{"id":252961,"date":"2026-01-26T20:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T20:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:14:07","slug":"hawkes-bay-magpies-front-row-rock-to-try-rugby-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252961\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay Magpies front-row rock to try rugby in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Napier Boys\u2019 High School First XV member, he was the inaugural winner of the Graeme Lowe award for the Hawke\u2019s Bay Rugby Academy Player of the Year<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n

He grew up around the Napier Pirates club and made his NPC debut in the Magpies\u2019 opening match of 2017 against Southland, and was twice in line-ups that won the Ranfurly Shield, against Otago in 2020 and Wellington in 2023.<\/p>\n

He has played more than 50 Super Rugby games for the Hurricanes and represented the New Zealand Under-20 side, the M\u0101ori All Blacks and second-string national side, the All Blacks XV.<\/p>\n

Hawke\u2019s Bay Rugby chief executive Jay Campbell said Rakete-Stones was the \u201ctrue definition\u201d of a Magpies Man, mixing it in both the tighthead and loosehead sides of the front row.<\/p>\n

\u201cA great human off the field, an absolute warrior on it, Pouri embodies everything it means to be a Magpie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoyal, selfless and always putting the needs of the Magpies first.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we never want to see our great Magpies move on, Pouri leaves having achieved so much. Knowing Pouri, there\u2019s still an itch to be scratched, and a 3XL No 1 jersey will be waiting for when the time comes to add those final six Magpies caps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rakete-Stones said he was \u201csad to leave\u201d but excited to start this next chapter with Newcastle and to explore the United Kingdom and Europe with his family.<\/p>\n

Front-row player resources were stretched in the 2025 season<\/a>, and Magpies coach Brock James is expected to be looking to fill a significant gap.<\/p>\n

All players contracted last year remain contracted, Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Long-time captain Tom Parsons, now 35 and with 106 Magpies appearances behind him, is turning to coaching.<\/p>\n

He was recently announced as part of a Central Hawke\u2019s Bay Rugby Sports Club coaching crew including former Magpies teammates Joel Jintz and Josh Kaifa.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing has been a journalist for more than 50 years, reporting in Hawke\u2019s Bay continuously since 1987, for the Daily Telegraph, and, since 1999, for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today, covering most aspects of local and regional news, including sports. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Napier Boys\u2019 High School First XV member, he was the inaugural winner of the Graeme Lowe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30600,1561,16717,3043,46596,123697,1976,78,1362,9612,10543,111,139,1536,69,3236,43666,146601,121037,60617,146602,8125,1629,6327,6926,316,213,223,61,46599,1613],"class_list":["post-252961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-10th","tag-bay","tag-becoming","tag-call","tag-centurion","tag-frontrow","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-made","tag-magpies","tag-match","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-overseas","tag-pause","tag-pouri","tag-pressing","tag-prop","tag-raketestones","tag-ranfurly","tag-rock","tag-rugby","tag-season","tag-shield","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-to","tag-try","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}