The Hawke’s Bay Magpies have drawn three mouthwatering home matches this year against the three biggest unions in NZ - reigning Bunnings NPC rugby champions Wellington as well as Canterbury and Auckland.

The draw also sets up a potential Ranfurly Shield challenge against holder Taranaki, if they can keep a grasp of it for a large part of the season.

The 10-match regular season opens with the first of five home matches, against Counties Manukau on August 3, and the last being an away match against Manawatū on October 4. In a competition of 14 teams, the Magpies will not play Waikato, Tasman or Southland.

The three big-city sides are likely to draw the biggest McLean Park crowds of the 50th season of the NPC, in which Hawke’s Bay and Auckland played the history-making first first-division match at McLean Park in 1976.

Hawke’s Bay celebrate in the Ranfurly Shield-holding good times of August 2024, before their loss to Tasman. Photo / Photosport

Auckland won that match 10-7, but the Magpies won the most recent clash, rising star Harry Godfrey landing a last-second conversion of a try by Australian import Ben O’Donnell to snatch a 36-35 victory last year, much to the delight of the McLean Park fans who had endured three successive losses in a mid-season slump which started with the Magpies’ loss of the Ranfurly Shield to Tasman, in another match decided by a single point.

Tasman lost the shield to Taranaki in their third defence.

The Magpies draw is: August 3, v Counties Manukau (home); August 10, v Otago (away); August 16, v North Harbour (home); August 22, v Canterbury (home); August 30, v Northland (away); September 26, v Wellington (home); September 13, v Bay of Plenty (away); September 19, v Taranaki (away); September 25, v Auckland (home); October 4, v Manawatu (away).

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.