![](https://clubrugby.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Webp.net-gifmaker.gif")
Centre Peter Umaga Jensen was a leading player for Wainuiomata in their Old Timers’ Day and Hakaraia Trophy win over Poneke
By Steven White & Scott MacLean.
Draws & Results HERE
Update 1: Key wins today for Wainuiomata and Northern United have put these sides firmly in the race for championship Jubilee Cup spots, in the ninth round of 13 in the Wellington club rugby Premier Swindale Shield competition.
Wainuiomata celebrated their 75th anniversary day with a hard-fought 34-24 bonus point win over visitors Poneke at William Jones Park, while Northern United burst into the reckoning with a well-earned 34-12 win over Hutt Old Boys Marist at the Hutt Rec.
These wins, plus defeats for mid-table aspirants the Upper Hutt Rams and Johnsonville, along with Poneke, have made the challenge harder over the remaining month of the Swindale Shield for these teams if they want to pursue glory at the end of July.
The Rams lost 31-0 to Marist St Pat’s 31-0 at Evans Bay Park and the Johnsonville Hawks went down 52-7 to Tawa at home at Helston Park in their Carman Cup match.
At the top of the standings, the Old Boys University Goats maintained their grip and maintained a 6-point advantage by beating strugglers Avalon 78-12 in their Bill Brien Challenge Cup defence at Nairnville Park.
Both Tawa and MSP are joint second following their wins today over the Rams and the Hawks.
Petone are two points back in fourth, following their 54-10 away ken Gray Cup win over minnows Paremata-Plimmerton, with Oriental-Rongotai two further points back in fifth after they beat lower ranked the Wellington Axemen 45-22 for the Alby Jack Cup at the Polo Ground. The Eagles have slipped to sixth after Norths ended their run of wins from previous weeks.
In some scoring action around the grounds (as received), it was the Ropeti show at Nairnville Park. Flanker Dominic scored a hat-trick of tries and midfielder Alex scored two tries and kicked nine conversions for 28 points.
First five-eighth Jordan Aquila scored all Avalon’s points, with two tries and a conversion.
At the Polo Ground, Ories galloped to a five tries to nil lead midway through the first half against the Wellington Axemen.
No. 8 Siaosi Lavea scored after just a couple of minutes, ahead of a double to right wing Herman Seumanufagai in the 10th and 13th minutes and two more tries soon after.
The Axemen worked their way into the game and first five-eighth Ben Stowe scored two tries himself, going over in the 34th and 36th minutes. The Axemen were competitive throughout the second half, but the damage had been done earlier.
At Ngatitoa Domain, right wing Kyha Wilson (try) and his brother and fullback Justin Wilson (conversion, penalty) scored Paremata-Plimmerton’s points against Petone. For Petone, centre Riley Higgins crossed for four tries, of the eight his side scored.
Norths showed that they are far from a spent force in this year’s competition, delivering a powerful performance to end an out-of-sorts Hutt Old Boys Marist’s six-game winning streak in an at-times fractious encounter at the Hutt Rec.
Playing into the wind in the first-half Norths muscled up both with and without the ball, though lock Waylon Baker took this a little too literally seeing yellow for an early high-tackle. Despite this though Norths took the early lead when Campbell Woodmass burrowed over from close range. The Eagles barely fired a shot in the opening 40, not helped by shooting themselves in the foot when rookie flanker Jono Little was binned for a late charge, followed by Glen Walters heading the same way after some words in the direction of the Assistant Referee when HOBM had a try ruled out.
Norths made hay either side of half-time, with scores to Luca Rees (his 10th for the season) and Luke Kapene before the break, and when Ropati So’oalo strolled over two minutes after the resumption the game was as good as over. Junior Time-Taotua added a fifth try before the home side finally got on the board through Matt Sleith and a stoppage time consolation to replacement prop Vili Tauofaga.
Wainuiomata held on against a gallant Poneke to win 34-24 in their Hakaraia Trophy and Old Timers’ Day fixture at William Jones Park.
In an entertaining match with several twists and turns, Wainui won the contest with two quickfire tries early in the second half after Poneke had scored just after half time to put the visitors ahead 17-14.
