Sideline Conversions 21 April (some news, information and tidbits to start the week)

Above: Upper Hutt Rams fullback Todd Svenson, with Jack Wright in support, fends off OBU’s Malu Manuao in their first home win of the season at Maidstone Park this season. 

Monday morning edition: Another short week coming up, with public holidays on Easter Monday and Friday (Anzac Day).

Plenty of content coming up on Club Rugby this week as we countdown to the fourth round of Swindale Shield matches. Adam Julian spoke to Tawa’s Jacob Denyer so look out for that story. To mark Anzac Day, this week’s history profile is with Hami Grace, who was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915 and whose short life runs like a movie script.

It is the third Club of Origin day at Kilbirnie Park today – see the poster below. All matches livestreamed on the Poneke Facebook page.

On Wednesday, the Hurricanes Hunters and the New Zealand U20s meet at NZCIS. Kick-off is at 12.00pm.

It is the second week of school rugby. No notable midweek First XV matches this week, but some on Saturday, such as St Pat’s Silverstream v St Bede’s College and St Pat’s Town v Christs College.

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Round 4 Swindale Shield matches on Saturday 26 April at a glance (Premier 2 fixtures emulate the Premier ones):

• Pōneke v Wellington Axemen (Spud Lindsay Memorial Shield), Kilbirnine Park 1, 2.45pm
• Wainuiomata v Johnsonville, William Jones Park, 2.45pm
• Hutt Old Boys Marist v Paremata-Plimmerton, Hutt Rec, 2.45pm
• Avalon Wolves v Tawa, Fraser Park 1, 2.45pm
• Marist St Pat’s v Northern United (Maurice Standish Cup), Evans Bay Park, 2.45pm
• Old Boys University v Oriental-Rongotai, Ian Galloway Park, 2.45pm
• Upper Hutt Rams v Petone (Ted Connolly Cup), Maidstone Park 1, 2.45pm

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There seemed to be more yellow cards (and reds) than Easter eggs in club rugby this past weekend, Plenty of cooling off periods across the one Swindale Shield match on Thursday night and six on Saturday, perhaps it was the unseasonably hot and bothersome weather?  Plus one red card for alleged mis-use of spoken language, which begs the question what power can referees have in this regard, and is there another way of punishing players for the alleged actions of their vocal cords directed at other players (not at referees, that is fair enough) other than sending them off at the time?

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Here is the Swindale Shield points table after 3 rounds:

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Swindale Shield round three results and scoring below (link opens a Word document):

SWINDALE SHIELD TEAMLISTS AND SCORING 2025 Round 3 Results

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Eight tries in two matches for Harmony Kautai for the Petone Ponies women’s team. That’s 21 tries in 14 games for her in Wellington club rugby. The defending champions beat Northern United 39-26 in Saturday’s feature women’s match.

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A 0/3 start to the new season for Old Boys University, who did the Jubilee Cup-Swindale Shield double last year. This got us thinking.

In 2014, Wainuiomata failed to win a match in the opening month of the Swindale Shield but made the Jubilee Cup final from eighth in the first round. Their first four results of that season were: Ories, 13-13, Tawa, 13-46, Upper Hutt, 13-17, Marist St Pats, 30-30. Wainiomata’s first win was 41-34 against Petone. Wainuiomata lost the Jubilee Cup final to Hutt Old Boys Marist, who were seventh in the Swindale.

Ories won the 2023 Jubilee Cup from eighth place in the Swindale Shield, stringing together six straight stirring victories.

In 2005, Petone lost their first two games of the season to Upper Hutt (Swindale winners) 30-27 and Poneke 35-13 before going on to win the Jubilee Cup, beating Norths 21-20 in the final.

In 2016, Tawa was sixth in the Swindale Shield with an 8-5 record and then dropped their first three games of the full Jubilee Cup round to MSP, 12-8, Poneke, 24-15, and Ories, 30-22 before winning six on the bounce to capture Jubilee honours. Tawa beat MSP 24-20 in the final on August 6, the same day the Hurricanes won their only Super Rugby final against the Lions in Wellington.

In 2015, OBU lost three games in a row in the Swindale Shield and went on to win the Jubilee Cup. The defeats occurred between rounds five and seven. The Goats were 2-2 in the first month of that campaign. In the 2005 Swindale Shield, OBU lost all 11 matches. In 2009, they only had a win and a raw in 11 games.

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As illustrated above, there is plenty of time and matches for current winless trio OBU, Wellington and Avalon to make comebacks in 2025, but what about teams in history who have gone from heroes one year to zeroes the next? Here are two examples:

The first involves OBU’s predecessor club University who won the Senior Championship in 1928 and won again in 1929 and were awarded the inaugural Jubilee Cup. University then went from champions to dead last in 1930. This set them up in a promotion-relegation match against the Wellington Axemen, which they lost. Senior B status was on the cards for 1931, but the competition was expanded from 10 to 12 teams in the off-season and they won a reprieve.

Fast-forward two decades to 1952 when defending Jubilee Cup champions Poneke lost their first six matches in a row, before regrouping in the second round and winning the Hardham Cup, before finishing runners-up to University in the Jubilee Cup in 1953.

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U85kg grade chat

We were unable to trust the accuracy of the seemingly troubled Rugby Xplorer Draws & Results site on Saturday, hence no brief U85kgs in the Saturday night round-up.

Following Eastbourne’s 81-17 victory over Marist St Pat’s on Wednesday night, three matches went ahead on Saturday. The results of these saw the Wellington Light Axemen beating the Paremata-Plimmerton Piranhas 38-29, the Tawa Ducks prevailing 31-7 over Avalon and Johnsonville winning 14-12 over Hutt Old Boys Marist.

