Close matches in Swindale Shield under sunny skies

Above: General action from the Swindale Shield match at Evans Bay Park between Marist St Pat’s and the Upper Hutt Rams. The visitors won 26-27.

• By Steven White & Scott MacLean

Swindale Shield Round 2 results at a glance: Pōneke 69 – Avalon 0; Paremata-Plimmerton 35 – Wainuiomata 27; Hutt Old Boys Marist 32 – Old Boys University 30; Oriental-Rongotai 43 – Johnsonville 32; Petone 28 – Tawa 24; Upper Hutt Rams 36 – Marist St Pat’s 27; Northern United 41 – Wellington Axemen 40.

The second round of the 2025 Wellington club rugby Swindale Shield saw a series of close results on a blue-sky afternoon around the region.

In one of five matches played in the city, Northern United got up to beat the Wellington Axemen 41-40 at Hataitai Park, after the home side had earlier led 33-14. Norths won with a late penalty to replacement William Wood.

For Norths, captain and flanker Olano Afutoto scored three tries, as Norths scored tries in the 71st, 73rd and 78th minutes and Wood kicked the winning penalty in the 80th to win.

Hutt Old Boys Marist regained the Wood Cup against defending champions Old Boys University with a 32-30 victory at Rugby League Park, to see OBU go 0/2 to start the new season.

Oriental-Rongotai pulled clear of Johnsonville at home for the Ash Pointon Cup to won 43-32. This match saw a lengthy delay during play owing to an apparent serious elbow injury to Johnsonville fullback and former Ories player centurion Andy Ellis. Ories were leading 12-10 at the time.

At Ngati Toa Domain, Paremata-Plimmerton beat Wainuiomata 35-27 for the Smith & Wilson Cup,

Esi Komaisavai scored a hat-trick and Louis Northcott one try for the Hammerheads. The home team led 36-13 until later when the margin was closed considerably by the scoring of two converted tries by the visitors.

Petone held on against Tawa to win 28-24 down at Lyndhurst Park to win the Bill Brien Challenge Shield (more on this game follows below).

At Evans Bay Park, the Upper Hutt Rams inflicted a second consecutive home loss on Marist St Pat’s by winning 36-27 (more on this game follows below). 

The match across the road at Kilbirnie Park was the exception to the rule of close results, with home team Pōneke too good for the Avalon Wolves in winning 69-0 after leading 29-0 at the interval.

After two rounds, the Swindale Shield points table (unofficial) is: Hutt Old Boys Marist 10, Northern United 10, Oriental-Rongotai 10,  Pōneke 9, Petone 9, Paremata-Plimmerton 6, Johnsonville 6, Tawa, 6, Upper Hutt Rams 5, Wainuiomata, Old Boys University 3, Wellington 2, 1, Marist St Pat’s 1, Avalon 0.

In matches that we covered today, a held up try on fulltime to Tawa saw Petone to hang on and win 28-24 at Lyndhurst Park, aka Feather Field.

It appeared Tawa had won one of their famous last-gasp victories with the try that wasn’t near the clubrooms corner to captain Matolu Petaia following a frantic finish to the game. But the referee blew fulltime instead:

Above: Petone hangs on – the last play of the match at Lyndhurst Park.

Petone therefore completed their second Swindale Shield win to start the season, albeit in a gritty match that struggled to reach any great heights of excitement.

Petone trailed 21-18 at half time following the concession of a penalty try and a player sent to the sinbin at the same time with the last act of the half.

But Tawa failed to capitalise early in the second half, missing two clear chances in the corner, and then unable to score over the last several minutes. Indeed, it was Tawa’s poor discipline in the second half that cost them dearly, conceding three yellow cards for separate incidents.

After missing out early in the second half, Petone scored a converted try to put them ahead 25-21, but Tawa, despite having players in the sinbin, closed to within a point through the boot of first five James So’oialo.

The final scoring of the match occurred with about 15 minutes to play when replacement Petone first five Ben Brooking kicked a penalty.

Brooking had come on as an early substitute for starting first five and rookie school leaver Thompson Tukapua.

Tukapua was intimately involved in Petone’s first try of the match when, after an almost two minute buildup following a Petone lineout on the far side, he put in a cross-kick for fullback Jermaine Pepe to reel in and run in to score to make it 5-0 to the Villagers.

Petone were almost in again five minutes later but somehow Tawa’s forwards scrambled in close and kept them out.

Instead, Tawa hit back in spectacular style with what was the try of the match. Veteran centre Nigel Hunt popped a short pass to flying fullback Jacob Denyer who proceeded to go on a magical 50 metre weaving run all the way to the line to put Tawa up 7-5.

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After two consecutive penalties and lineouts in the corner, Tawa made it third time lucky to hulking No 8 George Risale who scored Tawa’s second try to put them up 14-5. Brooking replied with two consecutive penalties to close the gap to 14-11, before Petone scored their second try in the far corner off a lineout attack and Brooking converted to make it 18-14 heading into half time.

Tawa had the final say of the first half when they were awarded a penalty try to set up the hard fought second half.

Petone had the services of returning injured Hurricanes second five Riley Higgins who sported a nice pair of pink boots but was mostly quiet all match.

At Evans Bay Park, the visiting Upper Hutt Rams held on to beat Marist St Pat’s 36-27 in a first half thriller that became a dogfight in the second 40 minutes, not unlike what was seen at Lyndhurst Park.

The visiting Rams made a spectacular start, scoring two early tries to go 12-0 ahead. The first was scored by wing Rory Brattle who ran back a missed MSP touch-finder, while the second of these was scored by hooker Leon Tuiloma.

Things went from bad to worse for the home team in the 15^th minute when Rams fullback Todd Svenson raced in to score under the posts to make it 19-0.

