Sideline Conversions 31 March (some news and information to start the week)

Above: Flashback to the opening round a decade ago in 2015 when Pōneke and the Upper Hutt Rams dramatically drew 35-35.

Updates “If this is it, please let me know”, went the lyrics of a popular 1980s song.

Well, Huey Lewis and the News (perhaps best known for this absolute banger that is the soundtrack to the opening scene of the greatest movie of all time), we are here to tell you this is it.

After months of re-charging from last season, planning and pre-season training, the 2025 Swindale Shield in Wellington kicks off this coming weekend.

Lookout for our first competitions preview on Friday, but here is a sneak peak of Swindale Shield games this coming Saturday (Colts and Premier 2 draw replicated):

• Marist St Pat’s v Pōneke (Horan Millar Trophy), Evans Bay Park
• Johnsonville v Paremata-Plimmerton, Helston Park
• Petone v Wellington Axemen (Bill Francis / Jack Taylor Trophy), Petone Rec
• Oriental-Rongotai v Upper Hutt Rams (Bob Lendrum Cup), Polo Ground
• Northern United v Avalon Wolves, Jerry Collins Stadium
• Old Boys University v Tawa (Bill Brien Challenge Cup), Rugby League Park
• Wainuiomata v Hutt Old Boys Marist, William Jones Park

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The 2025 Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy first round competition also kicks off around the Wellington region this coming Saturday.

Games at a glance are (all 11.30am kickoffs):

• Petone Ponies v Paremata-Plimmerton, Petone Rec 1
• Oriental-Rongotai v Marist St Pat’s, Polo Ground 1
• Northern United v Avalon Shewolves, Porirua Park 1
• Wainuiomata v Pōneke, William Jones Park

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Catch more content published here from our desk middle of this week, including the annual ‘Club Rugby Wellington Gains & Losses’ (Wednesday for this one) and Scott MacLean’s excellent annual ‘Club Rugby A-Z’ for the year (Thursday), heading to our first competitions preview of the year (Friday).

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Our congratulations to long-serving Ories player and manager, and former Black Fern and Pride representative Rebecca Liua’ana on her election as WRFU President at the union’s AGM last Wednesday. Liua’ana succeeds Alan Muir in the role and makes history as both the union’s first female and Pasifika President.

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The parlous state of the union’s finances were laid bare at that same meeting, recording a $1.18 million dollar loss, of which $350,000 was the result of the shareholding in the Hurricanes. On review, the largest area of deficit was in the community game, though WRFU director Hamish Mexted noted at the AGM that some of this was due to funds from the national body incorrectly being tagged as “high perfomance”. Worringly the union has burned through $2.3m of its cash reserves in the past two years and has a net deficit of liabilities over assets of over $600,000. A fall in the money received from NZR and in other grants has been identified as the biggest reason behind the result, leaving the union with the challenge of making up those funds or making further cuts to its expenses.

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Please go and sign up and tell a friend and play the inaugural Wellington club rugby tipping competition.

The competition is facilitated by us but hosted on a third party site that is dead easy to use and navigate as there are only three pages. You can even go in and make all your picks for the first 13 rounds at once and set and forget (obviously week-by-week is the best option for those shooting for glory).

We have the good people on board at Dynasty Sports and the Bellevue Sports Bar to offer prizes (to be advised) and others to hopefully follow to come on board.

To sign up and play just go directly to this URL here: https://www.faceyoursfears.com/games/WGTN2025/tip

For more details visit our story about this from Friday here: https://clubrugby.nz/wp/2025/03/29/link-here-to-club-rugby-tipping-competition-2025-with-prizes/ 

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In pre-season college rugby, Scots College and Rongotai College in an Eastern Suburbs derby at Scots College on Friday afternoon at 4.30pm.

Plus a slew of college pre-season matches on Saturday, heading into the final week of the current school term.

