Final chance adds spice
Local hooker big hope — literally, as Napier and Palmerston North schools clash
Mention Polson Banner to Napier Boys’ High School 1st XV rugby captain and hooker Tyrone Thompson and a huge grin envelops his face. “That banner means a lot to us and our school,” Thompson said on the eve of today’s 114th edition of the annual fixture against Napier Boys’ High School in Napier.
“We don’t only have a chance of retaining it. We beat Palmy and we’re in the Super 8 final and that’s something I haven’t had in my three seasons in the team,” Thompson explained.
The Polson Banner is one of the oldest interschool rugby trophies up for grabs in New Zealand. It was first played for in 1907 but “backdated” to 1904 to record all of the fixtures between the schools.
The original silk banner was donated by the 1902-12 NBHS headmaster, A.S. Polson, and has the colours and the crest of the two respective schools on the reverse sides. The years of each teams wins have been embroidered on the banner over the years.
Thompson, who played his 50th match for the 1st XV in the weekend’s 36-15 away Super 8 win against New Plymouth Boys’ High School, has yet to play in a losing Polson Banner clash.
His first in 2016 was a 17-all draw but Palmy retained the banner that year as they had won the fixture the previous year and last year NBHS won the banner for the first time since 2013 with a 12-10 victory in the mud in Palmy.
“It’s just as well last year’s game wasn’t televised because the commentators wouldn’t have been able to recognise our numbers. It will be different tomorrow,” Thompson said referring to the fact today’s game will be televised live on the Rugby Channel.
“This is our first televised game in this season’s Super 8. But we have televised games on our tour of South Africa at the start of the year ... nothing changes, we just play our normal game,” Thompson said.
With a five-win and one-loss Super 8 record to date the hosts will start as slight favourites against PNBHS who have recorded three wins and three losses.
“I remember my first season in the 1st XV we weren’t expected to do well because we were rebuilding. This year I could not have asked for anything more from the boys,” Thompson said. “If we keep doing the simple stuff as hard as we can, like we’ve been doing, we should be fine.”
At the same time he has plenty of respect for today’s visitors.
Palmy’s halfback-first five-eighth combination of Bryn Wilson and Taradale age group product Stewart Cruden attended the recent Hurricanes under-18 camp in Napier with Thompson, and fullback Ruben Love can be a lethal attacker if given too much space.
A powerful ball carrier who weighs in at 106kg, 2kg lighter than All Black hooker Codie Taylor, Thompson, who is still growing, is already bigger than most hookers in the country.
He is regarded as a hot candidate for this year’s New Zealand Secondary Schools team.
His twin brother, Leo, plays centre for the NBHS side.
It will be interesting to see if the pair end up playing together when they leave school this year.
“It’s possible but we could go our separate ways.
“We’ve been playing together since our family moved down from Gisborne and we linked up with the Napier Old Boys Marist sixth grade team,” Thompson recalled.
Thompson’s days as a professional player are just months away but he has plans to do a building apprenticeship to prepare for life after rugby.