The Wellington-Paremata-Plimmerton fixture was for the Daniel Baldwin Memorial Trophy  in honour of the young Axeman who tragically passed away from injuries suffered in a Colts game a few years ago.

Photos by Warwick Burke of the Johnsonville-HOBM match at Nairnville Park are here: https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/2025/2025-Colts-Prem-2-U85kg-club-rugby/U85kg-Week-3-Johnsonville-14-v-HOBM-12

After three rounds, the Tawa Ducks and Johnsonville are both 3/3, with Tawa on 15 points and Johnsonville 14. Eastbourne are third with a 2/3 record on 11 points. It is early day

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Good games from the two players with the pink headgear for the Ories Prems on Saturday – lock  Ruperake Olapu and openside flanker David Leota-Johnson.

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Swindale Shield top 10 points scorers and ties after 3 rounds:
Tom Henderson (OBU) 38
James So’oialo (Tawa) 34
Tom Maiava (Ories) 31
Waylon Tuhoro-Robinson (HOBM) 30
Esi Komaisavai (Pare Plim) 30
Andrew Wells (WoA) 30
Ken Kurihara (J’ville)28
Carlos Hihi (Pōneke) 27
Dale Sabbagh (Pare-Plim) 23
Ieti Campbell (UHR) 23
Tomasi Connor (MSP) 23

Swindale Shield top 10 try scorers and ties after 3 rounds:
Esi Komaisavai (Pare-Plim) 6
Herman Suemanufagai (Ories) 4
George Risale (Tawa) 4
Lachie Forbes (Petone)3
Maea Tema-Schmidt (Pōneke)3
Emmanuel Solomona (UHR) 3
Isaiah Opai (Pōneke) 3
Jacob Kennedy (Jville) 3
Louis Magalogo (Jville) 3
Olano Afutoto (Norths) 3
Phelan Rona (HOBM) 3
Jordan Glen-Bradbrook (Petone) 3
26 players with 2 tries

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A 17-17 draw for the Hurricanes in Perth on Saturday – to keep their hopes and dreams alive for a playoff berth this season? They play the Brumbies in Canberra this coming weekend – always a tough place to play at. Even Christian Cullen tormented them in the early days of the competition but rarely beat them.

The Hurricanes have had seven draws in Super Rugby history, but their last draw was actually in a tour match against the 2017 British and Irish Lions 31-31. Brad Shields was the only player in the 17-17 draw with the Force that also played against the Lions. The Hurricanes outscored the Lions four tries to three in the 2017 draw with Jordie Barrett converting all the hosts tries. However, Welshman Dan Biggar kicked four penalties.

Was Peter Lakai playing halfback for the Hurricanes in extra time?

Are the 2025 Hurricanes our most boring? While solid, the backline is largely risk-averse with a tendency to over-kick while lacking legendary gamebreakers like Cullen, Lomu and Barrett. The forwards can be dynamic but except for Kirifi, lack personality when compared to Jerry, Norm, and the Tongan Bear.

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The Hurricanes are kicking their can down the road for a bit longer.

From the introduction to an article online late last week (paywalled):

Hurricanes chair Iain Potter ‘very pleased’ after raising $1m from new share sale.

• Hurricanes have lost more than $2m over past two years.
• New capital will be used to fund turnaround strategy.
• Declining attendances have put pressure on the bottom line.

Hurricanes chair Iain Potter says the Super Rugby club has been successful in raising $1 million to bolster its books after two years of losses.

The Hurricanes lost more than $2m during the 2023 and 2024 seasons due to a decline in crowd numbers and the challenging commercial picture in the capital, and may return another deficit for the 2025 season.

Read more HERE (link to article that is behind a paywall)

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A breathtaking display by Tauranga Boys’ College fullback Tommy McQuoid in the visitors’ 45-31 win against Wellington College. McQuoid scored four tries, a feat that’s possibly never happened against the ‘Col’ First XV on their number one, ‘The Graveyard.’ What is the best performance by an opponent at Wellington College? Remember, New Zealand age group rugby league representative Tarquinn Alatipi scored three tries in a 38-27 win for St Patrick’s College, Silverstream in a nationally televised fixture in 2015. Tarquinn is now a Sydney-based personal trainer. It’s likely Hurricanes winger Kini Naholo holds the record for most tries in any game against Wellington College. In 2017, he scored five tries in a 78-0 win by the eventual National Top Four Champions, Hastings Boys’ High School.

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Club Rugby Tipping Competition after 3 rounds top 15 and ties below.

For more visit https://clubrugby.nz/wp/tipping-competition/

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Following on from an entry in this space a few weeks ago about games not starting on time and something that was really noticeable some weeks last season, another languid start to the Premier 2 curtain-raiser on Porirua 2 on Saturday. The countdown to kick-off was:

• 12.59pm: Ories arrive on field and ready to go.
• 1.01pm: Match officials arrive on field and ready to go.
• 1.02pm: Norths arrive on field and ready to go.
• 1.03pm: Match underway.

Then in the Premiers game, both teams were on the field in good time waiting for kick-off and waiting for the match officials to arrive before they could start the game!

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“Don’t be too hard on yourself.” Empathetic advice from former Brumbies and Wallabies champion turned astute television commentator Justin Harrison to Callum Harkin after the Hurricanes 17-17 draw with the Force in Perth. A despondent Harkin rued a potentially missed try where instead of running further he unselfishly passed inside towards a supporting teammate and the chance was lost. In the unfamiliar position of fullback Harkin was the Hurricanes most lively back. He scored his first try for the franchise and ran more metres (134), beat more defenders (and made more line breaks (3) than any player in the game.

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A return to play for TJ Clarke on Friday for the Hurricanes Hunters Development team in their match against the Chiefs Development side in Napier on Friday. Clarke lined up at fullback in the encounter. The outcome of this match to be advised.