MSP regrouped and scored through a penalty and a converted try, before Rams wing Dan Schrijvers scored the visitors’ bonus point try to put them up 24-10.

An exciting final 10 minutes of the first half resulted in MSP scoring two converted tries to come back and level 24-24 at half time. The second of these tries was set up by evergreen midfielder Isaia Petelo.

MSP then took the lead early in the second half with a penalty to first five Tomasi Connor to see them lead 27-24.

The Rams retook the lead with a try to blockbusting midfielder Emmanuel Solomona to make it 31-27. The remainder of the match was tight but the Rams crossed the line again to extend their lead and ultimately deny MSP a bonus point. MSP had some late chances, including after Solomona was sinbinned, but failed to take them.

Premier 2 Harper Lock Shield

Four teams are two-for-two after today’s round in the Harper Lock Shield.

Petone easily accounted for perennial contenders Tawa 50-26, leaving the latter winless. Poneke beat Avalon 47-5, Ories prevailed 14-7 in an arm wrestle over Johnsonville, and defending champions OBU came back from 5-20 down at halftime to beat HOBM 31-27. In the other matches Wainuiomata beat Pare-Plim 36-29, MSP accounted for Upper Hutt 53-15, and Norths were too good for Wellington by 76-20

Petone’s set piece and unwavering commitment to keep the ball alive propelled them to their 50-26 win over Tawa in the early game at Lyndhurst Park.

In a seesaw contest, Petone flew home over the final 20 minutes with five consecutive tries to win well against the recent top Harper Lock Shield team who were flagging badly at the end against a good Petone scrum and lineout.

This was after Tawa had scored back-to-back tries, including a first phase special, to take the lead at 26-24 during the second half.

Petone had led 10-0 midway through the first half, and later 14-10 by half time, following a try at the end of the first half off a kick into the corner by first five Rory Woollett to his winger.

Tawa’s two first half converted tries were also scored back-to-back, the second a popular try that was run back and scored directly off a re-start.

The Harper Lock Shield points table after two rounds (unofficial) reads: Old Boys University 10; Poneke 10; Petone 10; Wainuiomata 10; Oriental-Rongotai 9; Paremata-Plimmerton 7; Hutt Old Boys Marist 7; Northern United 6; Marist St Pat’s 6; Avalon 5;  Tawa 1; Johnsonville 1; Wellington 1; Upper Hutt Rams 0.

Women’s

A day for the big guns to flex their muscle in the Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy.

Champions Petone were only occasionally troubled by Poneke, winning 75-0 with wing Harmony Kautai scoring five tries and Maddi Gold a hat-trick while across the road MSP were only a few points off that pace in beating Avalon 68-0 with first-fiveFaalua Tugaga crossing for six tries.

Ories and Norths did both concede points but not many; Ories beat Wainuiomata 76-7, while Norths’ 37-7 over neighbours Pare-Plim was the closest margin of the day.

Colts

After a false start last week, the rebooted 11-team Wellington club rugby Colts competition kicked off around the region with five matches in the Paris Memorial Trophy.

After defeating OBU in a high scoring game last week, the Tawa Colts beat Johnsonville 120 to announce themselves in hot form.

Defending Colts first and second round champions Hutt Old Boys Marist Green defeated Petone 35-27.

Paremata-Plimmerton and Poneke piled on the points with the Junior Hammerheads prevailing 46-34.

OBU Green beat Ories 32-17 at their new home ground of Ian Galloway Park, while in the closest U21s match of the day, The Upper Hutt Rams Colts defeated Marist St Pat’s 28-22.

U85kg

The second round of the Wellington club rugby JC Bowl resulted in the Tawa Ducks beating Marist St Pat’s 63-10, the Johnsonville Terrahawks defeating the Paremata-Plimmerton Piranhas 30-10 and two other close games.

These two close results saw Hutt Old Boys Marist beating the Old Boys University Scallywags 14-13 and Avalon beating Eastbourne 24-19 in their seaside fixture at HW Shortt Park.

Elsewhere

Feilding Yellows maintained their stranglehold on the Manawatu Hankins Shield in the early going, winning away at Te Kawau 43-26. Elsewhere Kia Toa crushed Linton Army 57-5,  College Old Boys beat Freyberg 39-17, and Varsity overcame Feilding Old Boys-Oroua 101-5.

48 was the number in Horowhenua-Kapiti today, as all three winning sides totalled that number. Waikanae beat Levin Wanderers 48-40 at the Domain, Paraparaumu won at home 48-24 over Levin COB, and defending champions Foxton beat Shannon 48-7. Rahui had today’s bye.

The second week of the Lane Penn Cup in the Wairarapa Greytown and Carteton set themselves up for a decider clash in Group B after both winning today; Carterton squeaked past Masterton Red Star 32-26 in prop Blair Heming’s 200th game, while Greytown thumped Pioneer 74-21. Over in Group B Martinborough have the ascendency after they beat Eketahuna 38-13, and East Coast and Marist drew 33-all.

Club Rugby’s Wairarapa arm was in wine country with perfect conditions. As with last week Eketahuna started well but soon found themselves swamped by the home tide. Martinborough ran in four first-half tries to establish a 26-6 lead at the interval, with imposing lock Tiawharangi Aranui and captain No8 Cody Cunningham prominent. After a change of referee which put your correspondent in the middle at half-time, it seemed to lose shape with the result largely not in doubt. However the hosts added two more against a single hard-earned but well deserved try for the visitors to set the final margin. To cap a good day for the home side, their B’s won 19-5 over neighbours Gladstone in the early fixture.

All three regions have Easter weekend off, and resume on the 26th.