Swindale Shield Results & Standings HERE
Summary: The upshot of the Swindale Shield is that HOBM (on 44 points) will be crowned champions next Saturday and Norths (on 35 points) are safely in the Jubilee Cup. But there are still seven teams chasing five places in next week’s final round. This includes third equal Oriental-Rongotai and Poneke (both on 31) who cannot put their feet up beside the Jubilee Cup fire just yet.

Hutt Old Boys Marist are the 2019 Swindale Shield champions with a week to spare.
HOBM went into today’s penultimate round needing to beat Oriental-Rongotai and for second placed Northern United to lose to Marist St Pat’s.
The dominoes fell in the favour of their supporters.
As it transpired, the Eagles had won the Swindale Shield by halftime, after both the Eagles and MSP had laid on first half blitzes to take match winning leads.
At the Hutt Recreation Ground, the Eagles raced in for four first half tries and kicked a penalty to lead 31-7 by halftime. The match wasn’t in the bag until a few minutes before the end, however, as Ories launched a comeback and threatened a come-from-behind win.
But their run was too late, and two second half penalties and tries to left wing Salesi Rayasi (his second) and second five-eighth Francis Tunavasa proved enough for the Eagles.
At Evans Bay Park, Marist St Pat’s were fast out of the blocks against Northern United on their Old Timers’ Day and had the game won at the end of the first 40 minutes. MSP’s forwards displayed hunger and passion as MSP also scored four first half tries including a double to left wing Faresa Tasale. MSP led 31-0 at halftime and went on to win 48-31. Like Ories, Norths came back with the injection of Hurricanes first five-eighth Jackson Garden-Bachop but the game was gone for them. MSP also captured the Maurice Standish Cup.
In other ninth round Swindale Shield matches, Poneke also came out of the changin

g sheds in high spirits to lead the Wellington Axemen 36-0 at the oranges whilst playing into the Kilbirnie Park wind. Poneke went on to win 60-7 to please their Old Timers’ Day faithful. MSP also retained the Spud Lindsay Memorial Trophy.
It was a similar story at the Petone Recreation Ground, where Petone retained the Morgan Family Trophy against Avalon with a commanding 90-5 win. Petone lead 45-0 at halftime and kept the same scoring pace in the second spell. Right wing Willie Fine had a field day, scoring four tries.
At Maoribank Park, home team the Upper Hutt Rams beat Johnsonville 34-17, but were pressed hard for much of the game by an improving Hawks side. The Rams scored early, but Johnsonville came back to equalise on the try sheet through right wing Rohan Rawlings. Hooker Eli Hunt scored next for the Rams to put them up 12-5 at halftime. The Rams won the game early in the second half of play with a electric burst of three tries in a short space of time.
At Nairnville Park, Wainuiomata celebrated lock Bevan Clark’s 100th Premier match and won the Peter Dunford Cup by beating home side Old Boys University 23-21.
Wainuiomata established a 10-7 lead, before a Dale Sabbagh chip and chase was latched on to by halfback Matt Fowler put the Goats up 14-10. Wainuiomata closed to a point with a penalty before a try to Caleb Delany put OBU up 21-13 midway through the second half. Wainuiomata scored a converted try through second five-eighth Peter Umaga-Jensen, before fullback Josh Robertson-Weepu landed his third penalty with a few minutes to play to give them their win.
Defending Jubilee Cup champions OBU have also slipped outside the top seven heading into next week’s 10th and final Swindale Shield round.
At Ngatitoa Domain, Tawa also joined in the general theme of the round by launching themselves into the game and wrapping the result up early. Tawa won 67-7, after scoring 6 tries and leading 40-0 at halftime.