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The Club Rugby ‘Draws & Results’ website update. It is back – nothing is lost. All our story archives 2005-19 at https://clubrugby.co.nz/wellington/story-archive.php and all our game archives and Premier player database 2005-24 content is back intact (if a little out of order) at https://clubrugby.co.nz/wellington/games-results.php?competition=1&season=11&Submit=Go or currently by going to the Draws & Results tab above and navigating to it at the top inside that tab.

However, as of Monday, we still don’t have access to the website administration part of the website – to make changes, add draws, add teamlists and compile results! If it is not back by the end of the week then we will have to collate offline and play catch-up. As it is, we could be scrambling to set up and input other competitions this week, namely Colts, Women’s, U85kgs.

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Wellington, Manawatu and Wairarapa-Bush might be a week away from starting, but Horowhenua-Kapiti is a fortnight old (they will be caught up in due course as they take two weekends off on 19 April and 31 May)

The second round in Horowhenua-Kapiti was played in glorious sunshine, with spectators able to do a double header with a spell at the Foxton/Otaki/Raumati beach before heading down to one of the grounds to catch the action. A decent crowd was at Otaki Domain for both the Bill Muir Cup Premier Reserve curtain-raiser between Rahui and Athletic (won by Rahui 42-10 and the Ramsbotham Cup Premier match between Rahui and Shannon (won by Rahui 38-5).

Rahui have won their two matches convincingly and showed they will be hard to beat again this year through their ability to absorb pressure and strike from anywhere to score. From their first of the match to two more early in the second half that put the game out of reach for their visitors they scored some entertaining broken field tries.

Former OBU winning captain Jonathan Fuimaono was involved but not playing but one player who was former Norths and Japan Sevens player Leon Ellison who put in several big hits on defence and helped others around him shine and score these tries.

Meanwhile up the road, defending champions Foxton got underway with a 31-15 win over Levin Wanderers at Easton Park. The hosts only led 10-3 at the break, but two tries in the opening ten minutes of the second half had them in control despite the minnows efforts.

Down at Paraparaumu Domian, the home team joined Rahui in making it two from two to start the season with a 40-28 win over Waikanae, who are 0/2.

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Taranaki opened their season on Saturday with three close matches. Defending champions Stratford-Eltham opened with a tense 19-15 win over Clifton, while down at Rahotu, Tukapa scored at the death to deny home side Coastal 19-18. Inglewood had a successful trip into the city, downing NPOB 28-19 in front of the White House at Vogeltown Park, while the fourth saw Southern have a fruitful day out on the main field at the Stadium beating United (formerly Spotswood United) 50-20.

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The second round of the Nash Cup Premier competition in Hawke’s Bay was as high scoring at the first.

Havelock North scored 13 tries in beating M.A.C. 77-3, Hurricanes U20 wing CJ Miene scored five tries for Taradale in their 59-20 win over Hastings, Napier Old Boys Marist, there were eight different try scorers for Napier Pirate in their 55-36 win over Central, NOBM defeated Aotea 54-21 and Napier Tech beat Cliver 50-5.

The upshot is NOBM, Taradale and Napier Pirate are all on the maximum 10 points after a fortnight. Closer results await when they start playing each other.

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The Hurricanes‘ 57-12 win over the Waratahs was their biggest win over them ever. Were they that good, or were the Sydneysiders that bad?

Who remembers the Hurricanes’ 27-20 win over them in Syndey in 2000? This win would still be regarded as one of the Hurricanes’ best backs-to-the-wall wins, holding on gallantly at the end with 13 players on the field, with the late pair Jonah Lomu (2 then a red) and Norm Hewitt and Filo Titaia all sin-binned during the second half. The win put them in the semi-finals the following week.

Then there was the match in Wellington against them in 2006 when Jimmy Gopperth (he is still playing in Europe) landed a 50 metre penalty in a 16-14 semi-final and propel them to their first final appearance.

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Du’Plessis Kirifi re-signed last week with the Hurricanes and New Zealand Rugby through to the end of 2027.

The 28-year-old debuted for the Hurricanes in Sydney vs the Waratahs in 2019.

