Sideline Conversions 22 December (some off-season news in briefs)

Club Rugby wishes everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. This is probably our last article of the year, so after this we will see you on the other side!

A few bits and pieces as the year winds down and the summer season kicks in.

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In the last tournament of the year, the Global Youth Sevens tournament was played in Auckland over the weekend. The New Zealand U18s teams did the boys and girls double.

The boys team featured St Pat’s Silverstream captain Elijah Solomona, whilst the girls team had Wellington played Te Arani Vulu – who was also the Player of the Final. Te Arani Vulu won’t be a familiar rugby name to most, she is a year out of school and in 2024 she was the St Mary’s College netball captain. So another successful netball to rugby convert in the making.

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The rugby re-starts in under four weeks, as this article is published.

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Then there is the National Club 7s at Ngati Toa Domain on Waitangi weekend, 6 and and 7 February.

We have heard the Hurricanes are going to announce a pre-season game down on Porirua Park around then, perhaps the same date, so here’s hoping there is no overt and deliberate clash. The Hurricanes won’t care, but it would be disappointing for many others. The Hurricanes sole community match each year is a good way for fans to connect with the team up close and personal.

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Callum Harkin won the annual Hurricanes pre-season ‘Surf to Peak’ race on Saturday.

The Surf to Peak has been a mainstay of the pre-season calendar for years and used to generate plnety of external coverage. It starts at Lyall Bay with a 1km run, then a transition to their bikes for a 21km cycle around the bays to Oriental Parade. Then it is a 2km run up Mt Victoria to the lookout to the finishing line. Anything under an hour is fairly rapid, so Harkin appears to be at peak fitness.

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The 2026 international season was recently announced:

Wellington Stadium is not a happy hunting ground for the All Blacks, but they have given the venue a winnable Test match next year at what is being dubbed as a ‘family-friendly time’ of 5.10pm on a Saturday. Usually Saturday afternoons are reserved for community sport in Wellington, but an All Blacks Test is a completely separate event these days, so hopefully thousands of youngsters head along.

The All Blacks’ home schedule next year is below – their feature tour to South Africa in August and September notwithstanding:

• All Blacks v France, Saturday 4 July, One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch, kick off 7.10pm.
• All Blacks v Italy, Saturday, 11 July, SKY Stadium, Wellington, kick off 5.10pm.
• All Blacks v Ireland, Saturday, 18 July, Eden Park, Auckland, kick off TBC
• All Blacks v Australia (Bledisloe Cup), Saturday 10 October, Eden Park, Auckland, kick off 7.10pm.

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New Zealand Rugby (NZR) voting members have approved the addition of the New Zealand Rugby Council as an Affiliated Body of NZR.

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Did you know?

That the 1966 All Blacks who beat the British & Irish Lions 4-0 in their Test series used just 16 players in the entire series.

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Strangercanes

There was plenty of talk on social media including some lively Facebook commentary threads about the challenges faced by the new ownership structure of the Hurricanes.

Many opinions about the usual ways to bring the fans back to the Hurricanes, from addressing high priced food and beverage options, poor public transport (like buses replacing trains on matchdays) and bringing back afternoon games (not on Saturdays though as is this website’s stance) – and spreading matches around the region and perhaps even in the smaller centres. In this latter regard Levin ably supported a ‘pre-season’ match a couple of years ago and could be given a shot at hosting a competition match, although Masterton couldn’t host as they play on an artificial field. What about more games at Palmerston North and Napier?

The Hurricanes are going to be playing five of six ‘home’ matches in 2026 in Wellington, these being:

• Friday, 20 February — vs Moana Pasifika — Sky Stadium, Wellington (7:05pm)
• Friday, 13 March — vs Western Force — McLean Park, Napier (7:05pm)
• Saturday, 28 March — vs Queensland Reds — Sky Stadium, Wellington (4:35pm)
• Saturday, 11 April — vs Blues — Sky Stadium, Wellington (7:05pm)
• Saturday 1 May – vs Crusaders – Sky Stadium, Wellington (7.05pm)
• Saturday, 23 May — vs Highlanders — Sky Stadium, Wellington (7:05pm)

We also think there is a strong correlation between player recognition and connection and attendance. With that in mind, a breakdown of which NPC unions the  2026 Hurricanes squad and Wider Playing Group squad members are contracted to is in the table below. With a look at the squad 10 years ago, which was the last time only time they have won the title:

Then going back to the heyday of Super Rugby in 2007 (in terms of crowd support at Wellington – anecdotally, post the 2011 RWC was the start of the drop-off), there is this here below – which is presented separately to the table above because Taranaki were part of the Hurricanes up to their departure to the Chiefs in 2013.

*Of whom at the time two players, Nili Latu and Bernie Upton, had strong ties to Wellington so were well known already.

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News out this past weekend that some English clubs are in a some financial trouble. Such as this article below on the Rugby Pass website under the following heading:

Sale Sharks’ latest accounts make for grim reading

The full accounts for Manchester Sale Rugby Club Limited (Sale Sharks) were published yesterday and are another reminder of the precarious financial state of the Gallagher PREM.

Last year the 10 clubs that make up English club rugby’s elite league lost a combined total of £32 million, and there is a danger of that eye-watering sum being beaten again.

On the same day that Harlequins’ year-end accounts showed an operating loss of £2.72 million – up by a staggering 71% from £1.59 million the year before – the Sharks reported an operating loss treble the size of the Londoners (£8.14 million – a 16.5% increase). Over the last two years Sale Sharks have made an operating loss of circa £15 million.

Read more HERE

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Who would be on a team of Wellington club rugby players called the ‘Slow Burn XV’? Players whose careers didn’t immediately take off but they developed into legends of the local game or the back half of their careers were most memorable? Mick Horan is a good for example in this category. He spent at least five seasons battling away as Marist’s hooker in a middling team to start with and learning off the likes of All Black prop and club teammate Ivan Vodanovich. Then Horan took the captaincy reins and burst free to become one of the best and respected players in the competition and captained Marist to three Jubilee Cups before retiring after a decade in the side.

Who would be on a team of Wellington club rugby players who burst on to the scene young? A team of school-leavers and teenagers who were immediate hits. Plenty of players for this one, such as Graham Williams, Ardie Savea and Neil Wolfe (albeit he was from Taranaki, but played his first three years out of school for University in Wellington).

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Who would be the oldest living player to drink from the Jubilee Cup?

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Club Rugby is busy in the off-season preparing much of our regular content for next year, such as the next batch of weekly history profiles from March-September inclusive, featuring many players and personalities from the latter part of the 1950s to the mid 1960s era. We have also gone through and collated and categorised the several hundred short video clips on file from the past decade or so, so will be publishing a regular series of compilation videos celebrating these from early next year.