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Wellington Centurions U18s openside flanker Drew Berg-McLean makes a run for it in his team’s 30-27 win over the Hawke’s Bay U18s on Saturday. More on the New Zealand Schools, Barbarians and Māori U18s selections announced late last week below.
Updated lunchtime: A tough afternoon yesterday on the couch for Wellington rugby supporters.
It could be said both the Pride and Lions bottled it.
The Wellington Pride went from conceding 51 points one week away from home to letting in 51 points against the same team a week later at home, while the Wellington Lions were out-passioned and misfired against the 16 opponents they were up against out there in front of a parochial crowd in Blenheim. Sometimes too, bringing international and returning players back into sports teams and pushing in-form players out of position on to the bench can be detrimental. Regardless, another Ranfurly Shield challenge went begging. Now Auckland gets its chance in their challenge on 2 October!
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The rugby is winding down. The three-week Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council’s U18 competition ends this coming weekend with the two main matches in Wellington (venues and times to be confirmed).
The Wellington Samoans and Wellington Centurions U18s sides will play for the Trustbank Central Shield in Division A, while Wairarapa Bush and Wellington Māori play for the inaugural Gordon Noble-Campbell Cup.
In Division A, the Wellington Centurions U18s will want to ward off the challenge of defending champions the Wellington Samoans U18s to win the Trustbank Secondary School Shield. If they don’t get at least 2 bonus points from the game, then Hawke’s Bay can still win should they in turn beat Poverty Bay.
The Wellington Māori U18s and the Wairarapa-Bush U18s are both unbeaten in Division B, so their contest is a straight final.
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A Wellington U85kg representative side is being revealed as soon as today, and they play the North Harbour U85kgs in Tauramanui this coming Saturday.
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With the Pride, Centurions Men’s, U19s, attention turns to the Hurricanes U16s.
The Hurricanes U16s competition starts this coming weekend with the traditional ‘pre-tournament’ round.
Division A (Don Broughton Shield) games see Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu meet in Napier and the Wellington Gold v Wellington Black teams meeting in Wellington.
In Division B (Saracens Cup), Poverty Bay and East Coast meet in Gisborne and Whanganui and Horowhenua-Kapiti play in Whanganui.
The tournament proper is at Playford Park, Levin, on Monday 30 September, Tuesday 1 October and Wednesday 2 October.
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That’s the end of the line for the Pride for 2024, while the Lions will be turning to host Bay of Plenty and likely counting the crowd inside Wellington Stadium when they could have been partying like its 1953 and building excitement for the opening defence of what would have been their 12th tenure as Ranfurly Shield holders.
Not the result Lions supporters wanted yesterday but if the Lions win their remaining three matches they lock in a potential home semi-semi (if they win the quarter-final). Tasman still have their ‘storm’ week at the end of the round-robin which includes midweek against Auckland (H) followed by their final match against Taranaki (H). If they slip up the Lions can still claim the top seed.
The magic number for the Lions is 10 more points for a home quarter-final (40 points would be enough given that Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay play each other next week so one but not both can reach 40 points). For an away quarterfinal place 2 more points would probably be enough on points differential but 3 would guarantee it.
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The Hutt Valley Schools U85s beat the Wellington City Schools 41-26 in their match at Hataitai Park on Saturday.
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The Manawatu Cyclones will host the Otago Spirit in Sunday’s FPC Championship decider at 4.35pm. Manawatu beat them 47-12 when they met in the round-robin a few weeks ago.
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Sideline Conversions has received word that all tenants at Fraser Park Sportsville have until 30 September to move out, and the owners are looking for new ones.
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Pepesana Patafilo played his 50th match for the Wellington Lions in yesterday’s loss to Tasman.
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The New Zealand Schools, NZ Schools Barbarians and NZ Māori U18s selections were announced at the end of last week.
From a Wellington perspective, slim pickings in these three squads.
No one in the NZ Schools team and just St Pat’s Silverstream flanker Drew Berg-McLean in the NZ Barbarians.
There are three Wellington players in the NZ Māori U18s selection. Alex Hewitt (Upper Hutt Rams Colts prop), Ollie Church (Wellington College flanker) and Jericho Wharehinga (St Pat’s Silverstream hooker).
In neighbouring unions, Wairarapa Bush have three players in the latter two teams, including Rathkeale College tall timber lock Johnny Falloon in the Maori side.
Palmerston North BHS lock Bradley Tocker (pictured below) is the only Hurricanes region player selected in the NZ Schools side, while Feilding High School’s Peni Havea, Alani Fakava, Rupeni Raviyawa and Dane Johnston are all the Barbarians squad.
Centre Charlie Carroll and halfback Le’Sharn Reiri-Paku, both out of Wairarapa College, are in the Maori team.
Palmerston North BHS duo, lock Clarke Sutcliffe and centre Ryder Crosswell, are also in the Maori side.
