Sideline Conversions 14 April (some rugby news and information to start the new week)

Rugby League Park looking a picture moments before kick-off on Saturday. Photo: Tane Nathan.

Monday morning edition (updates expected): It is Easter weekend coming up, and that means rugby in Wellington.

The third round of the Swindale Shield rolls around this Saturday, with six matches on Saturday, and as a treat for fans in town, one match on Thursday night under lights at Hataitai Park. There is also one U85kg match on Wednesday night, between Marist St Pat’s and Eastbourne at Hataitai Park.

Swindale Shield matches at a glance this coming Saturday (earlier Premier 2 games replicate the Premier draw):

• Wellington v Wainuiomata, Hataitai Park (Bill Jones Cup), THURSDAY 7.30PM.
• Johnsonville v Hutt Old Boys Marist, Helston Park, 2.45pm
• Tawa v Pōneke, Lyndhurst Park, 2.45pm (Kevin Carmichael Cup)
• Upper Hutt Rams v Old Boys University, Maidstone Park, 2.45pm
• Paremata-Plimmerton v Marist St Pat’s, Ngati Toa Domain, 2.45pm
• Petone v Avalon Wolves, Petone Rec, 2.45pm (Morgan Family Trophy and Bill Brien Cup)
• Northern United v Oriental-Rongotai, Porirua Park #2, 2.45pm (To’omaga Alex Iona Memorial Cup)

It is school holidays for the next fortnight and there are several pre-season First XV fixtures to keep an eye on. For example, the St Pat’s Silverstream First XV play the Marlborough Boys’ College First XV at NZCIS on Thursday at 1.00pm. Silverstream are Wellington champions, while Marlborough performed well in last year’s Crusaders region competition. Wellington College start their sink or swim pre-season campaign against 2024’s best schools in the country by hosting Tauranga Boys’ College on Saturday.

Looking for school rugby before that? Head down to the Petone Rec tomorrow from 10.00am to catch the annual Hope Cup, pre-season day between local Hutt Valley First XVs.

Nearby unions, Horowhenua-Kapiti, Wairarapa-Bush and Manawatu all take this Easter weekend off, while Hawke’s Bay plays the majority of their next round of matches on Thursday night.

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The Wellington Axemen have existed for 155 years, but as far as we can tell Saturday was the first time in that long history that their top side had scored 40 points, and rather heartbreakingly, lost (40-41 against Northern United).

There’s been a few occasions in Wellington Premier rugby where a side has racked up that number and not been victorious. A couple that come to mind are the 2015 Swindale clash between HOBM and MSP which finished 54-49 to the Hutt side, and the 2013 match that saw Norths beat Wests by the scarcely believable scoreline of 97-45 which remains the record for points scored in a Premier match in Wellington.

In the opening round of the 2015 Swindale Shield at Trentham, the Axemen lost 36-37 to HOBM. The referee called Vaea Fifita offside when he was striding away for what he thought was the match winning try from an intercept.

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Tawa’s Premier 2s lost 50-26 to the Petone Premier 2s in Saturday’s Harper Lock Shield at Lyndhurst Park. This was the same side that ended their 42-game unbeaten streak at the start of last season.

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A possible milestone coming up for Oriental-Rongotai wing Ayesha Leti-L’iga should she play for Ories against Poneke at Kilbirnie Park this coming Saturday, kick-off 11.30am. She played for Ories this past weekend in their 76-7 win over Wainuiomata and scored four tries. This means that – by our count – she has now scored 198 tries in 81 appearances for Ories in Wellington women’s club rugby. So has one player scored 200 tries before in club rugby in New Zealand, and if they have in so few games?

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Belgium Tuatagaloa made his Tawa debut on Saturday off the bench against his former club Petone.

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Initial confusion on fulltime from the far side at Lyndhurst Park on Saturday when it appeared Matolu Petaia scored the winning try. From what we saw, the teams stood around afterwards and then the three match officials met and walked away together to the changing rooms. But replays showed that referee Nathan Pinder had ruled held up in the tackle of Logan Henry and Jermaine Pepe and then had blown fulltime. Being partially obscured and 80m in the late afternoon shadows was the cause of the confusion.

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Only the Hurricanes, down by seven points with less than three minutes remaining and with a two man advantage, would take a quick lineout throw inside the Crusaders 22 where the young hooker delivers the ball to an old, isolated, tired prop with Tom Christie loitering like Baby Face Nelson!

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The last time Hurricanes second five-eighth Peter Umaga-Jensen scored two tries in a first-class match, before his double-strike against the Crusaders on Friday night, was for Wellington in a memorable 46-21 slaying of Canterbury in Rangiora in the 2024 NPC.

He also achieved the feat for Wellington in a 35-30 win in extra time against Canterbury in the 2021 NPC. Umaga-Jensen scored doubles for the Hurricanes in a 29-24 win against the Blues in 2018 and a 31-18 win against the Chiefs in 2019. He has played 50 games for the Hurricanes (31 wins) and scored 11 tries.

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Here is this week’s negative rant. When content is used elsewhere but not credited in any way shape or form.  Two instances last week – one a community newspaper publishing photos with no acknowledgement where the photos they used came from or who took them, and two, some historic video clips being used on bigger Instagram pages with the same lack of credit and passed off as their own content.

