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The Poneke Ruffnuts – Reserve Grade John Davies Cup winners.
Morning edition – updates expected later today: That is the end of club rugby competitions for the year, except for the National U85kg Knockout Cup that continues for a few weeks.
The two teams that met in the final of the Wellington U85kg Division 1 competition on Saturday, the OBU Scallywags and Tawa Ducks, meet again this coming weekend in the third round of this competition.
The Wellington Lions have retained both the Coronation Cup (Manawatu) and Mike Gibson Memorial Trophy (Otago) in the first two weeks of the NPC. There is no inter-provincial trophy on the line against Southland this coming Saturday at the Hutt Rec, kick-off 2.05pm, but the Ranfurly Shield is being contested. Local supporters will hope it is retained, then it will be on the line again next Wednesday against Tasman in their ‘Storm Week’.
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The ‘representative’ season continues in earnest this coming Saturday with three scheduled matches.
- The Wellington Centurions return home from their triumph over the Manawatu Evergreens in Feilding to play them at Rugby League Park at 1.00pm.
- The Wellington Maori and Wellington Samoan men’s teams meet at William Jones Park at 2.30pm.
- The Wellington U19s and the Wellington Fijians meet at NZCIS at 2.30pm.
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Congratulations on Scots College beating St Pat’s Silverstream 29-27 yesterday in the Wellington Premiership First XV final. Scots are in action at home this coming Saturday hosting Feilding High School (details TBC) in one Hurricanes schools semi-final. Napier BHS host Palmerston North BHS in the other. The winners meet in Palmerston North the following week.
Feilding were also winners this weekend, claiming their second Central North Island competition title with a 24-17 win over St John’s, Hamilton.
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Manukura and St Mary’s College meet in the Hurricanes Girls Final on Wednesday for the Rex Kerr Cup. The match is scheduled for Massey University at 2.00pm.
The winner of this match will represent the Hurricanes region at the Top 4 in early September. Lat year it was Manukura, who went on to win the national title. One thing that is sure is that there will be a new representative from the Chiefs region, with Cambridge High School beating perennial contenders and former champions Hamilton Girls’ High School 15-10 last week in the Waikato final.
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Paremata-Plimmerton are holding their annual ‘battle of the bridge’ fixture on Saturday, between Paremata and Plimmerton, heading into the club’s prizegiving evening.
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Johnsonville are also holding a Charity match on Saturday – see post below.
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Great to have Jerry Collins Stadium back on Sunday.
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Jamie Joseph to the Highlanders in 2024.
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Johnsonville midfielder Olly Paotonu, OBU prop Geordie Bean and Paremata-Plimmerton five-eighths Dale Sabbagh made their Heartland Championship debuts for Horowhenua-Kapiti on Saturday in the opening weekend of the Heartland Championship, which saw six high scoring matches.
In games involving the lower North Island teams, Wairarapa-Bush beat Ngāti Porou East Coast 32-31 at home, Thames Valley tipped over Whanganui 36-33 at Cooks Gardens and Horowhenua-Kapiti lost to defending Meads Cup champions South Canterbury 48-14 away.
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Some brutal defence by the Wellington Lions in their 28-5 win over Otago on Saturday afternoon. In their last 10 matches they’ve prevented three opponents from scoring a single try, conceded only one try against Otago and Horowhenua-Kapiti, and leaked two in the 2022 final success over Canterbury.
A good game from Aidan Morgan at first-five for Wellington on Saturday against Otago The MSP player was a bit shaky with the Hurricanes over the back end of the Super Rugby season but is coming back into some confidence and good form.
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Great to see James O’Reilly back on the field and playing well on Saturday. He has had the entire season off thus far after having shoulder/nerve surgery and is back.
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Akira Ieremia went well off the bench as well. Look out for his conversation with Huddy Sports this Wednesday night.
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Since 2012 Scots have won 92 Premiership fixtures, Silverstream 93. Fifteen of the last 19 games between the schools have been decided by less than a converted try with Silverstream holding a 10-9 advantage.
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The Wellington Pride suffered their heaviest loss to Bay of Plenty this past weekend and are on a record seven-game losing streak.
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The Wellington U19s missed out 31-36 to the Tasman Mako U20s in Blenheim on Saturday. Wellington led 19-12 at halftime. Scorers for Wellington were hooker Leon Tuiloma (2 tries), flanker Matolu Petaia, N0. 8 Jeremiah Avei-Collins and prop Salesa Seumanufagai with one try each and flyhalf Stanley Solomon with three conversions.
