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Fulltime at the Polo Ground, with members of Johnsonville’s side celebrating their win over Oriental-Rongotai. Photo: Andy McArthur.
- By Steven White, Scott MacLean & Adam Julian
Updated: The top four sides for next week’s championship semi-finals were decided today on a passionate afternoon of club rugby throughout the Wellington region.
In the major Jubilee Cup semi-finals next week, Tawa will host Johnsonville at Lyndhurst Park and Hutt Old Boys Marist will welcome Paremata-Plimmerton on to the Hutt Rec.
In the Premier grade 9-14 Hardham Cup bracket, Pōneke will host Old Boys University and the Upper Hutt Rams will host Marist St Pat’s.
Likewise the Premier 2 top 8 Ed Chaney Cup and 9-14 HD Morgan Memorial semi-finalists have also been found.
Next week’s Premier 2 major semi-finals will be between Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist and Pōneke and the Upper Hutt Rams.
The HD morgan matches next Saturday will see Tawa hosting Northern United and Oriental-Rongotai playing Paremata-Plimmerton in town.
Both today’s Jubilee Cup eliminator games and one Hardham Cup match went down to the wire.
A significant result at the Polo Ground where first round Swindale Shield champions Oriental-Rongotai were beaten 25-20 by Johnsonville.
Ories won the first round competition with 13 straight bonus point wins, but will be heading to Seatoun beach this week after losing their second straight Jubilee Cup match.
Ories ended the game hammering away at Johnsonville’s line searching for an equalising score with the kick to come to win or send the game into extra time if drawn. They thought they had won the game with an apparent late try after multiple phases to prop Salesa Suemanufagai but this was ruled held up over the line and the Hawks celebrated a big win.
Earlier, Johnsonville had attacked for several minutes straight almost from opening kick-off after an Ories error and were rewarded with the game’s opening try to loosehead prop Ha’amea Ahio.
Ories got into their stride and replied with two consecutive tries soon after, to left wing Herman Seumanufagai and right wing Sam Tautiaga after a sweeping attack and a skipout pass to the try scorer by fullback Tom Maiava.
But Johnsonville replied not long before halftime with their second try, to Jacob Walmsley, playing in his 125th match for the Hawks, to see Ories lead 12-10 at halftime.
The second half remained close, with Walmsley hacking a kick ahead and scoring his second try and then Hawks first-five Nial Delehunt’s penalty putting them ahead 18-15 with half and hour to play. Centre Aukuso Tuitama then scored with under 10 minutes to play to extend this to 25-15. Ories replied to No. 8 Dom Ropeti to keep them in the hunt.
Mika Cooper-Finau was the joker in the Paremata-Plimmerton pack. The reserve outside back, who was unnamed on the teamsheet before kick-off, scored an 86th-minute try to sink Petone 15-14.
Down 14-10 in the Ngati Toa quagmire, it seemed the Hammerheads were destined for a third consecutive defeat by less than five points. However, the hosts persisted with close-coordinated, determined pick-and-goes. A flurry of penalties followed and eventually, a gap opened for a euphoric Cooper-Finau.
There was perhaps a touch of natural justice in the outcome. While the Villagers tackled stoically and withstood an early barrage to lead 9-0 at halftime, their scrum was pummelled into submission. Props Ben Kershaw and Kafaongo Katoa hobbled off the field with injuries as the game twice switched from contested to uncontested scrums.
Despite a spell in the sin-bin, James Coburn was legendary, demolishing Petone on the loosehead side. In their earlier season meeting, he had mangled his opposition at tighthead. Hooker Toby Mallon, tighthead prop Werdna Maligi-Leota, and lock Zeek Fiso basically lasted the distance with commanding displays.
Earlier, Paremata-Plimmerton anchored themselves inside Petone territory but failed to breach the visitors’ defence. Jarrord Hirstch, Braith Ingram, and Connor Tuifao defended were impenetrable throughout. Petone’s first five-eighth, Rory Woollett, opened the scoring with a penalty after 21 minutes, and Tjay Clarke successfully converted two out of three attempts as the locals’ discipline waned.
Dale Sabbagh opened Paremata-Plimmerton’s account in the 43rd minute, although he missed an easy chance shortly after. Paremata-Plimmerton finally capitalised on an opportunity after an hour when the charismatic veteran Tane McMillian-Parata wriggled his way over the muddy paint. The blindside flanker displayed his typical wholeheartedness, supported well by No. 8 captain Christian Fa’avae.
Gutsy Petone responded with earnest forward industry of their own and agile footwork from fullback Jeremaine Pepe. When Petone exploited a narrow short side with ten minutes remaining, replacement winger Jakib Tuinui scored, regaining the lead for the Villagers.
Petone had to clear their bench early due to injuries. The combined impact of Cooper-Finau and Marzy Karam, along with the Kryptonite scrum, saw the Hammerheads win – only just.
At Evans Bay Park, Norths built an 11-5 halftime lead over home side Marist St Pat’s, which became 14-5 early in the second spell.
MSP attacked hard for more than 15 minutes and were finally rewarded with a 63rd minute ty to lock Villiame Rarasa who dived over second phase from an attacking lineout at the Kilbirnie Park end of the ground. Tomasi Connor’s conversion cut the deficit to 12-14.