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Tipping Competition Top 10 and ties leaderboard after two rounds:

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The new Rugby Xplorer portal didn’t appear to be much better than week one, here’s hoping it improves or its going to give many people headaches each Saturday (literally).

Plus they haven’t – and probably won’t – fix the major flaw whereby the results only list surnames as scorers. This week’s example, Seumanufagai scored a hat-trick for Ories on Saturday. But there are four Seumanufagai’s at Ories and three of them played, so which one was it Rugby Xplorer?

We can’t criticise though, as we are still unable to get access to your ‘administration’ pages on our old Draws & Results site, so whilst the website and all historical data is information is live and intact, we are locked out of actually doing anything new. Still hoping for this soon.

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When sports administrators continue their arrogance in putting their teams up at times that clash with community sport. In this instance, 5.00pm Saturday wasn’t a direct clash, but pushing up close enough to afternoon sport around the Wellington it might as well have been. Saturday afternoons are for community sport! This is the club (their women’s team) that is keeping Norths off their preferred home ground this weekend too.

Fear today's attendance at Sky Stadium could be even smaller than the last one, which was the Phoenix's worst-ever in Wellington.

— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) April 12, 2025

Plus 50 minutes to drive from Miramar to Mt Victoria late on Saturday afternoon. What’s up with that Wellington? Maybe some fans couldn’t get to the football game because they were stuck and going nowhere.

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The Hurricanes are playing in Perth this coming weekend.

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As reported on Saturday, there was hot individual scoring elsewhere in the women’s competition on Saturday, including Harmony Kautai scoring five tries for Petone and Lua Tugaga scoing six for Marist St Pat’s. Third round women’s matches at a glance on Saturday are:

• Pōneke v Oriental-Rongotai, Kilbirnie Park, 11.30am (possible Ayesha Leti-L’iga 200 tries game)
• Paremata-Plimmerton v Marist St Pat’s, Ngati Toa Domain, 11.30am
• Petone v Northern United, Petone Rec 1, 11.30am
• Wainuiomata v Avalon, William Jones Park, 11.30am

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After a false start last weekend, the HOBM Green Colts got their title defence off to a winning start, beating Petone 35-27. Full gallery by Warwick Burke HERE

HOBM’s Colts were wearing black arm bands on Saturday in honour of recent HOBM player Hunter Anderson, who’s birth father passed away. The HOBM and Petone also had a minute’s silence before kick-off.

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Mitchell Drummond moved into fourth place for the most wins in Super Rugby history with 113. Wyatt Crockett leads this statistic with 146. TJ Perenara holds the Hurricanes record with 105. Richie McCaw had 100 wins in 145 games. Source: Rugby Database.

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Another round and another batch of one-sided games in Hawke’s Bay Nash Cup Premier rugby. The closest result of the afternoon was NOBM’s 44-5 win over Central, while Havelock North beat Aotea 75-28, Taradale beat Napier Tech 73-12, Hastings beat Clive 67-5 and Napier Pirate prevailed 95-7 over M.A.C (15 tries to 1).

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College Rugby Chat

Feilding High School hooker Alani Fakava played his 60th match for the First XV in a 38-24 win over Wellington champions St Patrick’s College, Silverstream on Saturday.

Fakava turned 18 in the middle of June so is eligible to return for a Year 14 (let’s hope one moves on) and he would have to in order to pass the Feilding First XV games record holder who is Josiah Maraku with 100 between 2014 and 2018. Maraku debuted off the bench as a Year 9 and has kicked on to become a professional, initially with Manawatū (13 games) and now with Lyon (58 games) in France. Feilding, third in New Zealand in 2024, have also beaten New Plymouth Boys’ High School (24-0) and Wellington College (31-10) in a strong start to their pre-season.

Taita College’s First XV won their pre-season fixture against Upper Hutt/Heretaunga Colleges 60-5 on Saturday. No conversions were taken. Taita next plays a game of three halves on Saturday 26 April against Mana College and Wainui HS at Mana College.

Visiting Queensland side Downlands College defeated Rongotai College in Rongotai’s final pr-season match of the term on Friday afternoon. The Toowomba School won 32-17.

Aotea College beat Mana College 38-29 in their First XV pre-season match on Saturday.

National champions Hamilton Boys’ High School led all the way but only narrowly retained the Moascar Cup 10-8 against North Harbour champions Westlake Boys’ High School. Wellington College challenges Hamilton Boys’ on 17 May.

College Sport Wellington released the Beard Trophy dates/draw coming up, these being:

📅 Wed 7 May – Tawa College vs. Aotea College
📅 Wed 28 May – Holder vs. Bishop Viard College
📅 Wed 25 June – Holder vs. Porirua College
📅 Wed 23 July – Holder vs. Mana College

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Former France international Sebastien Chabal has said he has “no memories” from his international rugby career, potentially as a result of concussions.

Chabal played 62 tests for France, mainly as a back-row forward, from 2000 until 2011.

Read more: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby/rugby-sebastien-chabal-reveals-he-cannot-remember-a-single-second-of-his-career/ZWJB6N56AND47H7JINBVSHQHKQ/

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Bookmark and visit the Club Rugby Photos website at: https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/2025