You are here
Home > Club Rugby > Sideline Conversions 29 May (some news and information to start the week)

Sideline Conversions 29 May (some news and information to start the week)

Some spectacular shots at the Petone Rec on Saturday. But the condition of the ground must be a worry for some. 

What a week coming up in rugby. It all starts today.

Despite apparent non-existent promotion by the NZRU (perhaps a nice pretty Instagram post or two going out today, maybe team selection could be a good start), the New Zealand U20s and the Australian U20s meet today in the first of two unofficial Junior Tests, at the NZCIS grounds at Trentham. Kick-off is at 2.00pm. From what we can ascertain, coverage of this match by the NZRU will be as quiet as their promotion of it, although we have been told there will be a basic (feed only) livestream on the NZCIS Facebook page. We will look to get a photo gallery of the game from our end too. The second of these matches is this coming Saturday – some further thoughts on that one below. UPDATE: The Junior Wallabies have won this opening fixture 34-26.

There are twoFirst XV matches on Wednesday. These being: Mana College v Hato Paora College, Mana 12.45, Wellington College v Rongotai College, WC TBC kick-off 12.15pm and Scots College v Napier Boys’ High School, Scots TBC kick-off.  Update: Not rugby, Scots is playing Napier Boys’ at home in Football, Hockey, Basketball and Badminton.

St Pat’s Silverstream are also listed to be attending New Plymouth Boys’ High School on Wednesday in their annual First XV fixture.

+++++

It’s Round 10 of 13 of the Premier club rugby Swindale Shield this coming Saturday. Matches at a glance are:

+++++

Spare a thought for grounds staff around the region as they face the battle to get several fields ready for any sort of play this weekend. The Petone Rec looked completely destroyed following Saturday’s rugby, Delaney Park was already closed forcing Stokes Valley to play their Prem 2 clash at Fraser Park, and games scheduled for Maidstone Park were transferred away though that was likely for protection reasons rather than its current condition.

It’s similar at colleges as well, with St Bernard’s and Tawa College’s fields both closed and others facing that this week.

Although, having fewer games on across the grades because of King’s Birthday Weekend could be good timing.

+++++

Home ground advantage worked in Johnsonville’s favour on Saturday when it the heavens opened and it poured down for several minutes in the second half of the Premier 2 curtain-raiser. At the time, the Tawa Premiers were just starting their warm-ups at the southern end of the ground and got totally soaked. The Johnsonville Premiers warmed up in their green room below the clubrooms and remained dry.

+++++

Another whale of a game from Johnsonville lock Anthony Pettett – the word is Manawatu are looking at him closely.

+++++

A century up on Saturday for Wellington Axemen flanker Ben Hendry, congratulations on the milestone.

++++++

Another hat-trick of tries for Oriental-Rongotai’s Black Fern Ayesha Leti-l’iga. By our tally, she has scored 187 tries in 74 matches for Ories in Wellington club rugby.

+++++

After retiring last year, Pek Cowan made his return to the Petone Premiers on Saturday, coming off the bench in the second half. We were told over the weekend that he is next in line to join the Crusaders if yet another one of their props goes down.

+++++

Some controversy at Porirua Park on Saturday evening. After winning their Premier contest, Paremata-Plimmerton would have expected to receive the Ivan Hardgrave Trophy that they and Norths have played for many years but last won by the Ngati Toa side back in 2014 at the old Senior 1 level. However, it appears that Norths may have unilaterally “retired” the trophy, which came as something of a surprise to those from Pare-Plim. We hope the impasse can be resolved. Unless we hear otherwise through direct communication, the trophy was/is still on the line for this clash on our website (same policy with the WRFU and the naming rights of their club competitions we cover).

+++++

More positive however was that players from Paremata-Plimmerton joined their Norths counterparts for the haka honouring Norths Women’s double centurion Patsy Schwalger.

+++++

Speaking of double centurions, it was great to see Poneke’s Ben Huntley running around for their second side on Saturday.

+++++

Brad Shields will be joining the Wellington Lions this year, ahead of his Hurricanes return next year. Will he sneak in some club rugby game time for Petone?

+++++

Staying with Petone, news on Friday afternoon that the Hutt City Council closed the Petone Rec Stand for spectators citing roof safety issues.

Why was the earthquake inspection done on Tuesday, and the club warned about it on Friday? Perhaps the engineers needed the time to convene and write an initial report, rather than the cynical but sadly highly unsurprising reason of it being another instance of communications New Zealand-style in action. If the stand is to be shut down for the foreseeable future, what has changed there since the last several decades? Presumably this is a regular inspection and something has creaked since the last one.