In the Harper Lock Shield, Marist St Pat’s are back-to-back first round Premier Reserve champions.
The MSP second XV beat the next best team Northern United 53-12 today in the early game at Evans Bay Park, to take a seven point lead at the top of the standings after the penultimate round.
Tawa joined Norths in second equal after they beat Paremata-Plimmerton 63-7.
The other Premier Reserve results were all one-sided fixtures. Petone beat Avalon 69-26, Ories overcame HOBM 62-21, the Upper Hutt Rams beat Johnsonville 53-19, Tawa beat Paremata-Plimmerton 63-7, Poneke defeated the Wellington Axemen 38-12 and OBU met Wainuiomata.
Oriental-Rongotai put one hand on the first round Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy with one round to play on Friday evening by beating Northern United 28-20 in the first women’s club rugby clash at Wespac Stadium.

The two teams fought out an even first half, with Norths hooker Patsy Schwalger scoring the game’s opening try, but Ories hit back on the stroke of halftime with a try to Joanah Ngan-Woo, which was converted by centre Amanda Rasch making it 7-5 at halftime to the Miramar contenders.
Goal-kicking misses and the sin-binning of lock and captain Sanita Levave would ultimately cost Norths, who seemingly took control of the game early in the second half with two quickfire tries to fullback Julie Tusa and Harmony Ioane. Ories struck back with a second try to Ngan-Woo and one to Amanda Rasch to take a narrow lead into the closing stages. Ories sealed the win and denied Norths a bonus point with a converted try on fulltime to left wing Ayesha Leti-L’iga, her 102nd try in 47 matches for Ories.
Meanwhile, just one other match went ahead on Saturday, with MSP beating HOBM 27-17.
The Paremata-Plimmerton versus Wainuiomata/Avalon fixture has been rescheduled to Tuesday night, while Poneke defaulted to Petone and the OBU Impalas had the bye.
In the Colts Division 1 Paris Memorial Trophy, the OBU Green Colts confirmed their favourtism to go on and win next week and win the first round by beating the Upper Hutt Rams Colts 95-0.
Second placed MSP beat HOBM 50-10, Paremata-Plimmerton seemingly kept themsevles in the top flight with a 37-14 win over Tawa, while Norths edged Petone 22-21 in a thriller.
In Colts Division 2, confirmed JRD Cup first round winners Oriental-Rongotai strode to a 85-0 win over Avalon, OBU Black beat Wainuiomata 41-7 and Poneke beat the Wellington Axemen Colts 43-22 in their match for the Misiluni Moananu Memorial Shield.
Then there was one in the U85kg JC Bowl, with the Avalon Wolves the only unbeaten team after six rounds following their 29-19 win over Wests and the Upper Hutt Ram’s 3-7 defeat to Wellington.
MSP beat the OBU Scallywags outfit 36-24, Eastbourne beat Paraparaumu 36-26 and HOBM got up to beat Wellington 15-10.
Stokes Valley made it four straight wins in the First Grade Thompson Memorial Cup with a 33-29 win over the Avalon Knights today. Elswwhere in this grade, defending champions the HOBM Barbarians beat OBU 57-31.

In College rugby today, just one Wellington school out of four won their Tranzit First XV pre-season match at Porirua Park.
Scots College were that team, thumping an understrength Gisborne Boys’ High School 50-0. Scots led 19-0 at halftime and their set-piece grew more dominant after halftime with the wind in their favour as Gisborne’s centre was sinbinned and in that time they scored a further three of their five second half tries. Gisborne had several first choice players missing through injury so will improve for the start of Super 8.
Up on the top field, St Pat’s Silverstream should have drawn with Napier Boys’ High School. Napier won 31-24, scoring a late try from a Silverstream error after scores were locked up at 24-24. Napier’s forwards were strong and they established a 12-0 lead early, which became 19-7 by halftime.
In the two 1.00pm games, St Pat’s Town missed out 22-31 to Hastings Boys’ High School and Wellington College found themselves back-peddling once more in their 12-33 loss to Palmerston North Boys’ High School.
These four Wellington schools will be joined by Kapiti College, Aotea College, Hutt International Boys’ School, and St Bernard’s who all qualfiied for he Premiership today in their weekend of grading matches. Kapiti beat Upper Hutt College 36-33, Aotea beat Taita College 27-14, HIBS beat Tawa College 25-22 and St Bernard’s prevailed over Porirua College 29-7.
Wairarapa College and Rongotai College qualified for the Premiership last weekend.