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Two tries to Upper Hutt Rams wing Salesi Rayasi for Auckland on Saturday. But his double strike was his team’s only try-scoring of the match and Tasman beat them 24-12.
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Four of the top ten Farah Palmer Cup try scorers are wingers while Canterbury fullback Karla Wright-Akeli and Otago second-five Jamie Church have played on the wing this season. Compare that to Super Rugby where Crusaders hooker Codie Taylor was among the top try scorers with 12, most of them travelling less than a meter from monotonous mauling.
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Selica Winiata plays her 100th match for the Manawatū Cyclones this Saturday against Otago. She debuted in 2001.
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Reports on the periphery that New Zealand Rugby is about to launch its NZR+ digital platform. This will start with a fly on the wall documentary series about the fortunes of the All Blacks and all the coaching dramas in 2022. But hang on, we are well into 2023 now, so a few months too late to launch this being anything other than the Geordie Shore of the All Blacks? Also, the NZR+ platform is heading down the right track, but its not addressing the elephant in the room of waning interest and participation in the game in New Zealand, which is the grassroots and the ground up focus.
Update: To see this disconnect on show that we are referring to in the rant above refer to the Tweet [X] below. With so much rugby on from the NPC down, they suggested you go frolic in a meadow this past weekend.
A weekend without an All Blacks game has us like… 😑#AllBlacks pic.twitter.com/mjaIw1T6NT
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) August 12, 2023
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Following just one Super Rugby game in 2022 and three starts for Canterbury, George Bell was named as an injury replacement for the Rugby World Cup last Monday. Asafo Aumua and Brodie McAlister are injured while the New Zealand Under 20s captain appears to have usurped experienced campaigners like Kurt Eklund, Andrew Makalio and Bradley Slater have been overlooked. In 2015 replacement prop Pauliasi Manu spent just three days as an All Black but walked away with a World Cup winner’s medal following the 2015 World Cup final victory over the Wallabies. Manu flew to London as standby cover when Crockett was forced to withdraw from the squad because of his injury. The uncapped 27-year-old was picked for Auckland in 2008 and three years later started for the Blues. In two seasons he played only five matches before being delisted by coach John Kirwan and signing a two-year deal with the Rebels. However, he failed his pre-season medical in Melbourne because of problems with his neck which restricted his medical insurance, and his contract was terminated. He was picked up by the Chiefs in 2013 and played 49 games until 2016 before returning to the Blues. He played 165 first-class games in total and scored nine tries.
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Owen Farrell is a very fine player whose inability to remedy a flawed and dangerous tackle technique is a stain on an otherwise fine legacy. How and why is someone so experienced and so well-remunerated still making such reckless errors?
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The Under 85kg Premier Auckland final between Ponsonby and Pakuranga was a fierce, fast, skilful contest won bravely by Ponsonby 10-3 in the scenic setting of Cox’s Bay Reserve. The trophy at stake, the Maurice O’Connor Trophy, is one of the oldest and most interesting in New Zealand. Maurice was the younger brother of Tim O’Conner, the 1884 All Black. Maurice was originally the most famous detective in New Zealand, then made his fortune as a publican. It’s been contested since 1898, initially in ‘third grade’ and then in 85kg rugby since 1966. The smiley Kasey Joe-McIndoe, a former Eastbourne player, was outstanding at hooker for Ponsonby.
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If ever there was a graphic illustration of the total indictment the rolling maul has become on contemporary rugby it happened on Friday night in the NPC match between Hawke’s Bay and Counties Manukau. Despite leading the match for only four minutes, Hawke’s Bay was only down 24-18 when they had a lineout five metres out from the Counties line with the last play. Inevitably, having scored earlier from a rolling maul, Hawke’s Bay locked the ball in quarantine and drove forwards. Slide to 10:30 on the highlights tape below and watch Hawke’s Bay 20. His knee goes to the ground while attached to the maul. Next, he leaves the maul and rejoins from the side. Appalling, unsafe cheating missed by a referee pre-programed to look for any minor infringements by the defending side because the present laws basically give no rights to the defending side to stop the maul. All this happens even before four Counties players are taken out illegally by Hawke’s Bay too. This ‘skill’ won Hawke’s Bay the game.
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Club prizegiving season starting up, such as Poneke’s on Saturday:
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Roy Roper became the first All Black to turn 100 on August 11. While physically frail he’s still cognitively functional so it was very special when he was presented with a cap at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School (his old school) assembly. Furthermore, Roy was presented with video messages from current players and a special All Blacks jersey. He would have received more than 10,000 birthday wishes on social media from around the world.
Visit and bookmark the Club Rugby photos website:
https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/2023
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