
Wellington College players celebrate their win over Scots College on Saturday. They will play the Premiership final next Sunday against St Pat’s Silverstream, their first final appearance since 2017. Photo: Andy McArthur.
Updated: Another full weekend of club, college and representative rugby is in the books, and attention turns to what is coming up. So a look at games just around the corner below at a glance:
School rugby this week sees the Wellington girls Premier 1 final at Porirua Park on Wednesday. St Mary’s College meet Sacred Heart College at 5.30pm.
It is College Finals Day on Saturday, with the Premier 2, Premier 3 and U15 deciders.
In representative games on Saturday, the biggest game in town is the annual Wellington Samoans v Wellington Māori clash. This is set down for Ngati Toa Domain at 1.00pm.
Elsewhere, the Wellington Centurions Development side takes on Taranaki Development at Rugby League Park at 1.00pm.
There are other matches further afield to follow and watch if there, such as Wairarapa Māori v Manawatu Pasifika in Masterton, the Manawatu Women’s Development v Wellington Women’s Development in Palmerston North at 2.05pm, and the Manawatu Men’s Development v Hawke’s Bay Saracens at Waipukurau.
Additionally, the Heartland Championship kicks off this weekend. In round one games involving lower North Island teams, Wairarapa-Bush and Whanganui are both at home, hosting Thames Valley and South Canterbury respectively. Horowhenua-Kapiti are away to North Otago.
Moving on to Sunday, the Premiership Final between Wellington College and St Pat’s Silverstream is at Porirua Park. Kick-off is to be confirmed, but it is understood that it was going to be under lights after the Wellington Lions versus Taranaki home game which kicks off at the same venue 2.05pm. We could see the merit in that. But we are now hearing it is at 11.15am.
Perhaps we are going against sentiment here and people are perfectly happy with that, but if the final is at 11.15am that completely sucks. These guys play all year to earn the right to play in the final, for some the biggest match of the lives, certainly at this level. Oh here you go boys, play the final in the morning so we can rush it through and get it on pay television and also so we can lure in more of a crowd to stay and watch our NPC game that follows. Well we say if this is the case, why not ditch this kick-off time and move to play it on Saturday afternoon at 2.30pm? No one owns the rights to broadcasting college rugby in NZ either and Sky TV aren’t the only broadcaster in town (in fact they haven’t been in town once all year in this space so it would still be well covered by local operators such as Huddy Sports or us if they weren’t doing it. UPDATE: It is confirmed that this is a 11.15am kick-off and it is a ticketed event, meaning fans and supporters of both teams will have to pay to attend (unless you are U15, so year 9 or 10 at school). As we write above, perhaps we are missing the mark with what others think, but we think to have to have the biggest First XV match of the year pushed through at 11.15am on a Sunday morning and asking people to pay for it when it has been free all year to watch every other match is poor. This is also consistent with what we thought of having the club rugby Hardham Cup final played at 11.15am too.
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The Wellington Pride should have a comfortable second bonus point victory this coming weekend to start their Farah Palmer Cup season. They beat Tasman 51-12 on Saturday, whilst their opponent this weekend, Taranaki, missed out 86-7 to the Manawatu Cyclones.
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The annual ‘Battle of the Bridge’ match involving members of the the Paremata-Plimmerton club is also this coming Saturday.
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In one result missed from Saturday’s round-up, Wellington Māori beat Manawatu Māori 38-7 in Palmerston North.
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Forget rugby and the NRL. What about athletics as a pathway? Someone with deep pockets should set up a fully staffed and equipped throwing and jumps academy in the heart of South Auckland. How many Jonah Lomus are out there who could throw the discus, hammer or shot put further than most?
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The MSP Internationals Reserve Grade Division 2 team became the second team this year in Wellington to complete an unbeaten season. They beat the Wests Roosters Mixed Veges 12-5 in a gripping final at Evans Bay Park on Saturday in front of a strong crowd of supporters from both sides. The Internationals and the HOBM Green Colts are both unbeaten this season and would be two nominees for WRFU Club Team of the Year at the upcoming awards.
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The annual Dane Hayes Memorial Cup was played at Maoribank Park on Saturday, after the player with strong ties to both clubs who tragically lost his life in a workplace accident in August 2021.
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Wellington’s 29-21 win over Auckland to open the NPC was their third win in a row against Auckland at Eden Park. It’s the first time since 1967 Wellington have beaten Auckland three times in a row at Eden Park. Wellington made 224 tackles to the hosts 68. Auckland are big but unimaginative. Du’Plessis Kirifi, Harry Plummer and Peter Lakai made 24 tackles each. Peter Umaga-Jensen scored a classic try, Jackson Garden-Bachop, withstanding a couple of blemishes in the second half, was really solid upon return. Petone duo Riley Higgins and Tjay Clarke were lively.
