Excitement building for 2025 Swindale Shield with draw released

The 2025 Swindale Shield draw is out, and clubs and supporters will be circling the big dates on the calendar.

The season gets underway in the first weekend of April as it did this year, and then rolls through 13 weeks finishing in the last weekend of June, before the playoffs commence the following week culminating in the Jubilee and Hardham Cup finals on July 26th. Rugby will be played on all four holiday weekends; Easter (round three), Anzac (round four), King’s Birthday (round nine), and Matariki (round twelve).

As is the norm now, the opening round sees the re-match of last years Jubilee Cup final, as 2024 winners and Swindale holders Old Boys-University host Tawa at a yet-to-be-determined venue, which is the case for all of the Goats home games at this stage. This is the start of a tough opening run for the champions as they then face Hutt Old Boys Marist, the Upper Hutt Rams, Oriental Rongotai, and Paremata-Plimmerton in the opening five rounds.

Other matches of note to start the year includes the clash of old rivals Marist St Pat’s and Poneke for the Horan-Millar Trophy (aka the “Battle of Kilbirnie”), the Rams heading to Polo to face Ories, Johnsonville hosting Pare-Plim, and HOBM heading into the valley to face Wainuiomata.

At the other end of the spectrum, the McBain Shield match between HOBM and Petone will have to wait until the last round on June 28th.

The Hardham Cup rematch between Wainuiomata and Pare-Plim is at Ngati Toa Domain in round two, while other matches we’ve marked down include Tawa hosting Petone that same date, the Villagers trip to Maidstone in round four, Ories facing MSP in round six, OBU at Petone and Ories at Pare-Plim in round eight, HOBM welcoming Ories to the Hutt Rec in round nine, and the Jim Grbich Memorial clash between Ories and Poneke in round twelve. Another one we’ve got noted is the clash between Avalon and Wellington at Fraser Park in round six.

Kick-off is a little over five months away.

For the 21st season, we will run the Swindale Shield and other leading competitions through our Draws & Results section, linked to this website.

The draw is below or here at 2025 SWINDALE SHIELD DRAW