Connor Lemon hoping to put the squeeze on Poneke in Grbich interclub trophy match in his 100th game

Connor Lemon running out to play at home at the Polo Ground earlier this season. Photo: David Brownlie. 

Oriental-Rongotai front-rower Connor Lemon is set to play in his sixth Jimmy Grbich Shield match in his 100th Premier game this Saturday for Oriental-Rongotai on their Old Timers’ Day at the Polo Ground against Poneke.

The Grbich Shield game is one of the leading interclub matches on the Wellington club rugby calendar, after the player of Dalmatian and Maori descent who tragically dying in a late-night car accident near the Tawa motorway interchange in 1962, at the peak of his playing career.

Talking to the Huddy Hui on Wednesday night, Lemon said the Grbich Shield match is a special fixture on the calendar of both Poneke and Ories clubs.

“It’s a massive match for both clubs, of all the interclub trophies we play this is one of the big ones that we treasure the most, Lemon said.

“It has been really competitive over the past few years, we don’t have it at the moment but hopefully that can change.”

Poneke won their clash last year 15-12 –  a game which Lemon missed.

“There was also a draw a few years ago [30-30 in 2017] so its good to have a tight battle. A lot of the guys went to school together and have family supporting one of the other or both clubs. No matter where you are sitting on the table it is going to be a big battle.”

Watch the full Huddy Hui Episode 86 with Connor Lemon below.

On the subject of the points table, it’s a big game this Saturday for Ories as far as making the Jubilee Cup goes.

Ories’ aspirations are on a knife-edge, part of a congested mid-table with just two round-robin matches to play, these being against Poneke on Saturday and the Upper Hutt Rams next weekend

“For us, we can’t worry about other results, we can only do what we can do. So to finish the season strong and get maximum points that’s all we can really do.”

Unfortunately, Poneke are already consigned to the Hardham Cup after their 21-52 loss to Tawa this past weekend – but can play the spoiler’s role.

Lemon admitted it’s been an up and down season for Ories and they need to shore up their consistency if they want to progress from being Hardham Cup champions in 2023.

“We haven’t put together a complete performance this year, and against Poneke it is going to be a big game with the occasion and myself playing 100 games, so the stage is set for us to find our best form.”

One area where Ories haven’t been great this year is their first half performances, why is that?

“We have had some chats about that, but it is hard to pinpoint. We have tried to increase our intensity of our warm-ups so as we hit the field we are ready to run.

“It’s hard to be down under your posts after five minutes and having to re-group.

“I think the game against Hutt Old Boys Marist is a good example of that, we were down a couple of tries in that first 20 minutes and its hard to come back from that.

HOBM eventually capitalised on their fast start to win that fixture 56-26.

Ories started well last weekend against frontrunners Old Boys University, before missing out 21-27.

“That was a real arm-wrestle and a really tough game. Both teams were good out there and it could have gone either way, but we just got pipped towards the end.”

Lemon played the first of his 99 Premier games to date for Ories at the start of the 2017 Swindale Shield in a 30-22 win against Avalon.

He switched to Ories that season after joining Marist St Pat’s straight after leaving St Pat’s Town and playing Colts and Premier Reserve rugby for MSP.

“It was a big decision to switch to Ories, and the reason for it was because I wanted more game-time and more opportunities.”

“So, to make the change and then called up to play Premiers for my new club was big moment for me, especially as I had never played First XV rugby or anything like that previously.”

Lemon’s chance to play Premiers came straight away and was in part because Penieli Poasa broke his jaw in the pre-season game, so he got to share the hooker’s duties with his brother Poasa Poasa.

These days Lemon is more commonly seen at loosehead prop.

“I had played hooker all my life, but with Penieli coming back there was a space at prop so I changed and it’s worked out well.”

In his time, Lemon has played alongside some famous players such as Ma’a Nonu and the Savea brothers.

“Just their wealth of knowledge and their love for the game they have, you just want to play out of your skin to show them what you are made of as well. I fizz for that kind so of stuff, it is a great honour.”

Lemon thanks everything the club has provided for him – one reason why he continues to commute to trainings twice a week and to play all his games in Miramar from Upper Hutt where he has lived with his young family for a few years.

“The travel and the late nights home are worth it.

“To be able to stick around and get the chance to play 100 games for Ories on Saturday is big for me, for a club I have a lot of love and respect for.”

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The Jimmy Grbich Shield

Jimmy Grbich was of Dalmatian and Maori descent and came to Wellington from Pukekohe in 1950. He joined the Poneke club for whom he played every season for up until his premature death. Poneke won the Jubilee Cup in his second year at the club in 1951.

He started his rugby life as a wing and outside back and moved into the forwards to become a multi-skilled flanker and loose forward, not unlike some of the dynamic players of the modern era such as Victor Vito, Rodney So’oialo and Ories’ own Ardie Savea.

He represented Wellington for six consecutive seasons from 1957 to his death in a car accident near Tawa in 1962, aged 31.

He was a regular New Zealand Maori representative, touring Australia in 1959, playing against the British Lions in Auckland in 1959 and touring Tonga and Western Samoa in 1960, playing against Samoa in the first ‘Test’ on that tour. He played in an All Black trial in 1959, scoring a try.Grbich’s death rocked the Wellington rugby community, not least the Poneke club and eastern suburbs community for whom he had been an integral part of for over a decade.

Wellington selector and coach Clarrie Gibbons paid tribute to him at the time: “It was my privilege to be associated with Wellington representative teams of which Jim was a member for a number of years and I would say that every rugby player who played either with him or against him would agree when I state that not a fairer player pulled on a rugby boot,” said Gibbons.

 The last 10 Jimmy Grbich Shield results have been:

• 2022: Poneke 15 – Ories 12
• 2021: Ories 37 – Poneke 17
• 2020: Poneke 20 – Ories 15
• 2019: Ories 21 – Poneke 15
• 2018: Poneke 28 – Ories 25
• 2017: Poneke 30 – Ories 30
• 2016: Ories 20 – Poneke 19
• 2015: Ories 28 – Poneke 27
• 2014: Ories 31 – Poneke 10
• 2013: Ories 32 – Poneke 24