12:00pm on Saturday 25 June in Nelson, Round 8 of the 2022 Miles Toyota 1st XV Championship

St Bede’s College 1st XV recent history v Waimea Combined Schools:

• 2021: Won by 77 v 17

• 2020: Lost by 10 v 17

• 2019: Won by 69 v 10

• 2018: Won by 26 v 21

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Waimea Combined Schools:

• Waimea Combined Schools entered the competition in 2016, when Waimea College was replaced with a combined schools team comprising of rugby players from Nayland College, Waimea College, Garin College, Motueka High School, Golden Bay High School, Murchison Area School and Collingwood Area School.

• The aim of this was to allow another team from the region (alongside Nelson College) to compete in the Championship and so to ensure greater exposure of top 1st XV players across the Tasman region getting the chance to play in the Crusaders Schools 1st XV Championship.

• Nayland College had also previously been part of the competition, having joined in 2011 but withdrew in 2014 (winning just one game – against Waimea College in 2011). Waimea College previously won the Bowl (9th place) in both 2008 and 2012.

• In their first year in the competition the Waimea Combined Schools team won eight of their 14 round robin games before losing to Marlborough Boys College in the Plate (5th to 8th) semi-final.

• In 2017 Waimea Combined made the Plate (5th-8th) semi-final again and went through into the final in an upset win, thrashing St Andrew’s College 57-14. They finished 6th in the Competition losing to St Thomas of Canterbury College 20-26 in the Plate final. In 2018 St Andrew’s College turned the tables on them, this time in Bowl (9th-12th) semi-final.

• In recent years Bede’s have had comfortable and large wins against Waimea when playing in Christchurch. But it has been the reverse when matches have been in Nelson. In 2018 Bede’s scrambled to an ugly 26-21 win on the Waimea College grounds. In their last trip up there, in 2020, St Bede’s lost 10-17. It was an historic upset. St Bede’s first ever loss to any Waimea combined school and Bede’s only loss other than to CBHS and St Andrew’s that season. On the day Bede’s were undone by Macca Springer (Waimea fullback) who scored three electric tries, each time running back wayward kicks from deep to punish poor play from St Bede’s. Springer’s class has subsequently been recognised, this year he made his Crusaders debut and has recently been named in the NZ u20 team. 

• That 2020 match was also notable for the beginnings of another promising player. Suliasi Faiva (current St Bede’s front row stalwart) made his St Bede’s 1st XV debut as a Yr11. Given the result, it was an inauspicious start. Yet in the game, Suliasi made an immediate impact off the bench and in the dying stages crashed and bashed over under the bar. It was an effort that looked to be a score that would salvage a draw for Bede’s - unfortunately the try wasn’t given.

• However a legacy of that match, round five in 2020, may well have endured given St Bede’s have subsequently only lost three competition round robin matches out of the 27 they have played since that game. A level of consistency, in terms of winning, that is unmatched by any other team in the competition over the same period.

• 2022 1st XV captain Ben O’Donovan, like Suliasi, was another who initially sat on the bench for that disappointing loss in 2020. They and their teammates will no doubt be looking forward to the road trip north and the opportunity this game presents come Saturday…