Sideline Conversions 23 September (some rugby news and information to start the week)

The Wellington U85kgs after their match with the North Harbour U85kgs for the ingaurgal Cooney Cup on Saturday.  

Monday morning edition – updates expected: And just like that, that is pretty much the end of the line for local rugby in Wellington for 2024. Just some seven tournaments to come in October and November (details of the local club sevens yet to be revealed).

The Hurricanes U16s tournament is still to come. The teams have the weekend off and play the tournament over three days in Levin next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

At the top level, the All Blacks are playing Australia at Wellington Stadium this coming Saturday night.

There is also an early game, which is the National U85kg Knockout Cup final between defending champions High School Old Boys (Christchurch) and Pakuranga (Auckland) – the two clubs that knocked out the OBU Scallywags and Poneke Wanderers last week.

In Heartland Championship Rugby, both of Wellington’s immediate neighbours are playing at home this coming Saturday. Wairarapa-Bush host West Coast in Masterton and Horowhenua-Kapiti return home from Auckland to play Whanganui in Levin. A big round for Horowenua-Kapiti. With two rounds to play before the top four Meads Cup and 5-8 placed Lochore Cup playoffs, Whanganui are currently second on 26 points and Horowhenua-Kapiti are sixth on 16.

+++++

The Wellington Lions are the first team to have qualified for the upcoming NPC quarter-finals with their extra time bonus point 30-25 win against the BoP Steamers on Saturday.

With two matches to play and 10 points up for grabs, the equation is simple – 3 more points would secure a home quarter-final while 5 more points would guarantee a top two finish and a potential home semi-final.

Still to come are the 8th place Counties-Manukau Steelers in Pukekohe this coming Friday and the imploding 4th place Magpies in Wellington the following Saturday – after winning their first five matches, the Magpies have lost the Shield and then been dismissed twice by over 40 points. The Tasman Mako are still in pole position for the top spot following their after-the-hooter win against Waikato but their storm week starts next Saturday and the Lions could pounce on any slip up.

+++++

A thrilling finish for the Lions on Saturday, but reports from those that were there was that it was quite a tedious match on Saturday with BOP probably the better side.

+++++

Record breaker 🎮

With 28 tries Ardie now passes Richie McCaw 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/PUMi2whS4B

— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) September 22, 2024

+++++

As seen in the headline photo above, the Wellington U85kgs met the North Harbour U85kgs on Saturday for the ingaurgal Cooney Cup, donated by a North Harbour family of the same name.

North Harbour won 39-7, but Wellington were nevertheless happy with the match, against a well-drilled team that has been together for over six weeks and played five games. The 85’s space in Wellington and across the country is gaining momentum and hopefully this representative team can continue and play more games in 2025.

+++++

 Why no presentation at Lyndhurst Park for the Hurricanes U18s Division A title? Perhaps at 6-26 down, the Trustbank Secondary Schools Shield was on its way to Napier.

++++++

On Saturday at Lyndhurst Park, The Wellington Samoa U18s had seven players who were first year out of school and club players this year, and a couple such as first five Jayde burns with a full season of Premier rugby behind them.

This got us thinking that with the U19s club rugby grade in Wellington seemingly gone forever, is there is a place for a group of first year U19 grade age players to form a composite U19s team to play matches against First XVs? This could be a Centurions U19s team. It probably wouldn’t work if this team joined the First XV Premiership on a fulltime basis, but more to play a series of matches against First XVs throughout the season. The purpose of this is would be to give the leading school players extra competition against slightly older, bigger opposition, and as another small way to bridge the gap between school and club rugby. On most Saturdays, this team would still play for their clubs in the Colts/U21 grade.

We also think that a ‘Beard Trophy United’ team could play in the First XV Premiership. In this scenario, these players can still have their Beard Trophy competition as midweek traditionals and still retain their school identities, but they compete as a combined team in the First XV competition to help strengthen the competition. If that worked, the same could be done in the Hutt Valley, as the gulf between St Pat’s Silverstream and every other college in the Hutt appears to be widening.

+++++

Below – a result from the weekend that was missed in Saturday’s round-up:

+++++

Who is ladder man?

+++++

Were there more people at Lyndhurst Park than Wellington Stadium on Saturday?

+++++

How come the All Blacks can’t score second half points anymore?

+++++

Is the All Blacks bench in fact anti-impact?

+++++

Is the All Blacks’ appalling record at Wellington Stadium set to continue this coming Saturday?

+++++

As per Mark Watson’s passionate rant on his SENZ radio show on Sunday, should fringe All Blacks squad members actually be playing more games? Case in point was Billy Proctor and Ruben Love playing for Wellington last Sunday. Love ended the match injured and Proctor was seemingly off his best form, perhaps because he hadn’t actually played a game for a while.  As alluded to last week in this space, we think if the Lions had played their same team as that had beaten Canterbury 46-21 and then Southland 36-12 in prior matches (including a Higgins Umaga-Jensen midfield, Clarke at fullback) they might have beaten Tasman for the Ranfurly Shield. Now with Jordie Barrett injured, Proctor might get his shot for the All Blacks this week. This is great, but how many minutes has he played in the past several weeks?

+++++

Congratulations to the Manawatu women’s team for winning the FPC Championship on Sunday and earning promotion to the Premiership. Manawatu beat Otago 33-3 on a heavy field at home in Palmerston North. Otago started well and they took a 3-0 lead but the Cyclones clicked into gear and scored two converted tries before halftime and kept up the pressure in the second spell.

+++++

What about Argentina beating South Africa this weekend! They do well without their own domestic competition.

++++++