Quality over quantity in representative rugby this weekend

Friday afternoon edition. 

A handful of matches on in the lower North Island this weekend, but what is on looks good.

The ground could shake at Kilbirnie Park tomorrow when the Wellington Samoa and Auckland Samoa players square off, with their feature senior men’s match kicking off at 1.00pm.

The Wellington team will be playing its final fixture of the year, so will throw everything at this one. The Samoa U18s were also scheduled to be playing the Auckland Samoa U18s but this has been cancelled. This team beat the Wellington Maori U18s 38-7 in their catch-up fixture on Tuesday night.

Elsewhere, the Wellington Maori U18s and the Wellington Centurions U18s meet at Lyndhurst Park, kick-off 1.00pm. The Wairarapa-Bush and Whanganui U18s are scheduled to meet in Masterton as well.

The Wellington Lions are at Porirua Park on Sunday against North Harbour at 2.05pm, and the Hurricanes U16s tournament gets underway in Napier on Monday.

The Lions will be hosting North Harbour in their seventh defence of their current Ranfurly Shield tenure, in their 107^th ever match with it on the line and in their 45^th defence overall. They are also gunning for a record 19^th straight NPC win, which would surpass the 18 they achieved in 1986/87. North Harbour have won their last four straight, while the Lions have lost their previous two NPC matches at Porirua Park. Teams for this match are expected to be revealed on Saturday.

Second round Hurricanes U16s Tournament matches and day one tournament week openers on Monday see first round winners Hawke’s Bay and Wellington Gold meet and first round defeated sides Manawatu and Wellington Black meet in Division A contests. In Division B, there are matches on Monday between Ngati Porou East Coast and Wairarapa Bush, Horowhenua-Kapiti and Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay Development and Whanganui.

The two lower North Island Heartland Championship teams are both in action at home tomorrow and in need of wins, both also hosting other Hurricanes region teams.

At Levin, Horowhenua-Kapiti takes on Poverty Bay, and at Masterton, Wairarapa-Bush welcomes the Whanganui Butcher Boys.

Wairarapa-Bush are sixth and play third placed Whanganui, so both are the mix for some post-round-robin Meads Cup (top four) or Lochore Cup (5^th to 8^th) action, but it is must-win territory now for Horowhenua-Kapiti who are 10^th and Poverty Bay who are 11^th.

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The final of the Wellington schoolgirls U15s competition was at Porirua Park on Wednesday night, with St Mary’s College beating Wainuiomata High School 46-36.

There was also a game of three halves that saw Aotea College beat Sacred Heart College 20-17, WEGC defeat Aotea 35-5 and then Sacred Heart beat WEGC 17-7.

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Teamlists as received:

Wellington Centurions U18s

1. Braydon Goli – Ories
2. George White – HIBS
3. Samuela Moli – Scot’s
4. Jackson Mendoza – S/S
5. Finn OSullivan – WC
6. Anthony Hunt – TC
7. Tom Devery (c) – HIBS
8. Jack Riley – WC
9. Jake Lawson – Scot’s
10. Sean Carter – HIBS
11. Harry Healy – WRFC
12. Meta Afamasaga – TRFC
13. Jacob Kennedy – WC
14. Kata Ruaporo – TC
15. Manihera Gardiner – Scots
16. Evan Peanga – MC
17. Adwin Ngu – NC
18. Jarred Kuresa – TRFC
19. Rakai Paea – MC
20. Seth Bailey – MC
21. Ollie Cuff – S/S
22. Alex McAslan – Scots