The quarterfinal remained on tenterhooks, but a 73rd minute penalty to Connor from in front gave MSP their 15-14 win.
The other three Hardham Cup matches were more one-sided affairs, with Pōneke beating the Wellington Axemen 54-12, Old Boys University defeating Wainuiomata 39-22 and the Upper Hutt Rams accounting for the Avalon Wolves 67-19.
For the Rams, second-five Ieti Campbell scored four of their 11 tries, while for OBU captain and hooker Geordie Bean scored two of six tries and halfback Jimmy-Lee Hongara scored a hat-trick for the streetkids in their 10 tries to 2 victory.
Premier 2
Upsets galore in the Premier 2 matches today.
The visitors won both matches in the Ed Chaney Cup as HOBM knocked over MSP 38-27 at Evans Bay Park and the Upper Hutt Rams continued their giant-killing run to end defending champions OBUs season 22-19 at Nairnville Park.
In the HD Morgan section Tawa were already through after Wellington defaulted yesterday and they’ll face Norths after they also won away, 38-22 over Wainuiomata. On the other side of the draw holders Ories beat a plucky Avalon side 27-19 to host Pare-Plim after they won 71-0 over Johnsonville in the Ngati Toa mud.
Colts
A result each way in the two Colts John E Kelly Cup qualifiers played today.
Tawa booked a re-match with HOBM with a 28-10 over Pōneke for next week’s top four semi-finaks, while Petone will face Upper Hutt next week in the other after they reversed last weeks loss to Ories to prevail 33-14 today.
MSP, OBU, Pare-Plim, and Norths all had this weekend off off – before they play the Vic Calcinai semi-finals next week.
U85KG
Tawa and Johnsonville will host next week’s Paul Potiki Shield U85kg semifinals.
The Ducks were already assured of top spot and had the bye, and they’ll host the OBU Scallywags after they were beaten 19-16 by the Terrahawks.
Johnsonville will in turn host Wellington after they ended Avalon’s campaign with a 24-17 result.
In the Tony O’Brien Shield Pare-Plim are through to the final in a fortnight after they beat HOBM 13-10. Eastbourne are second after MSP defaulted yesterday but face Pare-Plim next week while HOBM are scheduled to meet MSP.
College
College rugby resumed this afternoon after the school holiday break, with a significant Premiership result in Masterton between hosts Rathkeale College and visitors Scots College. Rathkeale won their fixture 75-14 (29-1
In the third versus fourth match, Wellington College comfortably accounted for Hutt International Boys’ School 69-7.
Rongotai College got their first win, beating Tawa College 32-19, while Wairarapa College beat St Bernard’s College 21-0.
The fifth and final match of the round is the Old Boys’ Cup traditional match this coming Wednesday between home school St Pat’s Silverstream and St Pat’s Town.
In Premier 2, Hutt Valley High School beat the Wellington College Second XV 24-14 to remain unbeaten.
The St Pat’s Silverstream second XV are also unbeaten, seeing off Porirua College 31-5 today.
The Silverstream third XV also had a win today, beating the St Pat’s Town second XV 15-7.
In two matches up the coast Kapiti College edged Bishop Viard College 22-21 and Paraparaumu College defeated Mana College 27-0.
In one Premier 3 game today, the Naenae College First XV beat the Taita College First XV 23-15 in their Avalon Cup contest on Fraser Park #1.
Elsewhere
While Wellington has a fortnight to go, our neighbouring NPC provinces had their finals today
Massey are the champions of the Manawatu, winning the Hankins Shield by winning 29-27 over favourites Kia Toa at the Arena. It was “to nil” in the other finals; in the subsidiary Val Holland Cup as Feilding Yellows crushed Linton 57-3 and Old Boys Marist were 73-0 winners over Freyberg in the Women’s final.
Taradale took him the Maddison Trophy in the Hawke’s Bay, beating Pirates 47-40 in an epic final at McLean Park. Central were the Division One winners last night 29-19 over Aotea, with Waipara the Division Two champions 21-19 over Otane.
Stratford-Eltham repeated as Taranaki champions, beating Coastal 31-22 in the final there today. Other winners were NPOB in Division One 24-23 over Southern, Toko won Division Two 21-12 over Kaponga, and Bell Block beat Patea 15-8 in Division Three. Tukapa won the Colts grade 32-22 over Coastal, and Inglewood are the Women’s champions by 46-24 over Tukapa.
In Horowhenua-Kapiti Foxton will go into next weeks semi-finals as top seed after beating Rahui 17-13 in Otaki. Foxton will host Waikanae who were 10-0 winners over Shannon, with Paraparaumu to come back from the bye to face Rahui. Levin Wanderers signed off with back-to-back wins after beating College Old Boys 23-21 in the Levin derby.
SH2 neighbours Carterton and Greytown will contest next Saturday’s Moose Kapene Cup final in Wairarapa Bush. Defending champions Carterton ended the run of Masterton Red Star 41-12, while further south Greytown had to come from behind to beat Martinborough 28-22. The subsidiary Hodder-Steffert final will be played out by Masterton duo Marist and Pioneer after Marist accounted for East Coast 63-14 and Pioneer edged out Eketahuna 34-32. In the Senior Reserve grade Greytown will face Tuhirangi in the championship section, with Pioneer to take on East Coast in the subsidiary.