He has represented New Zealand in the All Blacks XV and captained the side in 2024 before being called into the All Blacks as injury cover. Although he didn’t get the chance to debut, his performances so far this year have showcased the skills and experience he has on the field as a loose forward and a leader.

Kirifi said “I’m extremely proud to re-commit to the Hurricanes and our beautiful region. I believe in our people and what we are trying to achieve, so I’m grateful to be a small part of this club moving forward. Thank you to everyone for your support over the years, the best is yet to come.”

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Palmerston North Boys’ High School defeated Rongotai College 85-10 in their First XV pre-season match on Saturday.

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Below: 7.05am is a bit early, but perhaps morning games would work in Wellington? A couple of 8.05am kick-off games a year on Fridays could be tried, and then everyone goes into work and school for the remainder of the day. They would need to get the trains working and on time those days though.

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Since 2012, the Crusaders have won 93 out of 113 games at Apollo Projects Stadium but never conceded more than 45 points at the makeshift venue. At Lancaster Park (1996-2011), the Crusaders won 76 out of 93 games, losing the very first Super Rugby game at that venue 49-18 to the Blues. The Crusaders were last in the first year of Super Rugby. The Blues won the competition and fielded a dozen All Blacks in their starting XV against the Crusaders, including Andrew Blowers, who scored two tries. Note: Kyle Preston didn’t play!

MP

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There are several clips circulating of the young 🇿🇼 Zimbabwean sidestepping sensation Edward Sigauke utterly destroying Varsity Cup level rugby in 🇿🇦 South Africa over the past few weeks. pic.twitter.com/LuERh0wvaT

— Tier 2 Rugby (@T2Rugby) March 28, 2025

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A crowd of 21,186 watched England beat Wales 67-12 at the Principality Stadium in the Women’s Six Nations- a record crowd for a Wales women’s home game in any sport. England fullback Ellie Kildunne scored a second-half hat-trick on her 50th cap while former Wellington Pride flanker Maddie Feaunati dotted down twice. England have won 22 Tests in a row and 52 of their last 53 internationals. Since 2018, England have won 26 games on the trot in the Six Nations.

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The Black Ferns Sevens have won a three-peat of Hong Kong Sevens titles, beating Australia in the final on Sunday night.

The Black Ferns Sevens have won 18 matches in a row in Hong Kong and improved their record in the 2024-25 season to 26-2. The Black Ferns Sevens have won 40 of the 51 SVNS finals contested and 340 of 378 games.

Most SVNS Tries for Black Ferns Michaela Brake – 273 Portia Woodman-Wickliffe – 256 Stacey Waaka – 110 Kelly Brazier – 101 Sarah Hirini – 101 Kayla McAlister – 85 Jorja Miller – 69

Steve Coles (Dane’s father) in his podcast chatted with former players spoke with Michael Knight, All Black 669 – see video embedded below.

Most tries in a single season in Wellington club rugby:

26 Michael Knight (Wellington FC) 1970 –

note previously listed in second on 24 tries, but a deep dive into the Rugby News Magazines of 1970 show that two of his tries (worth 3 points each) were wrongly listed as penalties.

25 Mike Clamp (Petone) 1981
23 Buxton Popoalii (Northern United) 2010
22 Wayne Collins (Poneke) 1977
22 Greg Kingi (Petone) 1994
21 Alapati Leiua (Northern United) 2009
21 Luca Rees (Northern United) 2019
20 Bernie Fraser (Hutt Valley Marist) 1978
19 Alan Osborne (University) 1965
19 Pat Myers (Marist) 1965
19 Ben Koopu (Petone) 1966
18 Vern Winitana (Petone) 1973
18 Wayne Gray (Marist St. Pat’s) 1981
18 Eddie Morgan (Petone) 1982
17 Geoff Skipper (Petone) 1976
17 Chris Welch (Marist St Pat’s) 1988
17 Sinoti Sinoti 17 (Northern United) 2008
17 Chase Tiatia (Hutt Old Boys Marist) 2014
17 Dean Brunsdon (Northern United) 2013

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