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Action from North Park on Saturday where the Petone and Pōneke squads met.
Updated: Week three of the club rugby season starts today, with more clubs in action for the first time this season this coming Saturday, including Tawa, the Wellington Axemen and Old Boys University.
Check club social media pages for more, and we will have a more detailed preview of what is happening at the end of the week.
Much to ponder for the Hurricanes and Hurricanes Poua this week after twin losses to Moana Pasifika and Matatu respectively. Both teams are away this coming Saturday for Kids’ Round, with the Hurricanes wearing Captain Marvel uniforms against the Highlanders in Dunedin and the Matatu meeting the Chiefs in Hamilton.
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Club Rugby pre-season
Several clubs were involved in pre-season this past weekend.
The 93rd NZ Marist Spillane Tournament was in Hamilton this weekend, with Auckland Marist this year’s Division 1 champions (beating Marist St Pat’s in their semi-final) and Napier Old Boys Marist winning Division 2.
Club Rugby was at Mary Crowther Park to see home team Wainuiomata and visitors Paremata-Plimmerton meet in a combined Premier 2/Premier fixture.
Paremata-Plimmerton were fast out of the blocks and scored several tries in the first and second quarters, with their backs looking sharp. Wainuiomata then brought on the nucleus of their Premier squad and it was a competitive second half. Although scrums were depowered throughout the match as Paremata-Plimmerton were short of front rowers.
Some new faces in both squads but mostly returning players and both will be competitive again this season.
The last time these two Premier clubs met was in last year’s Hardham Cup final, Wainuiomata winning 24-19. They next meet in Round 2 on 12 April at Ngati Toa Domain.
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Hurricanes off the rails?
The Hurricanes’ loss to Ardie Savea’s Moana Pasifika means they are 1/4 to start the season and they are in danger of derailment.
Savea himself went off at halftime with an injury, but there were other inspirational performances that saw them home 41-30 against the Hurricanes. Miracle Failagi (great name) scored a popular hat-trick at blindside flanker. Millennium Sanerivi (another good name, perhaps because he was born at the end of 1999, or maybe his mum liked Robbie Williams) is a well travelled hooker having played three seasons for Taranaki and one for Auckland one in the USA for the New England Free Jacks.
The Hurricanes need inspiration and perhaps a couple more injured players back in what is a crunch fixture against the Highlanders, who are coming off their bye.
The Hurricanes Poua fell behind 24-0 early against the South Island Matatu en route to losing 29-7 in their second round Super Rugby women’s fixture in Christchurch. Their sole try was scored by Ayesha Leti-L’iga, a Leti-L’iga special from 40 metres out that saw her floor her would-be tackler one on one and cut infield and slice through more defenders to score.
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Website update. We are now entering week three of our Draws & Results website being down. This is the ‘old’ version of our site, the .co.nz one. If you are reading this then you are on the ‘new’ part, the .nz section, so no problem in that regard. The good news is that the part of the website that is down was successfully transferred to a New Zealand-based host last week and nothing is lost; the last 20 years of history and data still exists in offline files. The bad is that the website was built in 2004, and the coding language needs to be modernised to be compatible with 2025. Hopefully this will be updated and back on line soon.
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The Jubilee Cup or Lions pre-season?
The end of that wedge is getting thinner.
Sideline Conversions was sent this, taken from a recent WRFU Game Leaders Forum:
“On Tuesday the Rugby Board will be presented with a proposal for the Premier Men’s finals to take place one week earlier on the 19th of July, due to the Lions having a preseason match on the 25th July, and their NPC campaign starting on the 2nd August. Should this proposal be accepted, the second round (Jubilee and Hardham) will be 3-weeks with a 7-7 split. If it does not get accepted and finals remain on the originally planned 26th July, all Wellington Lions contracted players will not be available for the Jubilee and Hardham Cup finals.”
The draw isn’t out yet, but they are planning on starting the NPC a week earlier this year (last season it kicked off on 9 August) which means encroaching on to the club rugby season. As a separate question, why has the NZRU brought this forward a week?
