Kapu Broughton-Winterburn and HOBM locked in for Jubilee Cup final

HOBM second-five Kapu Broughton-Winterburn running in a clutch second half try this past Saturday that helped send his side to this Saturday’s 2025 Jubilee Cup final against Tawa. Photo: Andy McArthur.

By Steven White

Hutt Old Boys Marist back Kapu Broughton-Winterburn is familiar with this stage of the club rugby season.

Saturday’s Jubilee Cup decider between his Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles side and Tawa will be his third consecutive club rugby final.

The last two have been for his home club Rāhui in the Horowhenua-Kapiti Ramsbotham Cup competition, resulting in a win (2023) and a loss (2024).

This Saturday’s one in the Wellington club rugby competition could be the most significant of the three so far, but his build-up to kick-off will remain the same.

“I’m pretty chill to be honest, I do get nervous, but I just try not think about the game and what’s ahead until a couple minutes before kick-off and that is when you have got to lock in and turn it on.”

He’s also up for banter. “I’m a bit of a smart-arse sometimes, but the boys don’t really like it on game-day because I will still be cracking jokes five minutes before we run on!”

Once underway it is a different story. Broughton-Winterburn always gives it his all and is a dangerous player that Tawa will need to contain on Saturday.

The former New Zealand U18s Touch player has pace, footwork and vision and is capable of a game-breaking turn.

In Saturday’s 45-42 semi-final win over Paremata-Plimmerton his incision from 25 metres out to cut through and score his 11^th try of the season went a long towards securing their victory.

Just do it – fulltime in last Saturday’s semi-final. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Broughton-Winterburn said that it was a tough match and freely acknowledged that himself and teammates have only qualified to play in Saturday’s 2025 competition decider by the skin of their teeth.

“For most of the game we were getting dominated by Paremata-Plimmerton. They turned up on Saturday. Their nippy backs and their pack were all over us.

“At halftime I thought that if we were not next to score, we could be in some really trouble.”

That’s what happened – Paremata-Plimmerton fullback Sione Baker sliced through out wide in the 46^th minute to make it 37-19 to the visitors, who had beaten HOBM 42-17 at the same venue earlier in the Swindale Shield round. The Hammerheads were also held up over the line in another raid that could have buried HOBM right there and then.

“One of our wingers [Phelan Rona] got an intercept try and that is what brought us back.” This made it 37-26, before Broughton-Winterburn’s try in the 63^rd minute set up a feverish finish that they came out on top of, courtesy of Fred Sunia’s try on fulltime.

The other semi-final was wilder, with Johnsonville scoring on fulltime to make it 17-17 and forcing extra time. Tawa only won with a 95^th minute dropped goal to James So’oialo.

Broughton-Wiinterburn sees Tawa as another massive challenge this Saturday and a Jubilee Cup victory would be well-earned.

“It will be a game of inches. They have got a big pack like ours, and they match up well against us.”

In their previous meeting this year in the seventh round of the Swindale Shield just over two months ago HOBM won 27-17. “It was close most of the game, but we ended up scoring a late try to pull clear.”

Broughton-Winterburn joined the Wellington competition from Horowhenua-Kapiti’s this year following his debut season in the Heartland Championship in 2024.

He played nine Heartland Championship matches under co-coach Kent Harris and alongside 150-game Eagles first-five Brandyn Laursen. It was these two that encouraged his move to the Eagles this season, although Laursen didn’t end up playing.

Broughton-Winterburn lives in Otaki where he grew up and commutes to the Eagles’ Nest in Lower Hutt twice a week for training and down again on Saturdays for playing.

His value to the side is enhanced because he can also play most backline positions from second-five out to the wing, which he has done this year.

“I started on the wing this year for HOBM because Keinan Higgins was playing second-five, but when he moved back up to the Hawke’s Bay I was back there.

“I have mostly been a centre, but Sapati Tagoai is playing well there this year, so I will play where the team needs me.” He has played the last six matches in the 12 jersey following the departure of Higgins.

Of his 11 tries so far this season, he scored a hat-trick against Norths in round six and two tries against the Wellington Axemen in round five.

See two of these tries below:

A Rāhui club junior he spent his secondary school years in Brisbane.

“I moved to Brisbane and did my high schooling there, to a touch school. “I grew up playing touch my whole life and went to the Youth Touch World Cup in 2018 in Malaysia with the New Zealand team.”

During the week he works as a roofer, mostly in Levin, a tough job for a busy rugby player so fitness is not a problem.

Post the club season he is unsure what teams he will play so this is to be confirmed.

Last year he played nine matches for Horowhenua-Kapiti in the Heartland Championship, his last game being a 51-52 loss to the West Coast in the Lochore Cup semi-final in Levin – a game not dissimilar to Saturday’s one just gone except for being on the losing side.