Great Days in Club Rugby 008: All Square

When Poneke and Ories drew 30-30 in 2017. 

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 new 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 deliverance looks at some of the many instances of drawn matches in club rugby.

10 club rugby draws

25 April 1972: Defending champions Petone and keen rivals Wellington are both unbeaten after three rounds and they square off in this heavyweight Anzac Day fixture. The outcome is a draw, with Petone scoring seven points in as many minutes to lock it up at 13-13. The battle of the halfbacks, Dave Henderson (Wellington) and Ian Stevens (Petone) is a feature of the match.

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4 June 1977: With All Black wing Stu Wilson’s Wellington College Old Boys trailing Titahi Bay 7-11, he intercepts a cross-kick and sprints 75 metres to score a spectacular solo effort, to see WCOB draw 11-11. WCOB will finish third in the 1977 Swindale Shield and seventh in the Jubilee Cup.

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24 April 1999: Defending Jubilee Cup champions Western Suburbs snatch an 18-18 draw with Poneke courtesy of a last-gasp penalty to first five-eighth Scott Leighton. Later in the season, Wests and Poneke will draw again, this time 12-12 at Ian Galloway Park. In a battle of the first-fives, neither Scott Leighton (Wests) or David Holwell (Poneke) are able to out point the other.

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25 May 2002: Western Suburbs and Tawa, both desperate to gain a place in the Jubilee Cup, battle out a 30-30 draw at Ian Galloway Park. In a frenetic match, both teams run the ball at nearly every opportunity, resulting in some entertaining tries. It’s tit-for-tat in the first half and its 13-13 at halftime. Wests first five Brent Moresi slices through to score, followed by Tawa wing Hayden Lafaele. Junior Togia runs 50 metres through the Wests defenders to set up Tawa’s next try. Wests wing Zabard Thompson responds in the corner to make it 25-25. Wests then move ahead with another unconverted try, to centre Dwayne Russell. Tawa’s first five, the late Sam Doyle, scores at the end but the conversion also sails wide and its all square on time. Wests make the Jubilee Cup round; Tawa misses out.

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 17 June 2006: A Tana Umaga inspired second half comeback helps Petone scramble a 25-25 draw with MSP after the visitors had opened up an appealing 25-13 lead at halftime with two quick tries. halfback Reece Poutawera scores the first of these and flanker Dane Coles the second. But Petone talisman Umaga, in his second appearance for the Villagers this season, helps put in motion a valiant fightback. The All Blacks captain sets up two tries for Petone to draw level.

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 10 July 2010: A dramatic 23-23 draw between Northern United and Hutt Old Boys Marist has created a logjam at the top of the Jubilee Cup points table, with Norths HOBM, MSP and  Poneke all bunched together. Norths fly to a 10-0 lead, HOBM comes back to lead 12-10, Sinoti Sinoti scores his second try to give Norths a 20-12 lead, which becomes 23-20, and then HOBM first five-eighth Dan Snee kicks a death-knock equaliser to end a dizzy match. In a fortnight, Norths will escape with another 23-23 draw, this time against Upper Hutt, and this time with fullback Buxton Popoalli kicking a late penalty. Despite these two narrow escapes, or perhaps because of them, Norths will win this year’s Jubilee Cup.

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1 June 2013: It’s Tawa on their own. In an entertaining game, Tawa draw their battle 29-29 with Marist St Pat’s but still win the campaign, earning the minimum of one bonus point they need from the match to seal the Wellington club rugby first round Swindale Shield outright for the first time in the club’s 66-year history. Scenes of jubilation follow and the whole club gathers on Lyndhurst Park in gathering gloom for a photo.

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25 April 2017: Ories and Poneke finished their match for the Jimmy Grbich Shield locked up at 30-30. Trailing 25-30 late, Ories halfback Adam Deck ducks under a ruck and slices through on a 20 metre run to score under the poles. But his handy conversion is charged down by the Poneke players.

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30 April 2022: The Johnsonville – Upper Hutt Rams fixture at Helston Park results in a 21-21 draw, with the Rams scoring an unconverted try at the death to tie it all up.

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 22 April 2023: Johnsonville and Marist St Pat’s draw 31-31 at Evans Bay Park, with James and Lucky Tuia combining at the death to come up with the match equalising try for the home team.Marist St Pat’s have used their get out jail card, James and Lucky Tuia combining at the death to come up with the match equalising try. MSP fights back from 7-8 deficit midway through the first half, which later became 12-24. For MSP, right wing Iosefo Aukusitino scored two tries and left wing Tuga Mativa one.