Instead of bringing the club season forward a week to start to kicking off on the last Saturday of March (this would have been known internally for some time), this proposal by the Lions wants the Jubilee Cup part of the season manipulated to suit their team. The stick is to pull Lions players from the Jubilee Cup final because these several players, whoever they are, will be playing in a NPC pre-season match the day prior.
Hopefully the Rugby Board stands it ground tomorrow and says no to the Wellington Lions management and the club rugby calendar stays as it is. What do you think?
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WRRA rules clarification
At the same meeting last week, the WRRA went over the following laws:
Sternum tackles. Player must hit below the sternum and the referees want to see the player drive through in the tackle, not upwards where they can slide up to the neck/head area
Croc rolls. Croc rolls are illegal to protect players lower limbs, cleanouts from the ruck should be through the gate and continue in that direction
Not straight lineouts (uncontested). Lineouts thrown not straight but uncontested by the team not throwing in will not be called up for a scrum or lineout option. A contest for the referees will look like an opposing jumper being lifted into the air by a teammate/s. The referee won’t allow an uncontested lineout to be thrown directly to the halfback or someone who is not in the lineout.
Not straight lineouts (contested). In Super Rugby Pacific this season, not straight lineouts are met with a free kick option of a tap or a kick from hand for the opposition, this will not be the case in club rugby in 2025. All lineouts called not straight are met with a scrum or lineout option.
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Forced prohibition coming to Helston Park
Last week Johnsonville lost their liquor licence.
It comes into effect on 4 June. The Premiers’ last home prior to that is against Avalon in Round 7 on 17 May. The first match that the clubrooms will run dry is Round 10 when they host Petone.
Unless they get creative, then not only could this ban be considered extremely harsh in some quarters, but it could mean a significant hit to the club socially and financially. Moving forward, some players and supporters may transfer to other clubs where they can enjoy a drink in its clubrooms, while bar takings for many clubs is a big part of their revenue streams.
In terms of wider implications, this should send a chilling message to every sports club in New Zealand, and consistency will now have to be applied everywhere. For a start, bar staff are going to have to be much more heavy-handed on patrons showing signs of drunkeness, while also now being fully responsible as to what patrons do when they leave their premises.
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Straight into the deep end for Wellington College
The Wellington College First XV has released an audacious pre-season schedule, starting next month.
With the pre-season Transit Festival ending this year, the schools are compiling their own pre-Wellington competition calendar or games, and for Wellington College why not open up with a run of matches against the best schools in the country?
They play 2024 Super 8 champions Tauranga Boys’ College at home on 19 April, Rotorua Boys’ High School away on 24 April, Napier Boys’ High School (for the Amner Cup) at home on 3 May, Hastings Boys’ High School at home on 10 May and then national champions Hamilton Boys’ High School (AKA the Chiefs Academy) away in a Moascar Cup challenge on 17 May. They then open their 2025 Wellington season with their traditional match against St Pat’s Town at a hostile Evans Bay Park on Wednesday 21 May.
Colts Requirements
Sideline Conversions understands that at least a couple of Wellington clubs are struggling to assemble Colts teams for 2025. As per the rules, having a Colts team is a prerequisite for having a Premier one competing in the Swindale Shield. There has been some leniency in recent years, but enforcement might have to be made one of these seasons.
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“Enough Players For A Team, But Not For A Committee”
The Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper reported last week (no link here as its behind a paywall), that the Takapau Rugby Football Club has delivered amateur rugby to its local Hawke’s Bay community for nearly 140 years, but is on the verge of closing down owing to a lack of volunteers stepping forward to serve on the club’s committee.
Apparently, the club has indicated that it has sufficient players to form a senior third division side this year and the club has its junior teams. There has been a meeting called for, to determine if there is community interest in getting the club functioning again.
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New New Zealand U18 team to capture nearly 30 percent of eligible players playing in clubs, and to complement New Zealand Schools teams.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has announced the introduction of a New Zealand U18 team to the men’s national high performance pathway programme.
