Flatmates, Hastings teammates and now World Cup rivals Joshua Smith (left) and Patrick Tuifua pictured at the New Zealand Under 20 tournament in Taupo, where they played for the Hurricanes.
Two Hastings flatmates and rugby teammates could be playing against each other in the 2024 Under 20 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
New Caledonia born Hawke’s Bay Magpies squad member and No 8 Patrick Tuifua, who will play for France in the Under 20 Rugby World Cup tournament in South Africa, pictured scoring for playing for Hastings Rugby and Sports against Napier Old Boys Marist Club last year. Photo / Paul Taylor
The two are Hastings Rugby and Sports Premier players Joshua Smith, who is in the New Zealand squad for the tournament starting on June 29, and Patrick Tuifua, from French territory New Caledonia and who will play for France.
The two sides will meet in a Group A match on July 5, and the players are already with their squads in preparation.
Smith, who moved to Hawke’s Bay from Auckland where he played in the St Peter’s College first XV, played prop in three New Zealand matches in the recent Sanzar Under 20 Rugby Championship tournament on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Flatmates, Hastings teammates and now World Cup rivals Joshua Smith (left) and Patrick Tuifua pictured at the New Zealand Under 20 tournament in Taupō, where they played for the Hurricanes.
Tuifua, who had five years at Hastings’ Lindisfarne College, where uncle Laurent Simutoga is a coach, is a No 8 and flanker who played for France in this year’s Six Nations Under 20 championship, where he made such an impression that he is being touted as a possible bolter for French Tricolours’ tour of Argentina in July.
School days in 2022, Patrick Tuifua (with ball) playing for Hastings school Lindisfarne College. Photo / Paul Taylor.
Also contracted to the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union, he is also the centre of conjecture about where he will play his international rugby, being soon eligible for the All Blacks on a residential basis, if he wasn’t playing for France.
Two recent Hastings Boys’ High School first XV players are also in the New Zealand team for the Under 20 tournament.
They are lock Tom Allen, who plays for Havelock North, and prop A-one Lolofie, who is now based in Dunedin, where he got an Otago Rugby Union scholarship at Otago Polytechnic and was immediately drafted into the Highlanders Under 20 squad.
Both were also in New Zealand’s team which won the Sanzar tournament, and Allen played against Smith and Tufua when his club, Havelock North, played Hastings R&S in Hawke’s Bay club rugby two weeks ago.
Another Hawke’s Bay player, prop Konradd Newland, who went to Whanganui Collegiate and is a son of former Hawke’s Bay Magpies prop Clint Newland, was unavailable for the cup tournament because of injury.
The 12-team tournament will be played in the Western Cape regions of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, with the New Zealand team having group matches against Wales and France ahead of the playoffs.
The side is trying to redeem New Zealand’s reputation in the age group, former six-time winners but placed just seventh at the last two tournaments, in 2019 and last year.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
