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Above: When Faifili Levave (2007) and Victor Vito (2008) raised the Swindale Shield. The new season kicks off this Saturday. Who will be crowned the 2024 champion?
This is it. The start of the first week of the season for Wellington’s clubs. For the first time in several years, all WRFU’s grades go off together on Saturday, fronted by the Premier Swindale Shield competition.
Plenty of content coming up on Club Rugby this week, such as:
- Supernovas – a look at some young players in Wellington club rugby history who have made their marks in their debut seasons.
- Gains & Losses – The annual gains and losses and player transfer information from Wellington’s 14 Premier clubs – we are waiting on a small handful of clubs to confirm these and then ready to go.
- Club Rugby A-Z – the annual look through the alphabet of some topics and interest points of Wellington club rugby
- The first season preview of the year on Friday – plus teamlists all named in one place on our Draw & Results website
Plus much more, such as our regular Hurricanes Stat Attack by Peter Marriott and the Aisle be Back Super Rugby column by Kevin McCarthy.
Also a shout out to Huddy Sports who starts his weekly Huddy Hui show this week, on Wednesday.
There is rugby today in the eastern suburbs, this being:
- The second annual Club of Origin day at the Polo Ground between the Poneke and Oriental-Rongotai clubs, with age-grade rugby all day starting at 10.30am.
- The third annual Xavier Reidy Cup fixture at Evans Bay Park between the Marist St Pat’s Cols and St Pat’s Town First XV sides.
Then on Thursday, the Hutt International Boys’ First XV hosts the Hato Paora College First XV. Kick-off at their ground at Trentham is 3.30pm.
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Who is your club’s most underrated premier player? Mason Henry might take that title at Petone. Henry was fearless in Petone’s 41-33 win over Ponsonby in their 150th Anniversary fixture on Friday. Conceding 15kg a man, Petone won a stirring victory with Henry dogged at openside flanker. He’s covered wing and midfield too. Henry has played 58 games for Petone.
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The WRFU clarified their ‘themed’ rounds for 2024, these being:
- Schools Round – 20th April (week 3)
- Mother’s Day Round – 11th May (week 6)
- Kids Day Round – Clubs’ decision on when to have this day (common choice is Old Timers’ Day)
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The WRFU also held its 2024 AGM last week.
No news on financial matters, but Alan Muir was re-elected President and Richard Boag, Rebecca Liua’ana, Sal O’Reilly-Nugent and Ken Ah Khoi as Vice Presidents. Plus a couple of new appointments for Board of Directors, these being Sally Attfield and Hamish Mexted, who was seconded on to the Board last year and is now duly elected.
The Rugby Board was approved, these being all the club delegates and they meet in the second week of April and will appoint a Chair and Deputy Chair then.
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The Highlanders beat the Hurricanes 52-19 in pre-season. The Hurricanes’ 47-12 win over the Highlanders on Saturday night represents a 68-point turnaround in one game.
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Can the Hurricanes win Super Rugby without Cam Roigard? Fans will be holding their breath awaiting the outcome of his hospital trip after the Highlanders match. The Sky commentary team labelled Roigard the best player in the competition. It’s hard to disagree.
Bravo the return of the running halfback. For a while, it seemed all the halfback did was distribute or make nauseating box kicks. The new breed of halfbacks are unafraid to have a crack and are invariably very good at it. Cam Roigard, Folau Fakatava, Cortez Ratima, Xavier Roe, and look at the way Noah Hotham transformed the Crusaders on Friday by largely parking kicks. French superstar Antoine Dupount (52 Tests, 13 tries, 36 wins) undoubtedly influenced this resurgence. Aaron Smith (125 Tests, 29 tries, 100 wins) ran less frequently later in his storied career.
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What about the Hurricanes suddenly, after an eight-month absence and six competition matches and wins deep into the season, returning to Twitter/X on Saturday night?
We noted this here in this column about a month ago, so have been waiting for the Twitterati to notice it wasn’t being used, and sure enough newsreader/political commentator John Campbell made the observation and two hours later they were back tweeting!
The @WgtnRugby handle has also been dormant since early September, so will be interesting if that gets activated soon too.
Possibly by the same people who plastered their 2023 annual report with photos taken by volunteer photographers that they lifted and used without consultation or permission and/or zero credit as to who took them. Thanks a lot.
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Du’Plessis Kirifi’s energy and hustle from the bench was irritable for both the Crusaders and the Highlanders, but hugely effective for the Hurricanes. Could Kirifi break into the All Blacks playing a similar role? A very good starter, the closer role with his attributes offers something unique.
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Ruben Love for the All Blacks?
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Tyrell Lomax also another top game – in his 100th Super Rugby appearance overall.
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Goober of the week goes to Highlanders lock Max Hicks. Picking a fight shirtless with veteran and English international Brad Shields behind the goalposts. Seriously, how was that going to help? He looked like a rough night out, one of those where you wake up in the morning and don’t remember what happened but know it was bad.
