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Great days in club rugby 005: Leading from the Front

Above: In 2018 Old Boys University captain Jonathan Fuimaono helped steer his side’s ship to their third Jubilee Cup title in four years with a 37-31 win in the final over Northern United. 

Since the first season that the Jubilee Cup was contested in 1929 there have been approximately 8,000 Senior A/Premier club rugby matches contested in Wellington.

In this series for 2024 as part of our ongoing celebration of community rugby in Wellington, we have broken into the ‘Today in Club Rugby History’ files, selected a small sample of these matches and divided them up into similar categories of occurrences.

This offering looks at some instances of stirring or match-winning captain’s knocks down the years.

10 captain’s turns [leading from the front]

 

15 May 1954: Petone captain Don McIntosh is a standout Player of the Match with a bullish performance in their 12-9 win over two-time defending Jubilee Cup champions University. Some 4,000 spectators are on hand to see McIntosh lead his forwards to a 12-0 halftime lead. University come back and dangerman wing Ron Jarden scores the try that edges them close. Jarden misses a 50-metre kick at the death that would have forced a draw. Later in the season University beat Petone 11-6 in the match that decides the students’ third straight title. Lower Hutt born and bred McIntosh goes on to play 120 matches for Wellington, is provincial captain between 1955-60 and plays four tests for the All Blacks in 1956 and 1957. In club rugby, McIntosh will raise the Jubilee Cup as Petone’s captain in 1956 and 1957.

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23 August 1975: Anyone and everyone has picked Petone to romp to a comfortable win in today’s Jubilee Cup ‘final’ against Poneke. But nobody has told Poneke that. With few stars and brilliantly captained by Don Cederwall, Poneke upsets Petone 11-9 in the season decider and wins its first Jubilee Cup since 1951. Poneke apply constant pressure on Petone. A big moment comes in the 55th minute when Poneke wing Peter Peilua scores a key try. Petone’s only points in the final are via the boot of Richard Cleland.

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 5 August 1978: Graham Williams retires from all rugby today by helping Wellington beat Onslow 20-3 and thus share the Jubilee Cup with MSP after MSP first five Tu Wylie scores a winning try on fulltime to give them a 15-12 win over Athletic in the other key last round match today. For Williams, this is his second Jubilee Cup title as a player, the first one in 1972 also shared (with Athletic), with Williams leading that team to a 12-9 win over Petone in final match of the year. He has been a regular fixture for both his Wellington club and province since his first year out of school in 1964.

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21 June 1980: Marist St Pat’s beat Petone 13-0 to win the Swindale Shield in today’s ‘virtual final’. MSP captain and hooker Kevin Horan is a standout player for the winning team in their defence of the first-round title. This is also MSP’s 35th consecutive Wellington club competition victory. Horan has captained them in all of these (the total winning streak will reach 42 games) Petone will end the streak later in the season by ending their run and winning the Jubilee Cup. Horan will bring the curtain down on his decade-long Wellington representative career later this season, finishing with 98 games for the province. Kevin and his older brother Mick will also end their combined playing careers with five Jubilee Cup wins between them.

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29 April 1983: Dropped goals are rare in club rugby in contemporary times in Wellington club rugby. But it would be hard to go past this effort by Poneke captain Grant Griffith. He potted a last play 40-metre dropped goal for victory in this match in the ‘Battle of Kilbirnie’ against Marist St Pat’s. MSP had led 21-0 after just 15 minutes, but Poneke clawed their way back and the Poneke skipper times their win perfectly in his club’s 100th anniversary season. Griffith is Poneke’s most capped player, with 287 appearances from the late 1960s to 1986, and was Poneke’s sole Wellington representative when they won the Jubilee Cup 1975.

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6 April 1990: New club Northern United grabs a famous 21-14 win over long-established club Petone. Led by captain and hooker Hika Reid, Norths hold on to lead the defending champions 10-6 at halftime with the wind. After halftime first five-eighth Ken Kakahi slams a dropped goal and Billy Parsons grabs an intercept try under the bar to seal victory.  The 32-year old former 9-test hooker Reid had transferred to Wellington from Bay of Plenty after 84 matches in 1988, playing two seasons for Wellington out of the Hutt Old Boys club, before moving across to Norths.

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28 March 1998: Upper Hutt open the new season with a 23-12 win over defending champions MSP. Upper Hutt’s win is highlighted by two intercept tries – both involving No. 8 and captain Mike Robinson. Wing Toetu Palemo scores the first of these after a Robinson break and then Robinson intercepts and sprints 60 metres to score. Robinson will give several more years of sterling service to Upper Hutt, culminating in their 2005 Swindale Shield win.

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10 June 2006: Northern United head into the last round of the Swindale Shield still needing to beat Tawa to confirm the first-round title. Jerry Collins had first captained Norths several years earlier as an 18-year-old. Today the incumbent All Blacks blindside returns to captain Norths and leads from the front and is a try-scorer in his side’s emphatic 47-0 win at Lyndhurst Park. Norths will go to win their second Jubilee Cup in two months’ time.

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4 July 2009: A late try to captain and No. 8 Misipalauni Moananu clinches a stunning victory for Poneke over Hutt Old Boys Marist in a heart stopper at the Hutt Recreation Ground. Moananu scores off the back of a scrum in the 78th minute and first five-eighth Sam Rasch adds the conversion to give Poneke a 31-29 victory. The result is significant for both teams, helping propel Poneke to the top qualifier’s position for the semi-finals and to winning the inaugural Andy Leslie Trophy while helping to shut the HOBM Eagles and 2007 champions out of the playoffs. Misipalauni Moananu and his brothers, late twin Misiluni and older sibling Fa’aoto, give Poneke sterling service over a decade and a half. In the first decade of the 2000s Poneke are rarely out of title contention, not reflected by their sole Jubilee Cup win in this time in 2003.

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4 August 2018: A third Jubilee Cup final win in four years for Old Boys University’s tighthead prop Jonathan Fuimaono. ‘Fui’ captains the Billygoats to a tough 37-31 win over Northern United. The skipper largely has an arm-chair ride in the first half as OBU produce a near faultless first-half to lead 25-3 at the interval. All his experience is called upon in the second spell as Norths launch a major fightback and close to 25-17 with 15 minutes to play. Fui finds another gear and the Norths challenge is withstood. Ironically, OBU’s other prop, Alex Barendregt is named the Player of the Final.

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