Christchurch Boys' looking forward to SBHS clash
Boys' High thrashed their old rivals 52-0 at home last Saturday in torrential rain and thick mud to lift the trophy.
They will now face Southern Schools champions Southland Boys' High School in Invercargill, with the winner earning a place at the national Top 4 championship against the best schools from the Blues, Chiefs, and Hurricanes regions.
Head coach Pete Chaplin said the team's 'brick in the wall' philosophy would help them reset for Saturday's match, which kicks off at noon.
'We build up for something, we play it, and we put it in the wall. You can't touch it or do any more with it, we're on to the next challenge,' he said.
'The boys are pretty well versed in having a win and putting it away.'
Boys' High have not played at the Top 4 since 2018, and captain Blake Robinson said it was exciting to have the chance to return.
'We're trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves,' he said.
'But it's pretty hard to look past it.'
Boys' High beat Southland 45-28 in pre-season in April but lost 29-28 when the teams last met in a competitive fixture in the South Island final in 2023.
'They're a really balanced team,' said Chaplin,
'They've got a good pack, a good operating lineout, they like to play the ball and their backs are pretty lethal.
'You don't get to this stage of the competition without having some firepower, and they've got a long tradition of success at this end of the competition.'
Chaplin said his team could match them if they reproduced their performance against Christ's.
'It was really good for the team to actually put two halves together – incredibly pleasing for us as coaches.
'Obviously, the focus is on bringing a similar performance to Saturday.'
The 52-0 victory is believed to be among the largest in the rivalry's history, behind only the 74-0 win in 2004 and the record 80-0 triumph in 2015, when future All Black Will Jordan scored four tries and former Crusader Josh McKay scored 35 points.
Chaplin said his team embraced the poor conditions on Saturday.
'Days like that you can either grizzle about it or embrace it. We warmed up in one of the wettest parts of the ground, so the boys were in the water and pumped up for it.'
Robinson described it as the worst conditions he had ever played in and he enjoyed being able to get back to the sheds at half-time.
'Lying on the ground was the worst part. After being tackled it was just freezing,' he said.
'But we'd had quite a good talk about our warm-up, wearing heaps of layers, having something on under our tops.'
He was looking forward to the clash with Southland.
'If we just control the controllables, I think we'll be in with a very good shot.
'With the travel, we'll have to prepare ourselves as best we can, stretch, drink lots of water.'
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