Great Days in Club Rugby 009 Stirring wins

Lock Polonga Pedro scores for HOBM against Ories in their third round Jubilee Cup fixture of 2011. Despite this, Ories would win a roller-coaster 36-31 victory, helping to propel them to the Jubilee Cup title later in the winter. 

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 offering is a collection of various inspired performances by teams and clubs, the sort that endear the supporters and fans to their causes for many years to come.

10 Stirring wins

16 April 1963: Oriental beat St Pat’s Old Boys 17-12 after leading 17-3 at halftime, rounding off a successful 75th jubilee weekend for the club. Off the field, Oriental’s celebrations included a parade and dinner that is attended by 95-year-old co-founder G.S. Hill and 1913 All Black Charlie Gillespie who is the guest speaker and proclaims to members, past and present, ‘Once an Orie, always an Orie’. Gillespie was around when Oriental won their one and only Senior Club Championship back in 1910. They will wait another 48 years for their maiden Jubilee Cup in 2011. In a similarly inspired win, on this same day 25 years later in 1988, Ories will start their 100th anniversary celebrations with a 20-8 win over Petone.

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6 June 1964: What about this one for a ‘game of two halves to keep the supporters enthused!’ In an extraordinary match between Marist and Taita, Marist come back from a 3-11 deficit at halftime to lead 13-11 after halftime and then 40-11 late in the match. The final score is eventually 50-24 to Marist and 50 points have been scored in the second half (3-point tries).

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28 May 1987: Newly promoted Tawa beats Petone 30-13 in a memorable win at Lyndhurst Park. The previous year’s Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup winners Petone are at near full strength and lead 13-10 at halftime, but a fired up Tawa beat them 20-0 in the second half. English locks Richard Denhart and Chris Burgess tower high.

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29 June 2002: Up and coming second five-eighth Ma’a Nonu sets up two of his side’s three tries to give Oriental-Rongotai a narrow 18-17 win over Norths in a thriller. Nonu’s 50-metre burst on the half hour mark puts Ories ahead 9-8 at halftime. Norths regain the lead after halftime, but a subsequent telling Nonu break leads to the match winner for Ories.

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24 May 2003: Northern United win their maiden Swindale Shield title this afternoon, beating Wests 35-21. Twinkle-toed fullback Tainafi Patu ‘s brilliance proves the difference, Norths pulling away after leading 10-6 just before halftime. Following this breakthrough title win, Norths will go and win the Swindale Shield again in 2006, 07, 09 (shared with Petone), 09, 11 and 18, and the Jubilee Cup in 2004, 06, 08 (shared with MSP), 10, 19 and 22.

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12 June 2004: Western Suburbs’ 31-22 victory over Hutt Old Boys Marist at Ian Galloway in today’s last round of the Swindale Shield is a fitting tribute to their teammate Brent Moresi, who died suddenly at his Karori home earlier in the week. Wearing black armbands, Wests dedicate the match to the popular 22-year old halfback, a former NZ U16 and Wellington Colts representative. With nothing riding on the result (with HOBM already inside the top 8 for the Jubilee Cup and Wests already outside of it and Hardham Cup bound), Wests throw the ball around. In a pulsating match, it’s 17-17 at halftime. Wests lead 24-22 late when HOBM score a try that is disallowed for a touch judges knock-on ruling, before Wests prop Matt Tema secures an emotional win with a converted try just before fulltime. For Wests, Moresi’s mate Kane Thompson is the Player of the Match.

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25 June 2011: Oriental-Rongotai shoot to the top of the Jubilee Cup standings after three rounds, holding on to beat HOBM 36-31 in a 10-try thriller in perfect winter rugby conditions at the Hutt Rec Ories win the game with a decisive four-try burst just before and after halftime, reeling in a 7-19 deficit and then holding off the Eagles who come back at them hard. In six weeks Ories will return to the Hutt Rec and, playing a similar style of positive rugby, beat Norths in the Jubilee Cup Final.

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25 July and 2 August 2015: Top qualifier Old Boys University will meet Marist St Pat’s in next week’s Jubilee Cup final after winning a dramatic semi-final this afternoon. In bright sunshine at the Basin Reserve, OBU score a late try, converted from the sideline by fullback Sam Chamberlain, before watching a death-knock penalty sail wide to hold on and beat Oriental-Rongotai 20-18.The following week, OBU’s supporters make the trek to Porirua Park en masse to see their side beat MSP 30-27 and win the amalgamated club’s first Jubilee Cup title and 50 years since their predecessor club University last won it in 1966.

OBU’s Te Wehi Wright on his way towards the boundary to set up a try in their 20-18 semi-final win in 2015 over Ories. 

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5 May 2018: It has taken 25 attempts, but Paremata-Plimmerton have finally broken their Swindale Shield duck away from home with their 14-8 win over Wellington in town today. Since entering Premier rugby in 2015 they’ve only tasted success three times away from Ngatitoa, all in the 2016 Hardham Cup where they beat OBU B, MSP B, and Johnsonville. The run of play is tight on a typically gravelly day at Hataitai, with the winning try scored in the 78th minute and converted from the sideline. The two clubs’ Colts sides meet for the inaugural Daniel Baldwin Memorial Cup, following Baldwin’s passing while playing for the Axemen in this match last year.

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14 May 2022: A McBain Shield Miracle. Petone never leads until the 84th minute, and when the winning moment arrives it is dubbed a miracle. The HOBM pack hammers away at the Petone line and positions Brayden Laursen for the winning dropped goal, straight in front of the posts five-metres out. Laursen snaps the ball only to be met by a full-length dive from Tupou Sopoaga. How the No.8 could get airborne and block the ball is beyond normal logic. The ball rolls into vacant pasture and Petone reserve back Sam Blackburn dribbles it to halfway, dribbles it to the 22 and the ball bounces into his chest; Blackburn running into McBain folklore. Final score: 27-20.

Blackburn on McBain Miracle