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A good last game of the season for the Wellington Māori and Centurions U18s teams, with the Māori winning 30-22. Photo: Andy McArthur.
The Wellington Lions have one more match to come in their 2025 NPC campaign, hosting the Bay of Plenty Steamers this coming Saturday at Porirua Park, but for home fans there is nothing on this match anymore.
Their 20-39 loss to Taranaki in New Plymouth on Saturday and the Northland Taniwha’s 19-19 draw with Canterbury has put paid to this.
The Lions are stuck in 10th on 19 points and the best they can do is beat BoP with a bonus point and move to 24 points and draw level with eighth placed Northland. But the tiebreaker is who beat who and Northland beat the Lions a few weeks ago.
A disappointing season, the Lions going from champions to missing the top 8 the following year. Are there previous instances of this happening in the NPC? There are in club rugby, most recently this year when OBU went from winners in 2024 to 11th in 2025.
The Lions annual report summary will focus on the loss of so many players from last year to the All Blacks, as well as a couple of key plays such as Brad Shields to injury. Rightly so, and its ironic as Du Plessis Kirifi would probably be chomping at the bit to play a couple of full games of rugby in the next few weeks. But more questions will need to be asked as to why. More so if they slip further and finish behind Manawatu (currently on 16 points) and Auckland (15). These are also not going to be asked HERE are they as they have already mostly rejected the team.
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BoP would be a tough nut to crack anyway. They are fourth on 31 points and beat Waikato 41-5 on Sunday.
They get good home crowds at Tauranga too, so perhaps the lack of this at Porirua Park could spook them! Alternatively, Lions fans could come out in droves for one last hurrah and support their team.
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All other Wellington’s 15s teams have finished for the year now, with WRFU awards coming up (TBC). Who would be your WRFU Team of the Year?
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The club rugby Team of the Year could be interesting if choosing between the Oriental-Rongotai and Hutt Old Boys Marist Premiers. Ories won the first round Swindale Shield with a perfect 13 bonus point wins and 65 points. HOBM were erratic but won the one that mattered, the Jubilee Cup. Which achievement carries more weight?
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Tentative club 7s season dates
- 15 November: Feilding 7s (inaugural tournament)
- 22 November: WRFU Tournament Leg 1 (details TBC)
- 29 November: WRFU Tournament Leg 2 (details TBC)
- 6 December: Lover North Island/Central 7s Tournament (details TBC)
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Fifty players have been selected to attend the 2025 New Zealand Under 20 Women’s Rugby Development Camp at the NZCIS in Wellington from 17-21 October, including these three current Wellington and one former Wellington player:
- Faythe Finau (Norths)
- Litia Bulicakau (Petone)
- Nahliah Tagatauli-Tolova’a (MSP)
- Naomi Sopoaga (Otago)
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The Heartland Championship is heating up considerably – as it always does about now.
The teams finishing 1-4 at the end of the round-robin move to the Premiership Meads Cup semi-finals and final and the sides in the 5-8 bracket progress to the Championship Lochore Cup.
There is one more regular season round to play and several teams will be relying on other results as well as their own to confirm their movements the following Saturday.
The current ‘top 8’ points table at a glance is: Mid Canterbury (35), Whanganui (26), North Otago (26), South Canterbury (24), Thames Valley (24), Wairarapa-Bush (23), Poverty Bay (23), Horowhenua-Kapiti (21). Also: King Country (10), Buller (7), West Coast (4), East Coast (1).
This coming Saturday sees local teams Wairarapa-Bush hosting Poverty Bay in a Hurricanes derby and Horowhenua-Kapiti head to Timaru to play South Canterbury.
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Some cool calm goal-kicking on Saturday by Horowhenua-Kapiti halfback TJ Barnsley.
He kicked five penalties and a conversion for 17 points, including the match winner under pressure with two minutes to play to see his side beat Wairarapa-Bush.
Perhaps because he is not young and has been around for several years. Originally from Dargaville in the far north he came down to the Kapiti Coast several years ago and has been playing for the Paraparaumu Soldiers since 2017.
In 2021 he kicked the winning penalty on the Levin Domain in Paraparaumu’s extra time 36-33 Ramsbotham Cup final win over Levin COB.
Another fast fact is that he works as a physiotherapist and was Horowhenua-Kapiti’s team physio in his first year in 2017 when they lost to Whanganui at home in the Meads Cup final.
He made his playing debut in the Heartland Championship in 2021 and made 11 appearances in 2021 and 2022. He has returned to the squad in 2025 and made a further 18 appearances. Interesting, in his previous 17 appearances for Horowhenua-Kapiti his own previous points were a solitary conversion.
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A number of current or former Wellington players (and coaches and managers) in the Horowhenua-Kapiti – Wairarapa-Bush teams.
Two that stood out in Horowhenua-Kapiti’s pack were Alex Fidow and Pene To’o. They lost a third, Mika Alaifatu, to injury midway through the first half. These days Fidow is usually seen playing in the loose for Paremata-Plimmerton in club rugby, but was playing lock on Saturday and in the many breakdown and forwards exchanges turned back the clock to his old tighthead prop days.
Elsewhere, Emmanuel Solomona was his usual belligerent self in the midfield. He has had another busy year, playing a full season for the Upper Hutt Rams (albeit a few weeks sidelined with injury) then for the Wellington Samoa side and now for Horowhenua-Kapiti.
