NZ Shearers Look Forward To Welsh Challenge
New Zealand shearing champion Toa Henderson's first Open final win in the Northern Hemisphere was a big confidence booster, but he says he's still learning as he goes.
He claimed the win in the French Open international final on Sunday during the French shearing and woolhandling championships at Boussac, the third stop on the Wool's of New Zealand team's 2025 tour and on which he and teammate Jack Fagan also scored a big win over France representatives Jeremy Leygonie and Pierre Grancher.
But despite a team record of two test-match wins in his first tests in the New Zealand singlet and places in the Open finals at all three stops, Henderson holds no expectations as he and Fagan face a three-test series against Wales, starting against Welsh guns Gethin Lewis and Llyr Jones at the Cothi Shears on Saturday.
'I can't wait to take on the Welsh, it will be good experience, but everything is still new for me over here,' said Henderson, whose wins at the Golden Shears and New Zealand Championships earlier this year took him past 40 wins in Open finals, of which 35 have come in the three years since the disruptions of the Covid era.
While dominating home tests in the annual home-and-away series' against Wales, New Zealand series wins in Wales are rare, and it won't get any easier with the in-form Welsh, particularly Lewis, who beat Fagan and Henderson in a Great Yorkshire Show Open win in England last Wednesday, and on Saturday shore 696 sheep in setting a two-stand British eight-hour ewes record with fellow Welsh shearer Llyr Evans.
Lewis, who has shorn about 10 downunder summers in New Zealand, was also in the Welsh teams that won at Cothi in 2023 and 2024.
The Open at Boussac on Sunday attracted 36 shearers, with Henderson being the top qualifier from the semi-final to the six-man, of 20 blackface lambs each.
He later described the 13m 50s first-to-finish shear as a 'good warm-up'.
Fagan, the defending champion, was next-off 26 seconds later and beaten by 1.6pts, with French shearer Jeremy Leygonie third a further 3.7pts away.
In the test, also over 20 sheep each, Henderson finished more than a minute ahead of Fagan, and both Frenchmen, while Fagan had the best quality points, in a black-singlets win by 11pts overall.
Fagan won the Boussac Speed Shear earlier in the weekend, with Henderson claiming second place.
Henderson's third placing at the Great Yorkshire Show and win at Boussac followed a fourth placing in the Scottish black face shearing championships final when the tour opened at the Lochearnhead Shears in Scotland on June 28.
The second test against Wales will be at the Royal Welsh Show next Wednesday, and the tour ends at the Corwen Shears on July 26.
Results:
International (20 sheep): New Zealand 127.6pts (Jack Fagan 15m 11s, 62.85pts; Toa Henderson 14m 9s, 64.75pts), France 138.6pts (Pierre Grancher 15m 10s, 68.35pts; Jeremy Leygonie 17m 16s, 70.25pts). New Zealand won by 11pts.
French International Open (20 sheep): Toa Henderson (New Zealand) 13m 50s, 56.55pts, 1; Jack Fagan (New Zealand) 14m 16s, 58.1pts, 2; Jeremy Leygonie (France) 15m 53s, 61.8pts, 3; Pierre Grancher (France) 16m 19s, 66.5pts, 4; Ilan Jones (Wales) 17m 15s, 67.55pts, 5; Felix Cesbron (France) 19m 47s, 80.3pts, 6.
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