Wellington retained the Fred Lucas Memorial Cup.
As well as the bonus point win for the Lions, shutting Auckland out of any points could also prove valuable as the competition unfolds.
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Canterbury beat Northland 34-21 in the NPC with all five tries scored via rolling mauls. Boring!
Up until this weekend, Southland had beaten Otago just twice 11 seasons, most recently in 2020. The Stags opened their 2024 account with a gritty 22-13 win over Otago at home in the Highlanders clash. Petone’s Viliami Fine was a try-scorer.
Another Super Rugby base side to lose to their smaller neighbour was Waikato, who were defeated by Richard Watt’s BoP Steamers 36-21.
North Harbour led Hawke’s Bay 20-7 early in the second half and then 17-32, but the Magpies put the afterburners on and came back to win 41-32, another former Petone player, Nick Grigg, scoring an 80 metre try to win the game.
Poor Manawatu. Two years ago in this same clash at the same venue, the Tasman Mako blitzed Manawatu early to have the game won before the first beers were consumed. Yesterday it was a similar pattern with an early spread of tries and at 35-7 by halftime a bath was on the cards. The Turbos came back to lose 21-54.
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What about the coverage of the Wellington – Auckland NPC match in both the NZ Herald and Wellington Post newspapers leading up to and after their first match? There wasn’t any.
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The 38 points conceded by the All Blacks in their defeat to Argentina in Wellington was the most in a home test eclipsing the 37 conceded in defeat to South Africa in Wellington in 2018. The All Blacks have only lost two matches to start a Rugby Championship since 2012. Argentina lost 44-6 to the All Blacks in the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final.
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Canterbury lost in the opening round of the Farah Palmer Cup for the first time since 2015.
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The Wellington Pride’s likely obstacle to earning promotion to the FPC Premiership next year will be Hurricanes Poua rivals the Manawatu Cyclones scored 14 tries in their win over Taranaki on Sunday.
The Pride have played this coming weekend’s opponent Taranaki twice before in the current era of the women’s competition and won both matches easily. In 2013 they won 49-3 and in 2018 at Jerry Collins Stadium they swept to a 118-0 win, with 14 different players scoring their 18 tries that day.
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Wellington College have made the Premiership final for the first time since 2017 dethroning reigning championships Scots College 29-7.
Single point semi-final defeats in 2021 and 2022 will become a distant memory if Wellington can topple St Patrick’s College, Silverstream who crushed St Patrick’s College, Wellington 60-5 (and many thought the score was 91-5 on Saturday afternoon which is what the results app initially had as the score).
Silverstream’s victory was expected with a similar margin separating the Catholics a fortnight ago. Silverstream forwards bullied their city rivals with lock Preston Moananu and hooker Jericho Wharehinga each scoring twice. Prop Noah Krijnen and openside Drew-Berg McLean were a hive of activity and first-five Thompson Tukapua contributed poise, pace and 15 points.
Wellington College was swift to establish ascendancy against Scots but would have been agitated it took 27 minutes to break the deadlock. Winger Shea Bosher finished a clinical scrum movement.
Carisma Faitala struck a crucial blow before the interval. Wellington first-five Archie Sims jabbed a kick ahead for the fleet-footed fullback to pursue and gather in front of the rowdy terraces.
Wellington kept their foot on the throat after halftime with a penalty by Sims and then Bosher turned provider for Teina Hingston-Mill with an offload in the grasp of two tackles while bound for the grass.
Hooker Daniel Hawes, captain Harry Law, and second-five Te Aowera Para headlined Wellington’s best display since toppling Silverstream on June 12. Scots gritty captain Reweti Ngarimu crossed for a consolation try.
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Silverstream and Wellington have met each other eight times in finals with Wellington enjoying a 5-3 advantage.
As noted above, the Premiership final is next Sunday at Jerry Collins Stadium. Silverstream beat Wellington 17-11 in the 2017 final at that venue but have lost eight finals in Porirua since 2002.
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What a legend: Larisa Latynina (Gymnastics) and Katie Ledecky (Swimming) are the only females in Olympic history to have won more gold medals than the ‘Goat in the Boat’ Dame Lisa Carrington who with German paddler Birgit Fischer has eight gold medals in kayaking. With three gold medals in Paris, Carrington finished 20th equal, by herself on the medal table, and is responsible 12.69% of New Zealand’s overall gold medal tally of 63.
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😲 The big boys had to wait AN HOUR for the first scrum!#NZLvARG #RugbyChampionship pic.twitter.com/6mGoBwHxcC
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) August 10, 2024
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