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Clubs are starting to appoint their coaching groups for 2026 – here are two:
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Norths also named their coaches, these being:
Premiers Head Coach: Shane Pihema
Womens Head Coach: Serge Lilo
Premier 2 Head coach: Tane Landon-Lane
Colts Head Coach: Sio Thomas
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Marist St Pat’s also appointed Victor Vito as their club ambassador. Read more: https://msprugby.co.nz/news-events/latest-news/head-coaches-2026
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Could the Bledisloe Cup be based on cumulative points across their two tests each year. The team with the highest score across two internationals wins it for that year. That way Australia only needs to win one of two games but still win the Bledisloe Cup. The alternative is that the All Blacks keep winning every year indefinitely, in which case they should then retire it after it turns 100 in a few years.
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Could the National U85kg Knockout Cup become a provincial competition? Still keep its knockout / FA Cup style element, but instead of teams representing clubs they could be provincial ones. Perhaps not in the strict sense of that, so Wellington could have two teams entering in Hutt Valley and Wellington City, and so on. Or should it remain as it is?
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Northland achieved its best result this millennium against Canterbury in a 92-minute, 19-19 draw in Whangarei. Northland had lost 19 consecutive matches to Canterbury, dating back to 1999, and has only prevailed in this fixture six times since 1955. In reality, Northland should have won the game; Canterbury was reduced to 13 players in the second half for ill-discipline, and the Taniwha enjoyed a greater share of possession and territory.
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In the Springboks 67-30 win over Argentina this weekend First-five Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored three tries, converted eight of South Africa’s nine tries and kicked two penalties to beat the previous record of 35 points set by Percy Montgomery against Namibia in 2007.
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Grace Houpapa-Barrett scored two tries for Waikato in their 36-29 win over Auckland in an FPC Premiership semi-final on Saturday to pass Stacey Waaka as Waikato’s all-time leading female try scorer. Houpapa-Barrett has 33 tries in 58 games. Waaka scored 31 tries in 26 games. Canterbury beat Manawatu 39-22 in the other semi-final after it was 17-17 at halftime and then 22-22 early in the second half. Canterbury beat Waikato 8-7 in the 2020 final, with Waikato winning the 2021 and 2024 deciders 22-20 and 27-25, respectively.
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Women’s Rugby World Cup player tidbits
Braxton Sorenson-McGee, World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, 2025 Rugby World Cup stats. Tries: 11 (1) Points: 69 (1) Carries: 55 (5) Metres Gained: 550 (1) Clean Breaks: 15 (1).
England’s flanker Marlie Packer has 99 wins in 112 Tests. She couldn’t make the bench for the World Cup Final.
England hooker Amy Cokayne has scored 41 tries in 89 Tests for England. Six of those came in two games from the Black Ferns – all from lineout drives. Cokayne went to Feilding High School and won the girls top 4 tournament in 2012.
England’s openside flanker Sadia Kabeya was named Player of the Match in the Rugby World Cup final. She topped the tournament tackle count with 112 in six matches. She has won all 28 Tests she’s played.
England wing Jess Breach has played 53 Tests, for 53 wins and has scored 53 tries.
Canada’s Sophie De Goode was named World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year. She is the John Eales of women’s Rugby. Her Rugby World Cup stats and rankings. Tackles: 92 (4) Offloads: 12 (1) Carries: 106 (1) Points: 61 (3) Conversions: 20 (2)
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The Hurricanes announced the signing of Canterbury midfielder Jone Rova for the next two seasons. The release said:
“A member of this year’s wider training group, Rova’s elevation to the full squad bolsters next year’s midfield cohort, where he will join All Blacks pair Jordie Barrett and Billy Proctor, and All Blacks XV representatives Bailyn Sullivan and Riley Higgins.
Hailing from the Fijian village of Vusaratu, Rova moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of eight, settling first in Taumarunui, where his father worked as a school teacher.
After later relocating to Taranaki, Rova attended New Plymouth Boys’ High School, where he was named as the school’s Sportsman of the Year in 2020 and was selected for that year’s New Zealand Schools team.
The former Chiefs U18 representative shifted south to link up with Canterbury the following year. While in Christchurch, his efforts for the Crusaders U20 side earned him selection in the New Zealand U20 team for the 2022 Oceania Rugby U20 Championship. “
This is great, We hope he is a superstar, but aren’t there any additional midfielders in the current Hurricanes region?
Like their last player announcement, we wonder when they look up to the stand in Wellington and see a sea of yellow seats they question why? One reason could be because the local public don’t know and have no connection with many of the players.
We also don’t buy the argument that Super Rugby and New Zealand sports in general should go full American sports and bring in most of their players from elsewhere. Because the population base is far too small to not have that local player recognition from the fans in the stands.
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Club Rugby is saddened to hear of the recent passing of Doug Froggatt.
Froggatt was a goal-kicking fullback for the Wellington Axemen, played several matches for the Wellington team and later made a Life Member of the Wellington Axemen.
On a personal level, editor Steven was classmates and good friends with his son Nick, and in their final year of school the pair were hooker and loosehead prop respectively in a social XV that played in the lower college grades of the day and won most of its matches and then had several memorable after matches. Doug would often be at their games as well.
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This column is a collaborative effort. We are winding down for 2025 and unsure how many more columns are left before the off-season starts. But to contribute next year please get in touch.
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Please support those that support us:
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Recap the year in photos at: https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/2025
