Representative rugby, Club Rugby Reserve Grade Div 2 final and three college finals tomorrow

• By Scott MacLean 

It’s the second weekend of the representative season and opening day for some of the WRFU’s flagship teams and the next of the club finals, the Reserve Grade Division 2 decider, as well as some college finals and semi-finals tomorrow.

Club

Just five WRFU competition matches on the slate tomorrow. The Reserve Grade Division 2 wraps up with the Alan Seerup Cup final with Upper Hutt Thirsty’s taking on the Poneke Ruffnuts out at Maidstone Park; the Thirsty’s beat their Pirates clubmates in their semifinal, while the Ruffnuts went to the Ian Galloway cage and defeated the Wests Mixed Veges.

The Division 1 comp still has three weekends to run, starting with tomorrow’s final round. Wellington’s (30) win over Pare-Plim last week locked up top spot and the Mike Copeland Cup and they’ll warm up for the playoffs by hosting Norths (13) at Hataitai. Behind them the Petone Brotherhood (22) are also locked into the playoffs, but whether they finish second or third will be determined by their visit to third-placed Tawa (18), who in turn can secure a playoff spot with a win. If they don’t, they’ll be very interested in the result from Helston Park where the Johnsonville Cripples and Pare-Plim Punters (both 16) clash in a virtual semi-final. MSP (13) travel to Wainuiomata (1), with both them and Norths needing bonus-point wins and a low-scoring match at Helston to possibly sneak into next week.

All five matches are 2.45pm kick-offs.

Under 85s National Club Cup

A pair of matches involving Wellington sides tomorrow. Locally Nairnville Park is the scene for the clash between the OBU Scallywags and Avalon at 1.00pm, with the winner to face as yet unknown South Island opposition in coming weeks. Elsewhere Pōneke head to Ongley Park, Palmerston North to take on another side from Magpie country in Central Hawkes Bay. The winner there will face North Harbour’s Silverdale who put up a ton against Pukekohe in their opener.

College

The College season is also rapidly coming to its conclusion. Tomorrow sees three finals being played; Rongotai hosts HIBS in the Under 65kg Championship for the Ina Hansen Cup in a repeat of last years decider, while that grade’s Division 2 final is an all-Silverstream affair as Blue meets White. The first of the open-weight finals is the Premier 5 contest, with the Silverstream 4ths at home against the Wellington College Seniors XV.

In the grades that are at the semi-final stage the Premier 2 match-ups have Wellington College’s 2nd XV hosting the Silverstream 3rds, with Hutt Valley HS the last 1^st XV standing here but head north to face the grade powerhouse Silverstream 2nds. The flagship Under 15 grade has St Pat’s Town hosting Scots and Silverstream at home against Wellington College.

Sunday the attention turns to the Premiership decider at Porirua Park between Silverstream and Wellington College. For more on this, check out our preview piece from yesterday here

Representative

A busy day on the representative front.

The Centurions start their campaign by facing the Whanganui Heartland squad at the Hutt Rec, which is preceded by the Fijians taking on the Whanganui Pasifika selection. Kick-off is 12.00pm and 1.30pm respectively.

Across at Rugby League Park the Wellington U19s squad take on their Canterbury U19 counterparts in what has become an annual clash.

On the road are the Wellington Māori, who are in Levin to face the Horowhenua-Kapiti Heartland squad, with the Wellington Samoans further afield in Palmerston North against Manawatu Pasifika.

Wairarapa-Bush have another hit-out before their Heartland campaign, this time against Hawke-s Bay Māori at Memorial Park.

The Wellington Lions head to Hamilton to take on Waikato looking to get back on track after last week’s defeat to Canterbury, but no reunion with former Lion Lima Sopoaga who isn’t in the Mooloo 23. Ruben Love and Kyle Preston are now with the All Blacks, so Callum Harkin and Nui Muriwai are elevated from the bench in their places, as is Dom Ropeti to replace Brad Shields with Julian Savea taking over the captaincy. On the bench come in Siale Lauaki, Matolu Petaia, Stanley Solomon, and for his NPC debut Pare-Plim’s Esi Komaisavai. More on that game in our article yesterday here 

The Wellington Pride start their quest to escape the Farah Palmer Cup’s Championship division as they cross the Strait to face Tasman. Veteran duo Jackie Patea-Fereti and Sanita Levave underpin a youthful squad that will be led this year by MSP hooker Valini Vaka, and while they should have too much firepower for the Lady Mako a good performance to set the tone should be the minimum.

Teams (where supplied):

Wellington Lions

1. Xavier Numia (Ories), 2. James O’Reilly (HOBM), 3. PJ Sheck (Tawa), 4. Hugo Plummer (Tawa), 5. Akira Ieremia (Tawa), 6. Caleb Delany (OBU – 50^th game), 7. Peter Lakai (Petone), 8. Dom Ropeti (Ories), 9. Nui Muriwai (HOBM), 10. Jackson Garden-Bachop (Norths), 11. Tjay Clarke (Petone), 12. Julian Savea (Ories – captain), 13. Matt Proctor (Ories), 14. Losi Filipo (Petone), 15. Callum Harkin (OBU) | 16. Penieli Poasa (Ories), 17. Siale Lauaki (Norths), 18. Kenshi Yamamoto (Japan), 19. Matolu Petaia (Tawa), 20. Sione Halalilo (Ories), 21. Esi Komaisavai (Pare-Plim – debut), 22. Tom Maiava (Ories), 23. Stanley Solomon (Petone)

Wellington Pride

1. 1. Faythe Finau (Norths – Debut), 2. Valini Vaka (MSP – Captain), 3. Dora Laupola (Norths), 4. Sanita Levave (Norths), 5. Xanthe Somerville (MSP – Debut), 6. Lourdes Faifua (Petone – Debut), 7. Anyis Drossaerts-Lake (Norths), 8. Jackie Patea-Fereti (Petone), 9. Milly Mackey (Petone), 10. Arene Landon-Lane (Norths), 11. Harmony Kautai (Petone), 12. Nahliah Tagatauli-Tolova’a (MSP – Debut), 13. Litia Bulicakau (Petone), 14. Ivana Samani (Ories), 15. Keira Su’a-Smith (Petone) | 16. Keiana Roffey (Poneke – Debut), 17. Lavinia Lea (Petone), 18. Paige Misky (Norths), 19. Fono Bason (Petone – Debut), 20. Canon Hakaraia (Wainuiomata – Debut), 21. Te Arani Te Puni (Pare-Plim – Debut), 22. Madi Gold (Petone), 23. Baylee Meroiti (Norths – Debut).

Wellington Centurions:

Wellington Samoa Men’s:

Manawatu Pasifika:

Wellington U19s:

Whanganui Heartland: 

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Poneke U85kgs:

Upper Hutt Rams Thirstys and Poneke Ruffnuts: 

Avalon U85kgs

OBU Scallywags:

Whanaganui Pasifika:

First XV final teams for Sunday: