at Hutt Old Boys Marist, where a core group of players have been together on and off the field since they were young.

Loose forward Lise Soloa and lock David Filipo are two mates who have played together throughout their careers.

“David’s my best mate,” said Lise. “We have grown up together and started playing for Hutt Valley Marist together at under sixes level and then all through school at St Bernard’s College and in the first XV together.”

They joined HOBM together out of St Bernard’s in 2013. Since then, the club has won the Jubilee Cup once, won the Swindale Shield once, fallen out of the top eight and won the Hardham Cup once and come back to make one more Jubilee Cup final.

Both players started playing for the HOBM Colts together, before graduating to the Premiers.

Lise made his Premier debut in 2013 and joined the team fulltime in 2014. He played all nine matches at No. 8 in the team’s winning Jubilee Cup run that year. He spent two years in the Wellington 7s team in 2015 and 2016 and also spent the 2016-17 off-season playing in Ireland for club side Corinthians where he was their Player of the Season.

Unsurprisingly, winning the Jubilee Cup in 2014 is his highlight with the Eagles so far. “Because it was a roller-coaster that year, we just scraped through the Swindale Shield to make the Jubilee Cup.” They finished in a three-way tie for sixth with Oriental-Rongotai and Wainuiomata, subsequently beating Ories 43-26 in the semi-final and then beating Wainuiomata 14-11 in the final, which was on their home ground at the Hutt Rec.

Lise’s return match last year from Ireland was the McBain Shield match, a 31-49 loss to Petone. Lise was also sin-binned. “It wasn’t even my fault - It was Joe ‘Apikotoa! There was about 10 minutes to go and I had just come on to the field. Joe back-chatted the referee who had his back to us. He turned around and thought it was me so I had to go off again.”

David left school and played two years in the HOBM Colts, before making his Premier debut at the start of 2015. “I made my debut against the Wellington Axemen, and that was when Vaea Fifita was playing for them.” HOBM won that game 37-36 and Fifita scored a try for the Axemen.

In fact, he played 18 straight matches for the Eagles in 2015 and has now started over 50 matches at lock for HOBM. “I just love playing so try and stay fit and available every week,” said David. “I have always played lock, I have tried a bit at blindside but the boys push me back in!”

David is motivated to go one better than last year’s campaign. “We ground out a semi-final win last year over MSP [19-14], they didn’t stop coming at us. OBU beat us in the final, but hopefully we can reverse that in the near future.”

“I was in the two Colts teams in 2013 and 2014 that lost finals to OBU, so a common theme there is all the finals I have played in have all been against OBU!”

During the week, Lise works locally as an apprentice builder and David works for Tyres 4U in Seaview. The Hutt Rec is never far away for both of them.

Lise’s first cousin is HOBM wing Fereti Soloa, who is a year younger, while David is not related to current and former Petone players with the same surname, Losi or former All Black lock Ross.

The pair is part of a core group of HOBM players around the same age who have been playing together since they were young.

Now there is a new class coming through, which Lise and David attribute to the early season success of the Eagles.

Heading into this Easter weekend’s third round of the Swindale Shield, they have had two impressive bonus point wins, over the Upper Hutt Rams (43-17) and Northern United (47-19).

“The Colts players that have come into our squad this year just brought a whole lot of enthusiasm and this has rubbed off on everyone, “explained Lise.

“These new players bring a different vibe to our training. Even during the pre-season these players were on fire and full of energy. Coming into camp they gelled really well and the older guys like David and myself have welcomed them with open arms.”

“The young players keep us on our toes, they are easy to get along with and everyone is keen to get along with each other,” said David who calls the HOBM lineouts.

Players such as Nick Risdon and Otto Rasch have hung up their boots and other not so young guys Joe ‘Apikotoa and Lui Luamanu have moved to Taradale in Hawke’s Bay club rugby, paving the way for some fresh faces.

Having Hurricanes squad members James O’Reilly and Chase Tiatia play against Norths was a big boost.

Other players to impress Club Rugby in the first fortnight include openside flanker Jordan Gillies, another former HOBM Colts player, and fullback Antony Utanga from the Te Aroha Eels rugby league club.

This weekend, the Eagles face a similar-styled club in Oriental-Rongotai, for the Bondy Memorial Cup at the Polo Ground.

“They had a loss in the weekend, so they will be looking to bounce back They are hard to beat, they are one of those teams that is always tough, and just looking at their history for the past 10 years they have always been up there in the top four,” concluded Lise.