Sideline Conversions 18 August (some news and information to start the new week in rugby)

Esi Komaisavai doing what he does, scoring tries. His maiden Lions try was in vain as they lost to Otago. Photo: Mike Lewis Pictures.

Monday morning edition – updates expected: The rugby continues under full steam this coming weekend.

The Reserve Grade Division 1 club rugby final is between the Wellington Axemen and Tawa. Details to be confirmed.

A number of representative matches this coming Saturday, headlined by a double header at Rugby League Park involving the Wellington and Hawke’s Bay U19s and Development teams.

Other representative teams in action, home and away, with Wellington Samoa and the Manawatu Evergreens Development side meeting at Ngati Toa Domain in another home match.

A road trip to Palmerston North on Sunday afternoon for Wellington Lions supporters. The Lions play Manawatu for the Coronation Cup in round 4 of the NPC at 4.35pm Sunday.

As always, full details of these matches and others in our preview at the end of the week.

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This Wednesday, Wellington’s St Mary’s College meets Manawatu’s Manukura in the final of the Hurricanes schoolgirls Rex Kerr Cup, to decide who will represent the Hurricanes at the National Top 4 tournament the following weekend. The venue (some in Palmerston North) and time has yet to be confirmed for this.

Despite putting on 149 combined points and conceding 10 in their two most recent outings, the Wellington school final and their Hurricanes semi-final, St Mary’s will be underdogs for this. Manukura have three current Manawatu Cyclones players and have won this match for the past seven years. They beat Feilding High School 79-18 in their semi-final last week.

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Another First XV game this coming Wednesday at 3.00pm sees the St Bernard’s College and Hutt Valley High School First XVs meet in their traditional. HVHS won the Coed Cup final against Tawa College last Friday night, while St Bernard’s have just completed their Premiership campaign. The venue for this is yet to be confirmed.

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Two losses for Wellington teams in their double-header at Porirua Park on Sunday, both punctuated by some moments of poor defence.

Defensive lapses cost the Wellington Pride dearly against the Otago Spirit, conceding at least three of six tries that a review of the tape will leave them scratching their heads.

Likewise, the Wellington Lions leaked about 15 points too many against a gritty and determined Otago side (and after leading 14-0 early), although Otago created and scored three blockbusting tries directly from lineouts. Two saw NZ u20s halfback Dylan Pledger and openside flanker Lucas Casey dart straight through to the line.  We have no idea who Lucas Casey is but he scored a try against Wellington on debut in Dunedin last year. The third – a Porirua Park special – was scored by Thomas Umaga-Jensen (see below).

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Highest closest losses by the Wellington Lions?

Yesterday’s 41-46 defeat saw a combined 87 points. In 1997, Wellington lost to Auckland 44-42, which is 86 points. Former Poneke halfback Junior Tonu’u scored three tries for Auckland, who had 14 internationals in their starting lineup, with loosehead prop Grant Hill being the only exception. Karl Te Nanna and Jason O’Halloran each scored two tries. All six of Wellington’s tries were converted by All Blacks halfback Jon Preston.

Otago beat Wellington 82-10 in 1998 (92) so yesterday’s result not a highest record aggregate of points.

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A welcome home with similar tries under the posts at the northern end of Porirua Park yesterday to two former Wellington school players. In the Women’s game, Otago centre Naomi Sopoaga (of recent Queen Margaret College fame) scored a decisive try. Then in the men’s game, Thomas Umaga-Jensen reminisced about his his 2014 First XV Player of the Final performance for Scots College by cutting through from a lineout and scoring untouched for Otago in another decisive second half score.

The NPC X handle noted the significance of this try too:

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Scam alert

It came to our attention on Saturday evening that a website above (maybe more than one) has popped up impersonating us. Please note any website other than this one you are on now or our ‘old’ site clubrugby.co.nz is not ours and will be a scam. Also, perhaps in the future we will be livestreaming games but currently we do no livestreaming. Investigating ways to take this down, but it is not a social media page that we can just flag and get taken down.

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Tough night in the deep south for the Manawatu Turbos on Friday night.

They led the Southland Stags 22-0 at halftime and it appeared they were heading for their second win of the NPC. Instead, Southland came back to pick off their deficit and take a one-point lead with a penalty. Then with several minutes to play replacement wing Fletcher Morgan, on debut out of Southland club rugby, pulled off a stunner of a try to win the fixture 29-22.

Southland second five-eighth Faletoi Peni, who powered through traffic to score the first try that ignited Southland’s remarkable comeback victory, is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished club players, having won four Gallaher Shields in Auckland across four seasons with Eden, Manukau, and Ponsonby. In 2024, he was called up by the Stags as temporary injury cover but ended up staying for the entire season. During this time, he earned recognition as the Rugby Southland Supporters Club’s Most Improved Player and was named Stags Rookie of the Year. Additionally, Peni was part of the New England Free Jacks, who clinched the Major League Rugby championship last season.

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Greatest NPC Comebacks?

• In the ‘Match of the Century’ between Canterbury and Auckland in 1985, Auckland was up 24-0 at halftime and only narrowly won 28-23 in Christchurch.
• Waikato rallied from 34-8 down in Hamilton to beat Wellington 43-34 in 2021. In 2014, Auckland defeated Wellington 31-30 after trailing 30-6 at halftime.
• In 1996, Auckland recovered from a 29-11 deficit with eight minutes remaining to beat Bay of Plenty 30-29 at Eden Park and retain the Ranfurly Shield.
• Counties came from 33-9 down to beat Waikato 43-40 in Hamilton in a 1997 semi-final.
• Northland upset Auckland 44-43 at Eden Park in 2001. Down by 13 twice, Northland rallied to win.

