Sideline Conversions 25 March (some rugby news and information to start the week)

Some pre-season action between the Upper Hutt Rams and Oriental-Rongotai on Saturday.Photo by Peter McDMore of these images HERE

Monday lunchtime updates: The weeks are counting down to days to the start of the Wellington club rugby season, which kicks off with all grades together on Saturday 6 April.

With Easter this weekend most clubs are staying in their clubrooms as they fine tune their preparations for the big day.

In terms of rugby coming up this week, Wellington College welcome Feilding High School to a home away from home at Lyndhurst Park in First and Second XV clashes at 11.30am and 1.00pm respectively.

Easter Monday sees the annual Xavier Reidy fixture between the St Pat’s Town First XV and the MSP Colts.

Petone are away to play Ponsonby of Auckland in a pre-season fixture on Friday.

The second round of Horowhenua-Kapiti club rugby is this Thursday night under lights. Matches are: College Old Boys v Waikanae at Playford Park, Shannon v Wanderers at Shannon Domain, Rahui v Paraparaumu at Otaki Domain.

The opening round of Manawatu Senior 1 rugby is this coming Friday afternoon. Matches are (2.45pm kick-offs): Feilding Yellows v Feilding Old Boys Oroua at Johnston Park, College Old Boys v University at CET 3, Old Boys Marist v Te Kawau at CET 4, Linton Army v Kia Toa at Linton. Freyberg with the bye.

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The WRFU has released details this weekend of the three remaining grades its administrators – the U85kg, Reserve and Presidents grades.

Details at the very bottom of this column, but all three grades start on Saturday 6 April.

All set for the start of the Premier 2 first round Harper Lock Shield.

Plan your weekends between now and the end of June HERE

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The Wellington College First XV broke a five-year losing streak by defeating the OBU Colts 19-17 in the annual Letica Cup match. The match was held at Wellington College on Friday. Mark Letica (Steve Letica’s nephew) travelled from Australia to present the Letica Cup to the Wellington College 1 st XV Captain George Woodman . Debs Wright presented the Calvin Wright memorial Cup to Wellington College’s Lekima Waqainabete, the Player of the Day. Their success gave Wellington College their 37th win since 1967, with WCOB/OBU having 19 victories and one draw.

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Round One of the Horowhenua-Kapiti Ramsbotham Cup Premier club rugby competition was played on Saturday.

There was a fire at Otaki Beach on Saturday night, but a few hours earlier the local rugby team set fires of their own. Defending champions Rahui made an opening day statement with a convincing 42-10 win over Shannon in warm, dry conditions at the Shannon Domain. This was a replay of last July’s final, won 23-22 by Rahui.

Rahui also ran away with the Premier Reserve curtain-raiser to win 62-0 (halftime 29-0), so a strong showing from the men from Otaki.

The scores from the three opening day Premier matches on Saturday were:

Waikanae 45 – Wanderers 12
Foxton 24 – COB 19
Rahui 42 -Shannon 10
(Paraparaumu bye).

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It was also round one of the Hawke’s Bay Nash Cup on Saturday. Results at a glance:

HRS: 55 – Aotea: 22
TRSC: 36 – Pirate: 19
NTOB: 34 – CHB: 27
Havelock North: 24 – NOBM: 12
M.A.C: 71 – Clive: 15

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A post shared by Hutt Old Boys Marist (@huttoldboysmarist)

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Wairarapa-Bush has finalised their Premier draw for 2024 with 8 teams confirmed and starting on 6 May. Masterton Red Star step back into the top flight after several seasons away with Gladstone dropping back to a single side in the Premier Reserves, with defending champions Carterton opening away to Martinborough. Greytown, East Coast, Marist, Pioneer, and Eketahuna round out the field

Nine teams are fronting for the Senior Reserves grade; six B sides from the above less Eketahuna and Red Star, joined by Gladstone, Pirinoa-based Tuhirangi, and Featherston who return after a number of years out.

Both competitions are slated to finish in mid-July with a week off for King’s Birthday weekend.

Martinborough has a pretty decent assistant coach in Robbie Robinson. He ot a really bad concussion last year and has quit playing. He has also been named as an assistant coach at the Manawatu Turbos this year.

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The Hurricanes finished third in Super Rugby Under 20 in Taupō. On Saturday the Hurricanes defeated the Blues 24-19 in a consolation playoff. Converted tries for Will Cole, Jai Tamati, and Vernon Bason propelled the Hurricanes to a handy 21-5 advantage. The Hurricanes nearly wilted in the second half, as they did in their semi-final defeat to the Chiefs on Wednesday. The Blues shut the gap to 21-19 before Sam Coles kicked a crucial penalty in the 76th minute. The Blues weren’t done. Brute centre Xavi Taele, who scored an earlier try, busted clear only to be bravely ankle-tapped by a considerably smaller Liam O’Connor. At the ruck, Salesa Seumanufagi poached an inspirational turnover to terminate time.

