Clean sweep on day of the Texans

• Published date: 29 May 2023
• Author: Doug Laing RUGBY
• Publication title: Hawkes Bay Today

The top men’s side scored 13 tries to one to beat Hastings side Tamatea 87-14 for a 20th consecutive win in Nash Cup Premier-grade first-round rugby in 2022 and 2023 — 10 wins and no losses in each of the two years. The only defeat was in last season’s Maddison Trophy championship final

Earlier on the same pitch, Whitmore Park’s No 1 ground, the club also successfully defended the Hawke’s Bay Women’s Championship title — Tech’s fifth time lifting the trophy in the past six years — with a five-tries-to-two, 33-17 victory over 2021 winners Clive.

As it happened, Tech teams had a clean sweep on the day, with wins also in Division 2 and Colts matches.

In other upper-table Premier Nash Cup matches, Taradale finished second with a 27-14 win over Napier Pirate, Waipukurau-based Central finished third with a 34-26 win over Dannevirke side Aotea at Tikokino, climbing over Napier Old Boys Marist, which had the bye, and Hastings Rugby and Sport beat MAC 36-29 at Flaxmere, each side also making the top six.

Havelock North had a 41-29 home win over Clive, though each side were already out of the running for places in the Maddison Trophy round, and now joining Pirate, Aotea and Tamatea in a five-team Division 1 championship.

A small number of the Tech men were rested on Saturday and now target the 2023 Maddison Trophy round, which starts next weekend, along with Taradale, Waipukurau-based Central, Napier Old Boys Marist, which had the bye, Hastings Rugby and Sports and MAC.

But the women’s club season...