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Poverty Bay won the fifth-sixth playoff match against Mid Canterbury to became the first holder of the new Osborne Taonga, a Ranfurly Shield type challenge trophy exclusively for the Heartland Unions, and will start the 2022 competition as defender.

The team’s four wins-four loss record in the Heartland Championship earned them fifth position but with an ounce of luck that record could have been improved upon. The match with North Otago was lost 10-12 after missing a penalty goal attempt with the last kick of the match. The 19-22 loss to Mid Canterbury occurred in golden point extra time after running in a stunning converted try from a scrum five metres from their own line to level the scores at 19-19, and in the 28-31 loss to Ngati Porou East Coast Poverty Bay had the lead three times in a thriller.

With pace out wide and a big mobile forward pack the team attempted to play an expansive game at every opportunity.

Stefan Destounis was one of the best number sevens in the competition and Poverty Bay’s top try scorer with six. Tamanui Hill was his usual consistent self at number eight, bringing up 50 games in the final match. Debutant Dan Law had a fine season as he and locking partner Fletcher Scammell, in his second season, appeared in every game. Another player to show up favourably in his debut season was tighthead prop James Higgins. On the other side of the scrum loosehead prop Toru Noanoa did a lot of good work in the tight and usually played the whole 80 minutes. Jarryd Broughton brought great strength to the scrum and was a hard man to stop when he came on as a sub, scoring four tries. Rikki Terekia and Shayde Skudder were a fine pair of hookers.

Mario Counsell distributed the ball quickly at half-back and captain Kelvin Smith was an attacking first five-eighth who used his experience to invariably take the right option. Andrew Tauatevalu used his pace to break the line from fullback and get out of defensive situations. His goalkicking was valuable but suffered injury at the halfway point. He had been a standout in the heavy loss to Whanganui in the opening match and in the following big win over Buller.

Poverty Bay then brought in Paroaian Manuel-Harman to fill the fullback position and he continued from where Tauatevalu left off. The coaches placed Tauatevalu on the wing upon his return to utilise both players. Penikolo Latu was also a strong threat at centre. The wings Aaron McLelland, Tione Hubbard and Te Peehi Fairlie all fitted in well to the team plan but suffered injury at some point.

Higher honours went to:

New Zealand Heartland:        S.P. Destounis, J.W. Higgins

POVERTY BAY REPRESENTATIVES 2021

	Name	Position	PL	TR	CON	PEN	DG
	Tamanui Hill	No. 8	9 (1)	1	0	0	0
	Shayde Skudder	Flanker, Hooker	10 (3)	3	0	0	0
	Jarryd Broughton	Prop	9 (9)	4	0	0	0
	Antonio Walker-Leawere	Prop	4 (3)	0	0	0	0
	Sam McDell	Lock	2 (1)	0	0	0	0
	Morgan Reedy	Lock, Loose Forward	3	0	0	0	0
	Fawn White	Flanker	1	0	0	0	0
	Quade Tapsell	Flanker	4 (2)	0	0	0	0
	Keanu Taumata	Loose Forward	10 (4)	3	0	0	0
	Rawiri Sonny Boy 'Ra' Broughton	Scrum Half	1	0	0	0	0
	Te Peehi H.H. Fairlie	Wing	7 (4)	1	0	0	0
	Jacob Leaf	Centre	8 (1)	0	0	0	0
	Taine Aupouri	Centre	10 (6)	1	0	0	0
	Penikolo Kulu Latu	Centre	8 (1)	3	0	0	0
	Scott McKinley	Wing	1	0	0	0	0
	Andrew Tauatevalu	Fullback	7 (1)	4	13	3	0
	James Higgins	Prop	8	2	0	0	0
	George Whakatope	Flanker	8 (6)	1	0	0	0
	Mario Counsell	Halfback	9 (1)	1	0	0	0
	Paoraian Manuel-Harman	Fullback	6 (1)	1	5	1	0
	Jake Holmes	First Five	7 (6)	0	2	0	0
	Toru Noanoa	Prop	10	3	0	0	0
	Ethine Snowden Reeves	First Five, Fullback	4 (3)	1	0	0	0
	Aaron McLelland	Wing	6	1	0	0	0
	Tione Hubbard	Centre	8	1	0	0	0
	Tulsa Kaui	Prop	3 (3)	0	0	0	0
	Nehe Papuni	Prop	1	2	0	0	0
	Ted Walters	Centre	5 (3)	1	0	0	0
	Dan Law	Lock	10	1	0	0	0
	Karl Mackie	Scrum Half	2 (1)	0	0	0	0
	Jesse Kapene	Loose Forward, No. 8	1	0	0	0	0
	Kelvin Muir Smith	First Five, Fullback, Wing	9	3	12	3	0
	Juston Myles Allen	Lock	1 (1)	0	0	0	0
	Stefan Destounis	Flanker	7	6	0	0	0
	Rikki Terekia	Hooker	9 (6)	3	0	0	0
	Austin Brown	First Five	1 (1)	0	0	0	0
	Fletcher Scammell	Lock	10 (1)	0	0	0	0

We hope you enjoy this look back as we look forward to many more years of recording the history of Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union.
We acknowledge all the information from the NZ “Rugby Almanack” Series from 1934 and appreciate their hard and dedicated work in providing this detailed history. – Web Admin—