Waikato v Bay of Plenty

NPC — Round 1

• Kick-off: Thursday 30 July 2026 at 7:10 pm NZST
• Venue: FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Waikato

1 Mason Tupaea, 2 Sean Ralph, 3 George Dyer, 4 Hamilton Burr, 5 Dylan Eti, 6 Samipeni Finau, 7 Oli Mathis, 8 Malachi Wrampling-Alec, 9 Xavier Roe, 10 Taha Kemara, 11 Nathan Stephens, 12 Austin Anderson, 13 Michael Naitokani, 14 Waisake Salabiau, 15 Dan Sinkinson
Reserves: 16 Manaaki Boyle-Tiatia, 17 Taipari Quinn, 18 Gabe Robinson, 19 Laghlan McWhannell, 20 Andrew Smith, 21 Senita Lauaki, 22 Daiki Nakajima, 23 Aki Tuivailala

Bay of Plenty

1 Benet Kumeroa, 2 Kurt Eklund, 3 Tevita Mafileo, 4 Seuseu Naitoa Ah Kuoi, 5 Jai Knight, 6 Kalin Felise, 7 Joe Johnston, 8 Nikora Broughton, 9 Richard Judd, 10 Lucas Cashmore, 11 Joe Webber, 12 Reon Paul, 13 Tamiro Armstrong, 14 Frank Vaenuku, 15 Cole Forbes
Reserves: 16 Sione Tupou, 17 Toby Taylor, 18 Solomone Tukuafu, 19 Reuben Palmer, 20 Veveni Lasaqa, 21 Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 22 Riley Hohepa, 23 Jason Robertson

Tough game to pick. Waikato might be bolstered by SR players, but BoP managed to beat Auckland in a pre-season hit out!

It will be interesting to see the team lists, and who is playing where for Waikato. Waikato may have a few injuries, including the captain (M Jacobson), but should still be able to put a strong team on the park.

i went to this fixture last year and we flogged the fuck out of Waikato, ably helped by i think it was Roe being awful at 9.

Game is tomorrow and National Provincial Championship » Provincial Rugby is utterly devoid of information. Truly amateur.

@mariner4life where else would you put a mong looking 12 year old with Make a Wish?

As expected a few players out, so some debutants. A 6:2 bench too.

@bovidae Taha Kemera and Rivez Reihana skippering their provincial unions Who would picked that at the start of the year ?

With that team our resident Scotsman could have been the captain. I guess they want the captain to be on the field for the full 80 mins.

@bovidae said in Waikato v Bay of Plenty:

As expected a few players out, so some debutants. A 6:2 bench too.

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That's a pretty handy forward pack - the loose forwards in particular should be dominating.

Nathan Stephens is in his first year out of Hamilton BHS. He is likely to be covering for David Lewai.