But the club didn’t have to call on whānau connections to get the game, Foster saying it came through the Sportslink tour agent who had contacts with the club. League isn’t new to some of the players, notably captain and No 8 Ariki Rossiter, who was captain of Mid Central Vipers U18 rugby league team in 2024, and is part of the Warriors Youth Academy, Foster said. Te Aute has had three rugby games this season, beaten 24-17 by Maraenui club colts, and 48-24 by Auckland school Tangaroa College, before the first win of the season, 36-24 against St John’s College, Hastings. Next up is an annual match against Horowhenua College on Wednesday, ahead of the Hawke’s Bay secondary schools competition opener against Lindisfarne College in Hastings on Saturday. But a big highlight later in the season, on a date to be set, will be the revival of the once annual game against fellow Maori boys boarding school Tipene (St Stephen’s). The schools’ matches, including a duel for the Moascar Cup at the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s, were once a highlight of North Island first XV rugby. In 1984, they were the finalists in the national secondary schools championship, and Te Aute won 7-4. Tipene, closed since 2000 but now rebuilding as a charter school, had their day 12 months later when they beat Napier Boys’ High School in the final. Lindisfarne College teams have two games on Thursday against Argentinian school St George’s College, of Buenos Aires, with big hopes in the air for the season after the recent 98-19 drubbing of leading Wellington school Scots College in the Presbyterian Schools Rugby Tournament in Hastings. Lindisfarne and fellow Hastings school, St John’s College, start their Central North Island schools competition, on May 10. Napier BHS hosted Marist College, from Canberra, on April 19, the First XV winning 33-21, after it was 21-all at halftime, and Second XV winning 50-19. On Saturday, both sides travelled to play Pukekohe school Wesley College, the First XV being beaten 31-28. The Hastings BHS First XV opened with a match against St Kentigern in Taupō on March 23, and has since played Westlake, St John’s and Kelston, and last week played Auckland school Sacred Heart College in Taupō, with Sacred Heart winning 22-18. North Island provincial boys’ schools championship, the Super 8, starts on May 24, with Hastings BHS facing a first-up away match against New Plymouth BHS, and Napier BHS starting their campaign on May 25 with an away game against Gisborne BHS. Napier and Hastings play their Super 8 local derby in Napier on June 7. Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.