{"id":456727,"date":"2026-06-02T07:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456727\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T07:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:58:09","slug":"christchurch-boys-high-school-overpower-christs-college-in-first-xv-rugby-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456727\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch Boys\u2019 High School overpower Christ\u2019s College in First XV rugby showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShe can\u2019t give everyone a detention,\u201d one Christchurch Girls High School student says to another. Both are convinced that there will be no repercussions. They arrive just in time for the pre-haka stare-down, which is followed by the pre-game haka.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Christchurch Boys’ High School v Christ’s College match resulted in a big win for the home side. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s break ranks first to begin their haka. Their hosts eyeball the challenge before gathering to begin their own challenge.<\/p>\n

At one point, both teams bid their time in a mid-haka stare-down. College began their haka first and finished their haka last. If that\u2019s a scoring play, early points went to the visitors. And so too, the actual points with the early unconverted try as CBHS struggled with their discipline.<\/p>\n

Despite conceding the first try, the \u201cblue and blacks\u201d had already sounded a warning through the strong running of tall midfielder Dougal Grant.<\/p>\n

\"ChristchurchChristchurch Boys’ High School score in front of home fans. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The early College try only served to click the home side into gear and they mounted 38 unanswered points of their own before Christ\u2019s bookended the first half with their second score.<\/p>\n

The \u201cCollege! College! College!\u201d cries from the northern end were answered with \u201cScoreboard! Scoreboard! Scoreboard!\u201d from the hosts.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard read 38-12.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Among the wave of CBHS first-half points was an intercept by Grant, dotting down in front of near silence from the College supporters. The voices that dared to dream just 30 minutes earlier were now muffled by reality. It would take some kind of resurgence from the black-and-white hoops in the second half \u2013 and yet that\u2019s what they bravely produced.<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s scored shortly after the resumption and again shortly after that: 38-26, and the momentum was with the visitors.<\/p>\n

\"ChristchurchChristchurch Boys’ High School students pack the sidelines of their school’s number one field. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

From there, the home side dusted themselves off and, even with a yellow card to reserve outside back Isoa Vosa, produced enough to power clear.<\/p>\n

Despite the high-scoring game, there was also bone-rattling defence, particularly from the hosts. Grant belted Christ\u2019s hooker and captain Adriaan Pieter Van Wyk with a tackle that stopped him like a brick wall. Then first five-eighths Kaci Heath clobbered the dangerous Harvey Gubb. The defensive strength paid off on attack and Boys\u2019 High captain Jonty Leary found himself in space more often than Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

On at least three occasions, Leary burst through the midfield before scampering towards the goal-line. He may not have scored a try of his own \u2013 but he set up plenty. His last such run led to replacement pivot Sonny-Bill McAndrew putting William Brown away with a deft pass and effectively sealing the match in the 62nd minute.<\/p>\n

The victorious whole-school haka rang out through the surrounding streets as the thousands of well-behaved spectators exited the school.<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s will host the 2027 event in a bid to win the traditional clash for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cShe can\u2019t give everyone a detention,\u201d one Christchurch Girls High School student says to another. Both are convinced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[232128,6030,4765,1848,4487,232126,3019,12784,15441,1888,1668,305,2959,1345,78,111,139,69,232125,39727,232127,6327,4062,30948,213,30246,18457,102,27982],"class_list":["post-456727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-232128","tag-again","tag-annual","tag-boys","tag-christchurch","tag-christs","tag-clash","tag-college","tag-crowd","tag-first","tag-front","tag-have","tag-high","tag-home","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overpower","tag-raucous","tag-reigned","tag-rugby","tag-school","tag-showdown","tag-sports","tag-supreme","tag-winning","tag-with","tag-xv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456727","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=456727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}