Sideline Conversions 2 September (some rugby news and information to start the week)

After a lull this past weekend, the rugby is exploding again. There is live rugby on every day for the next several days.

No fewer than four college-aged events on this week in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, something stretching plenty of resources – none probably more so than those of the WRRA.

Two of those start today, with the U14 Festival happening until Wednesday at Wakefield Park in Island Bay, while Fraser Park plays host to the Under 85kg tournament until Thursday. On Wednesday the flagship Hurricanes Regional U15 tournament – which now includes teams from as far afield as North Harbour’s Rosmini College and Otago’s John McGlashan – kicks off in Upper Hutt with finals on Saturday.

Finally there’s the four-team All Black Captains Cup quad on Thursday and Friday being hosted by Hutt Valley High and including Paraparaumu, Wairarapa, and Porirua Colleges.

Monday and Tuesday in Levin sees the annual Hurricanes U15s girls tournament.

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Moving into the weekend, there a number of representative matches for supporters to watch and follow.

The U19s Central Region Shield comes to a close, with Wellington hosting the Hurricanes Heartland U20s at Porirua Park at 11.30am and the Manawatu U19s and the Hawke’s Bay U19s in Palmerston North. Wellington can retain the trophy with victory over the Hurricanes side.

The Wellington Centurions play Tasman B at Rugby League Park at 12.00pm, ahead of the Wellington Lions meeting the Southland Stags at Porirua Park at 2.05pm.

There are also several matches scheduled for Palmerston North on Saturday, including Manawatu Pasifika v Wellington Fijians, Manawatu Māori v Wairarapa-Bush Māori, Manawatu Development v Hawke’s Bay Development and Manawatu Cyclones v North Harbour.

In a lone Heartland Championship match in this part of the country, Horowhenua-Kapiti host Mid Canterbury at Levin Domain at 2.30pm.

This weekend is also the start of the Hurricanes U18s Trustbank Shield competition. Games are below (home teams first):

• Hawke’s Bay v Wellington Samoans
• Poverty Bay v Wellington Centurions
• Wairarapa-Bush v Horowhenua-Kapiti
• Wellington Māori v Whanganui

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In one result that was missed from Saturday’s round-up on our website, the Wellington Fijians beat Horowhenua-Kapiti Pasifika 32-7 at Helston Park.

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A reader sent us in a team based on players who have played club footy in Wellington but playing elsewhere for the NPC, and if there’s one thing we like doing here its hypothetical teams. So we’ve taken their contribution and come up with a team that excludes those who might have played here, but signed with another union at the time (e.g. Harry Godfrey and Josh Moorby); essentially they must have played for or been eligible for the Lions at some point while playing here.

1. George Bower (Avalon/Otago)
2. Tyrone Thompson (MSP/Hawkes Bay)
3. Joe ‘Apikatoa (HOBM/Hawkes Bay)
4. Isiah Walker-Leawere (Poneke/Hawkes Bay)
5. Liam Hallam-Eames (Ories/Northland)
6. Naitoa Ah Kuoi (MSP/Bay of Plenty)
7. Bruce Kauika-Petersen (Norths/Wairarapa-Bush)
8. Sam Smith (Wainuiomata/Hawkes Bay)
9. Connor Collins (HOBM/Southland)
10. Brandyn Laursen (HOBM/Horo-Kap)
11. Pena Va’a (Ories/Manuwatu)
12. Nick Grigg (Petone/Hawkes Bay)
13. Levi Harmon (Poneke/Otago)
14. Viliami Fine (Petone/Southland)
15. Ambrose Curtis (Ories/Wairarapa-Bush)

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Some more awards nights around the clubrooms of Wellington.

On Saturday, Avalon, Old Boys University and WRRA all had their awards.

Callum Harkin was OBU’s Premier Player of the Year.

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The Wellington Pride were literally blown to their win over North Harbour on Saturday. In windy conditions, they pulled away late to win 36-21.  This coming Saturday they play Otago in Dunedin.

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St Pat’s Town are advertising for the role of First XV coach for 2025- see the post below:

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How come the Wellington Lions had played their last four consecutive matches against Canterbury away? One of these was a final (2022), but take that out and that is three consecutive round-robin matches against them away.

The Lions now continue their South Island odyssey, with consecutive matches coming up over the Southland Stags (home), Tasman Mako (away) and Otago (away). This is also their ‘storm week’ with three games in eight days. A fifth consecutive win to start the competition over the Stags this coming Sunday would set them up well.

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The Lions established a 31-0 halftime lead over Canterbury – reminiscent of their 60-14 win over them a few years ago. Still, sideline conversions wasn’t comfortable. The last time we were in Rangiora was about a dozen years ago, working at a first-class cricket match that saw the Wellington Firebirds snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Firebirds were 150 odd for 1 at stumps on day 3 chasing 220 odd for victory on day 4, only for a young Matt Henry to come steaming in and roll them and give Canterbury the win.