The Highlanders have lost 19 consecutive matches against New Zealand sides. Their last win against New Zealand opposition was 35-29 against the Blues in 2021.
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Ardie Savea – Wellingtonian of the Year – his shelf will be getting full of awards now.
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Nervous Nightingales? This may have made the owners of Resene to almost drop the paint brush again – possibly preferring their sponsorship was all about the rugby and the fact their favoured team is now 6-0 and not these discussions.
TJ Perenara has come out in support of the Hurricanes Poua following the controversy over the Aupiki’s side’s haka, saying he backs his female clubmates and their stance. “I share similar views to our women and what was said. I back our women, I stand with our women,” Perenara said at the Hurricanes’ NZCIS training base on Tuesday.”
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Does a special haka improve performance? Since the introduction of Kapa o Pango in 2005 the All Blacks have won 199 of 240 Test matches, 71 out of 92 (77%) performing Kapa o Pango and 128 out of 148 (86%) performing Ka Mate. Kapa o Pango is often reserved for harder opponents though Uruguay received at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
TJ Perenara has led the All Blacks haka 51 times and enjoyed 38 wins. Piri Weepu lead the haka 51 times for 47 wins.
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Readers of this column will know that one of our bugbears at games that will have crowds is when there is no scoreboard. Such was the case on Arena 3 on Saturday in the match between College Old Boys and Varsity, a replay of last year’s final. Some 300-400 spectators watched the game, plus players and officials, but no scoreboard. It was raining tries and almost 100 points were piled on. It’s good to have scoreboards in these games whether it be a high scoring match like this or round one of Wellington club rugby in 2006 when Norths beat Avalon 7-0, Rob Aloe, now with Johnsonville, with the points.
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In fact, here is the teams and score of that match below:
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The legend drops by for Petone:
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Mosese Bason reminds us of Asafo Aumua several years ago when he was a teenager – a big future for that young player.
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This is a great idea, how some unions are spending their Silver Lake investment perhaps?
In 2023, basketball overtook rugby amongst secondary school pupils, with 26,572 players, compared to 24,930 playing rugby. Snapping at rugby’s heels was football, with 22,350 players.
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This was dropped on Monday morning – see our ‘Gains & Losses’ story coming out middle of this week.
UPDATE – not true, a elaborate April Fools joke – but we fell for it…
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Kane Hames is growing as a fearless voice of authority on Sky. While most commentators are afraid to upset the apple cart too much, Hames regularly calls out refereeing errors, poor play, and provides a level of insight on the scrum and modern tactics that his peers struggle to rival.
What happened to who, what, when, where, why and how when asking questions. A tried and tested formula.
Matātu captain Alana Bremner celebrated her 100th first-class match in Matātu’s 37-17 victory over Poua. With five Farah Palmer Cup Premierships, 19 defences of the JJ Stewart Trophy, an Aupiki crown, and a Rugby World Cup on her resume a win was the only acceptable way to mark Bremner’s milestone. The blindside flanker was typically industrious and inspirational in her Mahi. She tops the Aupiki tackle count with 77 and has delivered six offloads with the ball in hand which ranks her among the top five offloaders in the competition.
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The Poua look likely to finish last in Super Rugby Aupiki and won’t improve upon their two wins last season. A massively inspired season from Layla Sae though. Her rampaging running in the second half of the 37-17 defeat to Matātu was box office. With 68 tackles she ranks third in the competition too. Her name is inspired by the 1970 Derek and the Dominos hit Layla. There are few better rock songs than that.
The Blues stuffed Chiefs Manawa 40-26 to confirm their place in the Aupiki final. With one win in 2023, the Blues were last but they’ve beaten every side in 2024, and with yesterday’s performance disrupting the vaunted Chiefs lineout the Blues will be very hard to topple. Lock Maama Vaipulu has been phenomenal and is shaping up as a strong Black Ferns contender.
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A wet and wild Super Rugby match in Fiji this past weekend – the home team has now won eight of its last nine games at home.
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From the Avalon Wolves to Manu Samoa’s head coach:
Samoa
Manu Samoa has a new head coach!
Former Samoa captain Mase Mahonri Schwalger had been appointed for 4 years to guide the nation's national men's team through to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
He succeeds Vaovasamanaia Seilala Mapusua. https://t.co/Ux21e4PT3n
— Pacific Rugby Hub (@pacificrugbyhub) March 31, 2024
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Why can’t All Blacks rest periods be measured in minutes instead of whole matches. Why in a time of apathetic fan engagement would leading players be withdrawn from New Zealand derbies? Why can’t All Blacks be rested for Aussie fixtures, through their broadcasters might have something to say about that.
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The Mad Butcher drops in on Johnsonville:
