WRFU release structures and draws for remaining 2026 club rugby competitions

Action from last July’s Reseve Grade Division 1 final. The Wellington Axemen beat the Petone Brotherhood 29-22 to win the John Davies Cup.

UPDATED: Wellington club rugby supporters don’t have long to wait for the start of the season.

Whilst the 2026 Premier and Premier 2 competitions have been locked in for a 4 April start for some time, the dates and season structure for the remainder of the competitions have now been confirmed.

The WRFU has this week released this information and the draws for the Colts, U85kgs, Women’s, Reserve Grade and President’s grades.

All these draws can be viewed at https://www.wrfu.co.nz/senior/draws-results 

The Colts competition kicks off on Easter Saturday, alongside the Premier Swindale Shield and Premier 2 Harper Lock Shield.

Eleven Colts clubs will be lining up to start the season. There is no Wainuiomata, Johnsonville or Avalon, but the Wellington Axemen have been confirmed.

This year’s first round Colts competition will be run in two divisions, with the six Division 1 teams contesting the Paris Memorial Trophy and the five Division 2 sides playing for the JRD Cup.

The format is a 10-week double round-robin, with a bye round on King’s Birthday weekend.

Promotion and relegation will occur at the end of the first round, with the JRD Cup winner being promoted to play in the second round John E Kelly Cup and the sixth placed Division 1 team dropping down to play in the Vic Calcinai Cup.

The six teams starting the top tier Colts grade, based on their 2025 finishing positons, are the Upper Hutt Rams (seeded 1), Tawa (2), Hutt Old Boys Marist (3), Petone (4), Oriental-Rongotai (5) and Pōneke (6).

The five teams in the second tier Colts are Paremata-Plimmerton (7), Northern United (8), Marist St Pat’s (9), Old Boys University (10) and Wellington (11).

The U85kg JC Bowl, the Reserve Grade Mike Copeland Cup, the Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Cup and the President’s competitions all kick off the following weekend, 11 April

There are nine teams entered in the U85kg competition, still on the low side. Pōneke are back but Marist St Pat’s are not. The Upper Hutt Rams are also not there.

The format is a nine-week round-robin competition, with each team having a bye week.

Following this, the lightweight combatants then split into the five-team Premiership Paul Potiki Shield and the four-team Championship Tony O’Brien Shield.

Eleven teams will be at the starter’s gun for the Women’s Premiership competition, with the late August start this year for the Farah Palmer Cup ensuring some flexibility at the back end of the season.

Of these clubs, the Old Boys University Impalas return, as do the Wellington Axewomen and the Stoke Valley She-Rhinos.

The first round will be a double round-robin over 10 weeks and will see the top six seeded teams competing for the Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy, named after the current WRFU President, while the bottom six will be playing for the Ru Rangi Cup.

The top six teams starting the season based on their weight of performances of the past three seasons are Petone (seeded 1), Marist St Pat’s (2), Northern United (3), Oriental-Rongotai (4), Paremata-Plimmerton (5) and Wainuiomata (6).

The next five group are Old Boys University (7), Pōneke (8), Avalon (9) and then the Axemen and Stokes Valley unranked.

The second round will see the top six teams competing for the Tia Paasi Memorial Trophy and the bottom five for the tier two Izzy Ford Cup. Like the Colts, there is promotion-relegation for the two teams at the end of the first round.

Like the Colts, the Women’s competition will be split into two divisions, which should help to minimise some of the mismatches seen in previous years.

The Reserve Grade teams play a full 13 week round-robin, minus games on Easter, Anzac and King’s Birthday Weekends for the Mike Copeland Cup.

The top seven teams will then contest the Premiership John Davies Cup and the bottom seven the Championship Alan Seerup Cup, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.

The nine-team President’s Grade runs through to 18 July with a 12-week round-robin series and no rugby on Easter and Anzac Weekends or on 11 July or 25 July (Club Finals Day). President’s Day is on 1 August.

Details about the 2026 college season are to be confirmed, but all the top First XVs have comprehensive pre-season programmes coming up, leading up to the competitions from May to August.