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Is there a better off loader in New Zealand rugby right now than Riley Higgins? The Petone and Wellington second five is a nightmare to contain with the multiple ways he distributes the ball.

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Daniel Sinkinson almost gets gobbled up by the advertising hoardings – one for David Paulides perhaps!

Daniel Sinkinson almost traveled through to another dimension after scoring this one pic.twitter.com/5BfXwzUxYv

— Jamie Wall (@JamieWall2) August 31, 2024

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There have been several strange, anti-fan decisions made this year around scheduling, kick-off times and venues. For instance, the Hurricanes Saturday afternoon match scheduling was well documented by this website and will continue to be if they keep going after community sport. There is one listed above in the introduction of this article we haven’t commented on.

Here’s another one. Horowhenua-Kapiti are drawn to host South Canterbury on 22 September at Levin. Horowhenua-Kapiti have made a great start to the Heartland Championship with three straight wins and South Canterbury are the defending champions, so a good community game for locals to watch and get behind their team after some lean recent years in the Nua. But wait, it is not in Levin anymore. Horowhenua-Kapiti  have ‘moved’ this match to Eden Park, Auckland. Unless there is a major financial inducement for this, why would they do this? We have heard that it’s along the lines of the union wanting to give their players the experience of playing on a big stadium.

From the social media announcement last week: “The match will be a triple header with Farah Palmer Cup teams Auckland Storm vs Hawke’s Bay Tui kicking things off at 11.35am, followed by Auckland vs Southland NPC match at 2.05pm, with our boys, Horowhenua Kapiti, finishing things off vs South Canterbury.”

Surely you’d get a bigger and more engaged (your own) crowd at the Levin Domain than for this game, which is tacked on to the end of two Auckland matches that even the locals don’t attend when they are in winning form, which they are not at present.

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Dallas Paotonu is the Johnsonville Premiers Head Coach role for 2024, replacing departing Jason Adamson in that role.

Johnsonville are celebrating their 125^th anniversary next season, and have set their weekend of celebrations on the weekend of 18-20 April.

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Apparently today is the last day that NZRU – and all provincial unions –  are using ‘Sporty’ as its draws and results portal. They are moving on to a new platform that it is already used in Australia. But does that mean the last several years of draws and results history on Sporty websites is now wiped? You already can’t go back past the current season to look at past results, at least not publicly, so there goes history.

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What about this below, any of the local photographers standing/crouching end-on behind the line snapping away will see immediately this is a non-try (it happens all the time) so why can’t officials here?

Ardie Savea appeared to have won a clean turnover with two minutes remaining too.

Time to bring in AI decision making to sports, to take the human element out of it. Rugby, rugby league, cricket, tennis – all sports that will benefit greatly.

As an official with endless camera angles, replays and time, how can you deem this as a try.

Baffling. pic.twitter.com/2NHs8QEEOz

— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) August 31, 2024

The Springboks have beaten the All Blacks three times in a row for the first time since 2009. Between 2010 and 2019 the All Blacks won 17 of 21 tests against South Africa.

In 2013 when the All Blacks won all 14 tests in a calendar year, they outscored opponents 183-53 in the last 30 minutes. In 2024 the All Blacks didn’t score any points in the last 20 minutes of their defeats to Argentina and South Africa.

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Fullback Rory van Vugt became just the fourth Southlander to score a NPC/Division 1 hat-trick, as the Stags came back from 7-26 at  halftime to win 31-27 away in Northland.

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Did you know that the 100th match played in New Zealand by an overseas team took place in Whanganui on 3 September 1913, between Australia and Whanganui. Whanganui won 11-6.

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You thought Sky Stadium was bad, FMG Stadium in Hamilton might be the worst fan experience in New Zealand. Spare a thought for the two 60-something year old blokes who drove from Auckland for the Waikato double header. They were charged $28 for an uncovered ticket; the covered option was $38. Then they were told they couldn’t take their umbrellas into the arena and those umbrellas wouldn’t be held despite parking 20 minutes’ walk away from a venue which had less than 200 people inside at the time.

Four bourbon and cokes, not real bourbon from the bottle, cost $45. A six-pack of VB at a nearby supermarket costs $12.49. Any wonder nobody goes.

Why also is the gap 45-50 minutes long in doubleheader fixture. Ridiculous waiting time for fans.

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Everyone knows that one of the reasons (as well as others like the fan experience ones from Saturday noted above) why the NPC has been reduced so much is because the All Blacks don’t play anymore. Well what effect is not having the Black Ferns playing in the FPC? The Auckland Women’s team had 10 players aged 18 or under in their record 65-17 defeat to Waikato in Hamilton.

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The number of ‘off tube’ commentaries are clearly increasing with even All Blacks tests been done from a studio unless Tony Johnson charted a private jet from Whangārei to Johannesburg on Friday night. TJ is a top caller but, in the NPC, and FPC coverage is suffering with the lack of local voices and knowledge on coverage. What an announcer can see live at the ground as opposed to a TV screen to makes a difference