The team will be selected for the first time in 2025 and will play two away fixtures against Australia U18 in September-October.
NZR General Manager Professional Rugby & Performance Chris Lendrum said:
“The introduction of the New Zealand U18 team provides an exciting opportunity to include a greater number of young players in our national pathways programme and exposure to international matches.
“We know from our registration data that nearly 30 percent of U18 eligible players were playing at clubs in 2024 and we want to include those players in what we believe is a crucial step in our pathways programme.”
The New Zealand U18 team will be announced following a high-performance camp and a series of matches from September 16 to 21, featuring the New Zealand Secondary Schools (NSSS), New Zealand U18 Māori and New Zealand Barbarians U18 teams, with a fourth team to be confirmed.
“The New Zealand Secondary Schools team and Barbarians have long been an integral and special part of the rugby pathway and ecosystem, and the U18 Māori programme has been a major success since its introduction in 2016,” Lendrum said.
NZR High Performance Manager Matt Sexton said school staff would play a key role in the New Zealand U18 team’s management and coaching groups.
“It’s vital we maintain the lens of providing pastoral care to our young players, most of whom will still be at school. We believe teachers and school staff are best placed to provide that support in the team environment alongside NZR high performance staff,” Sexton said.
The introduction of the New Zealand U18 team comes after a consultation process that began in 2023 and has included feedback from the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rugby Union (NZSSRU), NZSS management, Provincial Unions and Super Rugby clubs.
“We spoke to a large number of people involved in age-grade rugby and while there were some mixed views, we firmly believe a New Zealand U18 team will deliver the best outcome from the greatest number of players,” Sexton said.
Garry Chronican, Chairman of the New Zealand Schools’ Rugby Union said:
“NZ Schools’ Rugby Union remain committed to the annual selection of a NZ Schools Rugby team and appreciate NZ Rugby’s support in continuing to share this commitment.”
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Women’s competition underway on 5 April
The Wellington women’s club rugby competition gets underway on Saturday 5 April, the same day as the men’s. The women play for the Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy in the first round, with Petone the champions.
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Six Nations update
France leads the Six Nations Championship with 2-2 record and Scotland left to play in Paris in the last round. France ruined Ireland’s Grand Slam ambitions with an astonishing 42-27 victory in Dublin. France made 81 tackles compared to Ireland’s 14 in the first 17 minutes and star halfback Antoine Dupont (59 Tests, 15 tries, 42 wins) left the field injured after half an hour yet the French led 42-13 after 76 minutes. Winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey (21, 84 kg) is a bona fide star. In 18 Tests (14 wins) he has scored 17 tries including two on Sunday and a crucial try in November when France beat the All Blacks 30-29 in Paris.
The highest score France have achieved against Ireland was a 45-10 win in Paris in 1996. The great Emile Ntamack scored two tries for France while Ireland’s only try was a penalty try. France beat eventual champions England 15-12 in a tyrless tussle in Paris but was beaten 19-14 by Scotland at Murrayfield. Michael Dodds (two tries, three penalties) scored all the Scots points. His brother Peter Dodds played for Scotland.
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Super Rugby website
Why does the official Super Rugby website cover Super Rugby Aupiki with written round-ups and match reports from the games played (done by Club Rugby’s own Adam Julian Julian) but not the Super Rugby Pacific men’s competition? Is this a sexist editorial policy?
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Club rugby team to defend Ranfurly Shield
Taranaki’s team for a mid-week Ranfurly Shield pre-season match will be picked from club rugby players.
Taranaki will host 2024 Lochore Cup champions King Country at Yarrow Stadium on Wednesday, June 11 with kick off at 6pm.
The King Country match will be Taranaki’s first at the fully redeveloped stadium, with the east stand due to be completed later this month.
While Taranaki coach Neil Barnes said the match was a milestone occasion, he will need to pick his playing 23 for the challengefrom club rugby as Super Rugby Pacific will still be in season.
