The history of the Palmerston North High School Old Boys Rugby Club (PNHSOB)—often known simply as High School Old Boys (HSOB) or “Old Boys”—is a story of deep school pride, fierce provincial rivalries, and a pragmatic evolution that helped shape the modern landscape of Manawatū club rugby.
Origins: The School Ties (1921)
The club traces its origins back to 1921, when a passionate group of former students from Palmerston North Boys’ High School (PNBHS) decided they wanted to maintain their close-knit camaraderie and rugby brotherhood after graduating.
Initially operating as a vehicle strictly for PNBHS alumni, the club officially established its senior competitive presence in the Manawatū Rugby Union by 1926. Donning their traditional jerseys, HSOB provided a direct pipeline for the school’s elite 1st XV players to transition straight into hard-nosed senior men’s rugby.
The Hankins Shield Dominance
For decades, High School Old Boys was an absolute heavyweight in the Manawatū premier club competition. They regularly battled local rivals like Kia Toa, Varsity, and Feilding for the ultimate prize in the province: the J.H. Hankins Shield (affectionately known as “The Hank”).
HSOB enjoyed several golden eras of dominance:
• The Post-War Dynasty: The club dominated the late 1940s, capturing four consecutive Hankins Shield titles between 1946 and 1949.
• The Consistent Contenders: They remained a premier force through the mid-20th century, capturing further championships in 1955, 1959, 1967, and 1974.
• The Final Stand: Before the landscape of grassroots rugby shifted dramatically, the standalone club captured its final solo premier titles in 1989 and 2001.
The 2008 Amalgamation: Creating OBM
By the mid-2000s, the professionalization of rugby and shifting demographics meant that smaller provincial cities could no longer easily sustain multiple standalone premier clubs without draining volunteer resources and fracturing funding.
In 2008, High School Old Boys RFC made a monumental, forward-thinking decision to merge with another historic local titan: the Marist Brothers Old Boys Rugby Club (which had also been founded in 1926).
The merger formed the modern Palmerston North High School Old Boys Marist (OBM). This combined the fiercely competitive, school-backed culture of HSOB with the community-centric, multi-sport framework of Marist Sports. The unified rugby club shifted its headquarters to the extensive Marist hub on Pascal Street.
Legacy and the All Black Pipeline
Throughout its independent and merged history, the HSOB legacy has been defined by its ability to produce top-tier rugby talent. The club has consistently fed elite players into the Manawatū Turbos provincial team, the Hurricanes Super Rugby franchise, and the All Blacks.
Legendary figures associated with the club’s combined lineage include imposing All Black lock Mark “Cowboy” Shaw and World Cup-winning All Black first-five Aaron Cruden. Today, the HSOB name lives on proudly in the OBM crest, continuing to foster strong junior networks and secondary school pathways across the Manawatū district.