Of note, Nico Stanley in the main NZ Schools team is only the third year11 to make it. He has decent genes, being the son of Jeremy and Anna (nee Rowberry), grandson of Smokin’ Joe
Schedule (all times listed in New Zealand Time)
Wednesday 2nd October (St Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton)
NZ Barbarians U18 v Australia U18 – 2pm
NZ Schools v Samoa U18– 4pm
Sunday 6th October (FMG Stadium Waikato)
NZ Māori U18 v NZ Heartland U20 – 12pm
NZ Barbarians U18 v Samoa U18 – 2pm
NZ Schools v Australia U18 – 4pm
Thursday 10th October (St Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton)
Chiefs U18 v Samoa U18 – 12pm
NZ Schools v NZ Māori U18 – 2pm
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Slugs No.8 Jack Laity scored 28th and 32nd-minute from powerhouse scrums as Auckland University Slugs beat Lindwood 32-24 in the National Under 85kg Knockout Cup.
Former Old Boys University Jubilee Cup winner Maile Koloto is part of the coaching staff.
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Remarkably, Riley Higgins collected a point in the Duane Monkley Medal standing despite missing the tackle which led to Tasman’s winning try and making a couple of other unusual mistakes in the unusual position of wing. Yes, Wellington has depth and experience in midfield but why not use Higgins where he’s at his best. He might be the best ‘off-loader’ in New Zealand.
Timoci Tavatavanawai an All Blacks contender? Quentin McDonald has played all five of Tasman’s Ranfurly Shield matches. He and Quentin Strange left the field injured as the Mako lineout imploded only for Wellington’s to follow suit. Does anyone bring more niggle than Tasman?
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Very encouraging display of Ayesha Leti-i’iga upon her return to the Black Ferns. England won comfortably by 24-12.
Are curtain-raiser matches to big games in fact detrimental to these matches, given the often one hour gap between fixtures?
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A rollicking NPC match on Saturday between North Harbour and Manawatu saw North Harbour lead 41-19 at halftime and then 58-19 at fulltime. First five Tane Edmed scored 33 points. Manawatu’s next match is on Wednesday night at home against Southland.
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Malo Tuitama has been playing for Japan in the Pacific Nations Cup.
Is he the first Japanese International from Ories? Or the first Japanese international international who was born and went to school in Wellington (Scots College)?
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Whilst the Lions are hitting Wellington Stadium this coming weekend, Horowhenua-Kapiti are taking their much-anticipated match against top Heartland side South Canterbury to Eden Park. Not to be out-done, Whanganui are apparently keen to take a game to Twickenham next year. If that goes well, Thames Valley want to take a match to the moon.
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The Hurricanes Heartland Under 20 side experienced heartbreak in Taupo on Saturday, deep in injury-time in the last play of the game, losing the Glen Osborne Cup to a Chiefs Under 20 selection by 25-29.
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A rare non-paywalled piece in the NZ Herald on Friday entitled 10 reasons why league can crush rugby which can be read HERE
Is it time to combine the two sports?
Or are the differences too great?
If a new hybrid code developed integrating both games, what would be the best rules of both that you could combine? For us, rugby’s point of difference is that every play, every tackle, is a contest for possession, and for us that would need to stay. But what about smaller fields, fewer players on the field?
Technology in decision making needs to be embraced as well. Why cant AI be developed to decide contentious calls that even humans in a war room looking at multiple screens get wrong. That try scored by the South African prop in the first test last week being an example where the robot could have made the correct call.
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The final 15 seconds of Saturday’s Centurions U18s – Hawke’s Bay U18s game. The Centurions hold Hawke’s Bay up with the final play of the game and hold on to win 30-27.
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Why do Wellington’s representative teams continue to reject the notion of scoreboards at their home grounds?
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Super Rugby Pacific changes for next season, which starts in high summer on 14 February (with pre-season kicking off in January).
The season draw features afternoon fixtures including three Sunday afternoon games (good) with a view to exploring additional Sunday fixtures moving forward (better).
We await the draw early this week. Hopefully fewer Saturday afternoon games (bad).
Features of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific competition format include:
- 11 teams competing as follows; ACT Brumbies, Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Fijian Drua, Highlanders, Hurricanes, Moana Pasifika, NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and Western Force.
- Teams will play 14 regular season matches, consisting of seven home games and seven away games, and be allocated two byes.
- Teams will play four teams twice, with a focus on rivalry match-ups, and the six remaining teams once.
- The top six teams on the table at the end of the regular season will qualify for the three-week Finals Series.
- In week one of the Finals Series, Qualifying Finals will be 1 v 6, 2 v 5 and 3 v 4 with the higher-seeded teams to host.
- The three winners of the Qualifying Finals will progress to the Semi-Finals.
- They will be joined by the highest-seeded losing team (the ‘lucky loser’), who will drop one seeding for the Semi-Final draw.
- Semi-Finals will be 1 v 4 and 2 v 3 with the higher-seeded teams to host.
- The two winners of the Semi-Finals will progress to the Grand Final, which will be hosted by the higher-seeded team.
Or they could just make a straightforward competition. One idea could be to make it a 10-week round-robin where everyone plays everyone once, ahead of semi-finals and a final. If they want to make it longer then introduce a three-week ‘pre-season’ tournament of sorts or introduce a three-week North-South series at the end from which the All Blacks are picked.
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Also being played today:
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Antoine Dupont and France’s Olympic Games-winning sevens team were decorated with the country’s highest award, the Legion of Honour, by the country’s president Emmanuel Macron during Saturday’s Champions Parade in Paris yesterday.
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