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Auckland have lost six NPC games in a row starting with a 36-35 defeat to Hawke’s Bay on September 28, 2024. It’s the first time since 1922 Auckland have lost six consecutive games, their worst losing run. Auckland dropped a handful of consecutive matches between August 31, 2024 and October 6, 2023. In 1965, Auckland lost to Wellington, North Auckland (twice), Bay of Plenty, and Hawke’s Bay in succession.

Auckland’s biggest defeat in any match was 59-11 against Waikato in 2004. All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu scored five tries.

The most points ever scored by an opponent against a hosting team at Eden Park is Robert du Preez who scored 38 points (try, seven penalties, and six conversions) in the Sharks 63-40 win over the Blues in Super Rugby Pacific in 2018.

Marty Banks, Tasman, 26, Eden Park, Auckland, 49-31, 2016
Tyler Bleyendaal, Canterbury, 26, AMI Stadium, Christchurch, 56-26, 2013
Bryn Gatland, North Harbour, 22, North Harbour Stadium, Albany, 2017
Nick McCashin, Bay of Plenty, 22, Rotorua International Stadium, 37-16, 2012
Matt Berquist, Hawke’s Bay, 22, McLean Park, Napier, 47-13, 2009
David Howell, Wellington, 20, Eden Park, Auckland, 48-23, 2000
Naas Botha, Springboks 19, Eden Park, Auckland, 39-12, 1981

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Who can remember the last time an Otago side beat Wellington at Porirua Park? One recollection is an U21 rep game about 15 years ago or longer where Otago beat Wellington. It could have been a ‘B’ or Development match as the Otago hooker scored a hat-trick. That player may have been former Otago hooker and 200-game club player Peter Mirrielees and he would have been to old for the U21s then. Will have the matchday programme in a box at home but not living there at the moment!

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Another huge comeback in international rugby, with the Wallabies coming back from 0-22 down inside 20 minutes to beat South Africa 38-22, their first win at Ellis Park since 1963.

In the 1997 Tri Nations the All Blacks scored 36 unanswered points against Australia in Dunedin. Australia responded with 24 unanswered points.

In the 2000 Tri Nations the All Blacks led the Wallabies 24-0 after six minutes in Sydney. The Wallabies were level by halftime and ahead late in the second half until Jonah Lomu scored the winning try.

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The Hurricanes season finished two months ago and re-starts in six months. Once more it pushed the current Wellington Lions campaign off the local news cycle late last week. In announcing a former player returning, Josh Moorby (who plays for Northland), they got this news into the back pages of the local press. Meaning the fair-weather fan not hovering on Instagram and instead getting their news and information from traditional sources knew nothing about the actual rugby game being played this weekend against Otago. Then on Saturday morning, the Wellington region’s newspaper ignored any Lions preview coverage but instead carried a tired rehashed feature story about the Hamilton Boys’ High School First XV (aka the Chiefs Academy) and one about the Southland Boys’ High School First XV. Go figure. As an aside, if they were going do a school story it could have been about St Pat’s Silverstream?

On Saturday, Auckland got thrashed by Taranaki but the NZ Herald completely ignored the fact the game was even on. That’s one way to mitigate the loss for the local audience!

It’s almost like the Hurricanes and the Super Rugby competition is in direct competition with the NPC and the provincial unions. It never used to be this way.

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Tawa fullback Jacob Denyer is teaming up with former Wellington Lions, Hurricanes and All Blacks captain Rodney So’oialo in a professional rugby competition in Malaysia. From a report in a newspaper called Sinar Harian:

“THE Johor rugby squad has strengthened its preparations ahead of the 2025 Agong’s Cup Championship when it announced the appointment of former New Zealand All Blacks star Rodney So’oialo as the team’s new coach.

Previously, Johor had won two championships in 2013 and 2017, in addition to emerging as runners-up in 2024.

The Johor team is scheduled to open the 2025 Agong’s Cup campaign against Pahang on September 6 at the Johor Rugby Stadium.”

Several other local players heading overseas for northern rugby stints this off-season as well.

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A second crowd likely numbering in the hundreds at Porirua Park yesterday (not counting sponsors and freebies in the marquee at the northern end). We will be generous and say 1,000.

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No Wellington school has made the National Top Four tournament since Scots College were finalists in 2015. Even then Scots squeezed in after a 33-33 draw against Gisborne Boys’ in a Hurricanes Regional Playoff.

The last time a Wellington school made the Hurricanes region was St Pat’s Silverstream in 2022. They drew with Napier Boys’ High School 20-20 but Napier progressed to the Top 4 because they scored the game’s first try.

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Now that they are having a magic round with all Super Rugby games on Anzac weekend at the new Christchurch stadium it also means that the Hurricanes have one fewer home match in Wellington (presumably now only 5 in wellington, 1 in regions and 1 in Christchurch).

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It will be interesting to see if any players from the Wellington schools are selected for the New Zealand secondary schools team or Barbarians team this year.

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This column is a collaborative effort, please get in touch with news and information.