And why were commentators and the filming crews allowed in the grandstand and not Andy Leslie’s contemporaries who’ve kept those seats warm and solid since the 60s? Update: the media weren’t in fact allowed in the stand proper, rather at the top of the stairwell on the side of the stand.

The 85kg Petone team had a good win. To celebrate they drank a few underneath the condemned stand. Who on the council was stopping these lightweights?

Some spectacular photos (as noted above), but the ground itself is an awful state as well.

++++++

Professional/high performance rugby once again schedules itself to cut into community sport time. On this occasion it is not the Hurricanes or the WRFU’s doing though (well we hope not). Putting the New Zealand U20s – Australia U20s second match on at 4.30pm at Wellington Stadium this coming Saturday is just another minor blow to community sport. Who is going to go to watch this live at the ground (apart from families etc)? With club and college rugby rugby matches around the region just finishing, not the actual rugby community. The gap between this finishing and the Hurricanes starting is also too great for this to be billed as a curtain-raiser. So once more Sky Television rules the roost, to the detriment of everyone else. See defaults item below and then start connecting some dots.

+++++

The Wellington Lions confirmed their coaches for the season ahead. Tamati Ellison is head coach, and is joined by Tawa coach Trent Renata, incumbent Lions scrum coach Greg Halford and Otago’s Alando Soakai.

The Wellington Lions will assemble on July 10 ahead of the 2023 NPC competition.

They will kick off their season with two Ranfurly Shield challenges against Horowhenua Kapiti on July 12 and South Canterbury on July 19, followed by a traditional preseason match against Taranaki on July 29 July at Manaia Domain.

+++++

Wellington and Marist St Pat’s centre, Billy Proctor, has recommitted to the Hurricanes through to the end of the 2025 which will mark his sixth and seventh seasons with the outfit.  In 2019, the then teenager inked a five-year deal, the longest deal in Hurricanes history, and debuted against the Waratahs in Sydney. Proctor has since played 48 matches for the side, dotting down 13 times including scoring a try that wasn’t in their loss to the Blues on Saturday night.

+++++

Brandyn Laursen (HOBM) became the third player to reach the century mark of points on Saturday. Laursen has exactly 100 points in the Swindale Shield, behind Tyan Barrett (Upper Hutt Rams) 130 and Mark Sutton Johnsonville (119).

+++++

Louis Northcott (Paremata-Plimmerton) is the leading try scorer in the Swindale Shield with 11 tries.

+++++

In Auckland Premier club rugby, defending champions Manukau Rovers beat University 41-10 in yesterday’s blockbuster top of the table fixture. Manukau are now seven from seven.

+++++

What about Wairarapa College beating St Pat’s Town 20-19 on Saturday? SPC are now 0-2 and the pressure is on already to make the top four. They made a slow start last year, so they will be hoping for more of the same.

+++++

Can anyone hang with, let alone stop, the OBU Scallywags in the Under 85 competition? The Goats – led by recent Premier halfback Matt “Unit” Fowler – have conceded just 20 points, and only three tries, in seven games this year and have already recorded wins over most of the other leading contenders. Their clash with Poneke in the weeks ahead seems likely to determine the fate of the JC Bowl.

+++++

A mention this week of the Wainuiomata Colts side, who copped another heavy defeat on Friday night and through six matches have scored just a solitary try. But they still get numbers to training and showing up with a squad each week which speaks well to their attitude, and having now played each of the top sides bar Upper Hutt hopefully better fortune awaits them in coming weeks.

+++++

The Upper Hutt Rams J8s remain top of the table after the latest round of Mike Copeland Cup Reserve Grade fixtures. They were defaulted to by the OBU 69ers on Saturday though so didn’t take the field. The Johnsonville Cripples are second, after beating the Wellington X-Men 74-0. The next round of matches is in a fortnight.

+++++

In the Hawke’s Bay, Napier Tech have won the first round Nash Cup, winning all 10 games and scoring 471 points and conceding 149. The championship Maddison Trophy starts this coming weekend.

++++++

There were two defaults in Waikato Premier club rugby on Saturday. Recent champions Melville and recent improvers Matamata both took the weekend off in the 10-team competition.

+++++

Divided loyalties for Du Pleessis Kirifi on Sunday. He was at the netball elimination final that the Pulse sadly lost to the Stars, but was in the Stars supporters group in the stand owing to his partner being a Stars player!

++++++

After the round robin of the United Rugby Championship, Munster was fifth with only 11 wins in 18 games.  They upset Glasgow (14-5), top-ranked Leinster (16-15), and the Stormers (19-14) all the road in the finals to capture honours for the first time since the 2010-11 season. The Hurricanes are unlikely to match that feat but at least there is a precedent.

Please email any news and information for this column or story ideas to editor@clubrugby.co.nz 

Similar Articles

Leave a Reply

Top