Feilding 1st XV on verge of magical run
The Feilding High School 1st XV are on the verge of a history-making run in the Central North Island competition after qualifying for the final for just the second time.
The side, which has never won the CNI, already hold the Rick Francis Memorial Shield and are still alive to defend their title in the national co-ed knock-out competition.
But they will need to pay close attention Feilding when they travel to Pukekohe, south of Auckland, for Saturday’s final.
Turbo cracks record time
Word out of the Turbos camp is that young loose forward Brayden Iose has broken the team’s 40-metre sprint record.
That record had been held by flying Fijian Newton Tudreu.
Iose’s sprint times will make plenty of backs feel a little better about being victims of the teenager making big breaks around the outside of them in the Manawatu club competition.
Local flavour down south
The Otago outside back corps for the NPC have a distinctly Manawatu feel to them.
Former Feilding High School pupils Jona Nareki, a New Zealand Under 20s representative, and Vilimoni Koroi, a New Zealand sevens rep, were both included in the squad.
They are also joined by Leroy van Dam, who spent a season with the Turbos on loan from Auckland in 2013, playing four games. Otago plays Manawatu in Dunedin on September 2.