Influential centre Peter Umaga-Jensen hit the advantage line at pace following a penalty and attacking lineout inside Poneke’s 22. Umaga-Jensen was brought down just short of the line but from the next ruck halfback Jordan King darted through to see the home side reclaim their earlier lead.
Three minutes later right wing Chris Aumua intercepted a Poneke pass from a scrum on his own side of halfway and sprinted 60 metres to score in front of the clubrooms supporters. Umaga-Jensen’s conversion from wide out was successful and Wainuiomata were now up 28-17.
Five minutes later Poneke starting first five Pakai Turia cut through from an attacking scrum to score untouched, and he converted his own try to cut the deficit to 28-24 with 20 minutes still to play.
The fourth quarter was even and competitive, both sides creating but unable to finish opportunities. The contest at the breakdown was a feature of the match and subsequently led to the game’s final two scoring moments which were a pair of Umaga-Jensen penalties, the second of these near the end denying Poneke the chance of an extra bonus point.
Earlier, Poneke had made a fast and positive start, dominating possession throughout most of the first 20 minutes. Playing into a dying wind, Poneke were rewarded when they turned down a shot at goal and centre Caleb Robson crashed over for the first try.
Wainuiomata second five John Monu was sinbinned and Poneke should have extended their lead. Instead, Wainuiomata won a big turnover and kicked the ball upfield into Poneke’s 22, regathering possession and several phases later Umaga-Jensen scored to the right of the uprights.
Poneke’s reply was to score their second try, which was similar to their first, off a penalty and lineout inside the 22, this time fullback Nick Robertson scoring. Turia slotted the conversion and Poneke led 12-7 after 27 minutes.
Wainuiomata then scored perhaps the try of the match with Monu injecting himself and making a searing break from a scrum in midfield on their own side of halfway. The ball was recycled and openside flanker Sam Smith scored the try to put them up 14-12 heading into halftime:
Wainuiomata closed out the first half on attack but were unable to score again. Poneke suffered a blow right before the interval when their second five Jimmy Hewitt left the field injured.
The start of the second half saw Poneke score an explosive third try, when after a concerted build-up, Turia, now at second five, put through a well-weighted kick into the corner for left wing Isaac Moe-Jenkins and the bounce of the ball eluded the chasing Wainuiomata covering defender, but Poneke hooker Andrew Jones came steaming through up the touchline to claim the try in the corner. Referee Andrew Lawler and his AR deliberated, and the try was awarded.
That set up the stage was set for the compelling remainder of the match.
Neither side deserved to lose, but Poneke, for all their endeavour and positive intent, let themselves down with far too much inaccurate play and putting pressure on themselves through their own mistakes.
Women’s
Ayesha Leti-I’iga 150th club rugby try for Oriental Rongotai was overshadowed by her team’s 34-24 loss to Northern United in today’s women’s club rugby feature game at Jerry Collins Stadium.
Leti-I’iga reached her milestone of 150 tries in her 60th game, in just the second minute of the match, breaking through on the counter-attack to put Ories 7-0 up.
Left wing and later halfback Leti-I’iga (below) would score two of her team’s three other tries but much of the run of play went to Norths who played well to end the Miramar side’s winning streak.
The rest of the first half was tit-for-tat scoring for both sides before outstanding Norths’ tighthead prop Dora Laupola barged over from close range to put Norths up 17-12 at the break.
Norths had had the advantage of the strong wind in the first half, would that be enough?
It appeared not, when in the 45th minute Norths’ hooker Paige Misky was sinbinned for a high tackle and Ories quickly pounced. From the resulting penalty and lineout on their own 22, Ories went wide to left wing Leti-I’iga who ran 50 metres to score her third try and put Ories up 19-17.
But Norths put paid to any comeback from the visitors, by quickly scoring two tries which put them in the lead 29-19.
A midfield turnover saw left wing Lomialagi Fa’amausili dash in up the grandstand touchline, while a concerted build-up on the far side of the field led to their next score.
Ories’ flanker Precious Auimatagi was held up over the line, leading to their fourth try to cut the lead to 29-24.
