Liston College First XV in 2026: a proud West Auckland side digs in through a brutal 1A

Liston College sit in the toughest neighbourhood in New Zealand schoolboy rugby: the Auckland 1A First XV competition, where a dozen powerhouse schools go at it every Saturday. For the Henderson boys, 2026 has been a season of hard lessons and real fight in equal measure.

A demanding draw

The fixture list did the West Auckland side no favours. Liston opened against King's College, then ran into Sacred Heart College and Saint Kentigern College - three programmes routinely in the national conversation. Those results, all recorded on the Auckland Rugby match centre, went against Liston, but the fixtures also gave a young group a weekly education against some of the best schoolboy rugby in the land.

The games that got away

The heart of Liston's season has been in the tight ones. Against St Peter's College, the boys went down by just two points, 31-29 - a coat of paint from a famous result. A fortnight later they lost by four at home to Botany Downs, another game that stayed in the balance until the final exchanges. For a side often giving away size and experience, taking two of the competition's chasing pack to the wire says plenty about the group's spirit.

A programme with belief

Liston arrive at these games carrying genuine momentum from recent years. In 2025 the Catholic boys' school stunned defending-champion territory more than once, including a dramatic upset of Kelston Boys' High School that the NZ Herald called one of the great upsets. That belief - that any Saturday can be their Saturday - is exactly what a rebuilding season needs.

What's ahead

The run home brings a fixture the whole of Henderson circles: the West Auckland derby against Kelston Boys' High. Whatever the table says, a local rivalry match is its own kind of final, and Liston have shown they lift for the big occasion.

Win, lose or draw, a young Liston side has fronted up week after week in the country's most demanding schoolboy grade - and that habit of standing tall is the foundation good programmes are built on.

Back the boys in green: follow the school's official channels at @listoncollegesports on Instagram and liston.school.nz.