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Action from the Reserve Grade match at Maidstone Park on Saturday between the Upper Hutt Rams J8s and the Poneke Ruffnuts. The J8s won 31-27. It is tight at the top of the Mike Copeland Cup competition with two rounds to play in the round-robin. The standings are: Johnsonville Cripples 47, UH Rams J8s 45, UH Rams Thirsties 44, Poneke Ruffnuts 41, MSP Internationals 38. PHOTO above by Peter McDonald. Full gallery on our website HERE
There is three weeks remaining in the Wellington Premier club rugby season.
This coming weekend’s top tier Jubilee Cup and tier two Hardham Cup fixtures are knockout matches; the winners progress to next week’s semi-finals and the losers are gone for the season.
Matches at a glance (subject to confirmation):
Jubilee Cup
- Old Boys University v Tawa (winner to play Paremata-Plimmerton in semi-final on 15 July)
- Upper Hutt Rams v Oriental-Rongotai (winner to play Johnsonville in semi-final on 15 July)
Hardham Cup
- Marist St Pat’s v Wellington
- Petone v Avalon
- Hutt Old Boys Marist v Northern United
- Poneke v Wainuiomata
Winners to meet in semi-finals on 15 July.
The same format applies with the Premier 2 competitions, where the top teams play for the Ed Chaney Cup and the bottom eight are contesting the HD Morgan Memorial Cup – draws for this weekend to be confirmed.
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Congratulations on the OBU Scallywags for winning the U85kg JC Bowl first round title.
The second round Colts and u85kg competitions are underway now, and these competitions run for a bit longer than the Premier ones, with finals in August. Again, draws, format and confirmation is all to be confirmed.
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A rare full house from Wainuiomata’s Tyler Tane on Saturday against Norths, scoring all four ways: A hat-trick of tries, plus 6 conversions, a penalty, and a drop goal for a personal haul of 33 points.
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Norths No. 8 Jeremiah Avei-Collins also scored a hat-trick in the same match against Wainuiomata.
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A hat-trick of tries to Poneke fullback Nick Robertson on Saturday against Avalon. He scored four tries last week before being subbed at halftime, so that’s seven tries in one and a half games.
In the same match, hooker Andrew Jones scored his team’s first two tries. Poneke led 58-0 until the dying moments when Avalon scored a consolation try at the end.
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Toby Crosby scored his 15th try of the season in 10 games played on Saturday, for the Upper Hutt Rams against Paremata-Plimmerton.
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The race for the top points scorer accolades in Wellington club rugby is heating up considerably. After Saturday’s matches, Brandyn Laursen (HOBM) leads the way with 185 points, ahead of Tynan Barrett (Upper Hutt Rams) with 184 and Mark Sutton (Johnsonville) 178.
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Taine Plumtree to Wales. A big loss.
— The OBU Goat 🐐 (@TheOBUGoat) June 28, 2023
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The Wellington Lions aren’t knocking down the door advertising their upcoming pre-season Ranfurly Shield matches. Nothing on the website and the headline ‘next fixture’ is the first NPC match. The WRFU and Wellington Lions sites mention the Levin match on 12 July (as part of an article on the wider training squad) but not the time, while no mention at all the Hutt Rec match versus South Canterbury on 19 July.
On that latter match, the St Pat’s Silverstream Stream – St Pat’s Town Traditional is listed at 1.15pm, while the Lions v South Canterbury is at the Hutt Rec at 2:05pm according to the SCRFU website. So a clash.
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France is currently on fire. Mass riots and civil unrest throughout the country. So we hope the upcoming Rugby World Cup is still going to be all good to go in France? Or will it have to be moved at short notice? How safe would you be travelling through France as a supporter right now? Although the Tour de France is proceeding as normal and with big crowds.
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It’s Manawatu Senior 1 [Premier] semi-finals time this coming weekend. Top qualifier and first round winners Old Boys Marist host fourth placed Varsity and second placed College Old Boys will meet third placed Kia Toa in the other. The Hankins Trophy final is on Saturday 15 July.
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Random try clip. Left wing Jono Ryan runs in the final try of the day on fulltime for the Upper Hutt Rams. Home team Paremata-Plimmerton won 31-27.
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Last week in this space we speculated where the Jubilee and Hardham Cup finals will be held on 22 July. We have since been told they will be played at the Hutt Rec. More information presumably to come.
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Will we get a Best & Fairest competition update before the season is finished?
It was put to us recently that the community starts up a parallel competition in 2024 for transparency and to reignite interest in this. A good idea? Would just need to work out a system of allocating points.
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The Black Ferns are starting a busy international season – but will be missing one of Wellington’s favourite players. It is understood that Ayesha Leti-L’iga suffered a season ending injury at training last week whilst with the team. Wishing her all the best and hoping she returns as strong next year where the 200-try milestone in club rugby is not far away.
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By all accounts that we have heard, Saturday’s supposed blockbuster First XV match between St Pat’s Silverstream and Scots College was in fact a bit of a fizzer. Scots College won 32-19 and had more in the tank. These teams are destined to meet in the final – barring a massive upset in the semi-finals. No school rugby this weekend as it’s school holidays. There will be two catch-up Premiership games next Saturday, followed by the penultimate round (with the Stream-Town match kicking that off, see above).
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“Silver Lake investment hits grassroots, but rugby clubs say it isn’t the silver bullet”
New Zealand Rugby says that $7.45 million has been distributed to community rugby clubs with every eligible club out of the 472 nationwide applying for and receiving payments.
The Taieri club was the recipient of a $30,000 investment, with much of that either already spent or upgrading the facilities for women or earmarked for that purpose. “We want to try and get a women’s team,” Club Chairman Dyer says. “Taieri College has got quite a strong women’s rugby [program]. It’s just a matter trying to foster that through to the senior club.”
Dyer admits that Taieri have lost a senior side this year due to a lack of numbers, and the closely affiliated junior club are also reporting a downturn in participation.
Read more behind the headline HERE