Norths’ scrum grew stronger as the game developed while their aggressive tackling and breakdown work soon proved decisive. With about 10 minutes to play, Norths enjoyed a strong period on attack and could have crossed three times before finally scoring the try that clinched the match, going wide from an attacking scrum and fullback Ofa Tuangalu scoring their fifth try that also denied Ories a second bonus point.
In the other Division 1 fixture, Marist St Pat’s enjoyed an 80-10 win over Hutt Old Boys Marist.
In the two Division 1 matches, Paremata-Plimmerton beat Avalon 84-0 – with New Zealand contracted cricketer Thamsyn Newton bowling through for five tries and Wainuiomata edged Poneke 12-7.
Premier 2
It was also a mixed bag of results in the Premier 2 Ed Chaney Cup. Tawa kept their unbeaten record on the season but were made to work by Ories at the Polo Ground before winning 24-19. Norths Blue joined them on 10 points after beating HOBM 40-17 at the Hutt Rec (see report below), while both MSP and OBU got their first wins of the round with MSP beating the Upper Hutt Rams 30-24 and OBU topping Poneke 43-15.
Big margins were the feature of the Division 2 HD Morgan Memorial. Petone Blue were the day’s biggest winners by crushing Wellington 71-19 while Stokes Valley returned to action by blanking Avalon 37-0. Wainuiomata kept the day rolling at William Jones by seeing off Norths White 52-12, and Johnsonville were also winners, by 40-10 over Petone Blue.
Displaced by a relocated College game to the #2 field at the Hutt Rec, Norths made use of a strong second-half to beat HOBM 40-17. The first-half was an even affair with the teams exchanging tries, but the last before the break was one of those rugby oddities as an Eagles kick downfield was misplayed by the visitors before bouncing off the corner flag and being grounded by a HOBM player. Norths – with a bevy of current and former Premier players – upped the ante after the break that the hosts couldn’t match however, scoring four converted tries without reply to give them a comfortable margin.
U85kg
Eastbourne ensured that the centenary celebrations didn’t fall flat, claiming the JC Bowl for the first time with a comfortable 47-3 win over an injury depleted HOBM at HW Shortt Park.
The Seagulls led 33-3 at halftime, extended to 40-3 early in the second half and centre Cole O’Connor sealed victory with a late try. Lock James Lind also scored two tries.
Avalon trailed home in second after beating the Upper Hutt Rams 19-17, MSP made is four-from-four for the club in their anniversary weekend by beating Wellington 35-29, and Poneke ended their winless run by seeing off the OBU Scallywags 48-12.
College
Scots College put the hammer down today, beating Wellington College 48-22.
Led by Maea Tema-Schmidt, Scots were too powerful up front, and had too much pace in the backline for Wellington College who played well in parts and contributed to a good game.
In other matches, St Pat’s Silverstream slew Porirua College 81-0 and St Pat’s Town accounted for Aotea College 45-0, Rongotai edged HIBS 21-14 and Beard Trophy holders Mana College defeated St Bernard’s College 27-26 in a thriller in the early match on the Hutt Rec – an appropriate curtain- raiser for the main HOBM vs Norths fixture.
It was a competitive fixture where the lead changed a number of teams. The game was decided in the last play with Mana notching a penalty to win by a point.
The variety of plays Mana College offers makes them a team that’s definitely worth watching in this year’s Tranzit Coachlines 1st XV Premiership. Mana’s backline is full of enterprise. Not scared to take risks, they have the ability to turn defence into attack. Centre Sione Baker has the potential to be one of the leading midfielders in secondary school rugby. First five Jacob Duncan offers a real mix of skills and a good read of the game. Randall Paenga is the lynchpin in the middle, marshalling his defence superbly.
Despite the loss, St Bernard’s College gave plenty. Captain Sam Mahy led his team from the front. Showing defiance even though a number of his players were absent with the long weekend.
In Premier 2, Upper Hutt, Bishop Viard, and the Silverstream 2nds are all two-from-two. Upper Hutt overwhelmed Paraparaumu 75-0 yesterday, Viard rebounded from their Beard Trophy loss to beat the Town 2nds 26-24, and Silverstream accounted for Kapiti 34-15. In the other fixtures Tawa beat Naenae 46-22, and Wairarapa College accounted for the Wellington College 2nds 10-0 in Masterton.