Against the Chiefs, the Hurricanes led 26-19 with three minutes remaining and with possession deep in the Chiefs half. Chiefs openside and 2023 New Zealand Secondary Schools captain Oli Mathis snaffled a turnover and charged into the Hurricanes half. The Chiefs built pressure and Brooke Mitchell scored in the corner. A sideline conversion from Fletcher Carpenter tied the scores. Energised the Chiefs pounded away at the Hurricanes causing the referee to lose patience. In the fifth minute of additional time, Mitchell crashed over beside the posts to win the game. Mitchell was captain of the Rotorua Boys’ High School First XV in 2022 who won the Super 8 title for the first time since 2001. Outside backs Waisake Salabiau, Joel Naufahu, flanker Andrew Smith, and prop Will Martin were standouts for the Chiefs. For the Hurricanes the Bason brothers, Vernon and Mosese were inspired and Stanley Solomon, despite some defensive blemishes, was deluxe on attack.

An organised and efficient Crusaders outfit (they mauled a lot) won the title defeating the Highlanders (40-24), Blues (26-22), and Chiefs (31-17). Loose forward Johnny Lee out of the Lincoln club was a fine skipper. Hooker Manumaua Letiu and prop Gus Brown look like good prospects. In the backs, Ben O’Donovan (halfback) was a real standout and Cooper Roberts and Isaac Hutchinson look like solid players who can cover multiple positions.

Hurricanes No.8 Mosese Bason won the DJ Graham Award as the player of the Super Rugby Under 20 tournament. The New Zealand Secondary Schools representative was in the Feilding High School First XV that won the Central North Island competition last year and was picked for the New Zealand Schools’ who won all three matches. His robust carrying was a real highlight.

DJ Graham Award Winners

2014: Mitch Karpik (Auckland)
2015: Charlie Gamble (Canterbury)
2016: Luke Jacobson (Waikato)
2017: Sione Havili (Auckland)
2018: Kaleb Trask (Bay of Plenty)
2019: Fletcher Newell (Canterbury)
2020: Not Awarded due to Covid
2021: Sean Withy (Highlanders)
2022: Tahlor Cahill (New Zealand Barbarians)
2023: Harry Godfrey (Hurricanes)
2024: Mosese Bason (Hurricanes)

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The Hurricanes Poua have been outscored 124-39 in the second half of four matches this season. They rank last in tries (12), clean breaks (22), carries (403), meters gained (1577), defenders beaten (82), lineouts won (72%), offloads (32), tackles accuracy (82%) and yellow cards (2).

With 63 tackles Layla Sae tops the Aupiki tackle count. Rhiarna Ferris has 50 tackles and a dozen lineout catches.

Super Rugby Aupiki champions Matatū were beaten again by the Blues 27-17 at Eden Park. What does their demise mean for the Black Ferns? Eleven of their starting 15 players yesterday are past or present New Zealand reps.

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Is Tamati Ellison a plant at the Crusaders – if so well played.

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There were no passes in the first five minutes of the Chiefs v Highlanders match – surely an unwanted record. The kick-off went into touch on the full, there was then a scrum free kick followed by a scrum penalty. A shot at goal was taken which missed. The 22 drop out again went directly into touch before finally the ball emerged from the resultant scrum with 5:25 on the clock. After all that lack of action, it only took the Chiefs a further 8 seconds to score a try!

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NZR this week told provincial bosses the NPC is likely almost certain to have no full broadcast partner and needs to be radically restructured to lower costs. Will this encourage more people to attend matches? What possibilities does that create for greater streaming and radio coverage? Was the FPC mentioned in this discussion? It would seem absurd to cut NPC matches while leaving FPC alone.

What is going to happen with the Pilkington Review? Provincial unions have spent five months drafting their own compromised version of the review to create a compromised governance structure. Why would we trust PUs when you look at the shocking debt and cultural issues within Wellington Rugby as an example? Conversely does the Pilkington Review essentially amount to a total ceasing of power from the PUs?

NZRPA boss Rob Nichol says.

“They produced a compelling report and answered the questions we asked them and the same expert panel have produced recommendations about how we need to move forward, so why would we do everything up until that point and then decide we were in a position to decide a better set of recommendations. It is crazy.”

Nichol firing clear bullets in the PR war but little explanation from PUs on alternatives and NZR’s position.

In a new sponsorship arrangement, Gallagher Insurance will work directly with the NZ Provincial Rugby Union Group, not New Zealand Rugby, on marketing and promotion. What does this mean for existing sponsors? What does it say about PUs attitude towards NZR?

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The Crusaders failed to score a try for the first time in 145 Super Rugby matches in their 26-6 loss to the Blues. The last time the Crusaders failed to score a try was in a 26-9 loss to the Chiefs in 2015. Dan Carter kicked three penalties. In 118 matches (99 wins) under Scott Roberston, the Crusaders only failed to score a try once, and that was in a 3-12 loss to.the British & Irish Lions in 2017.

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