Petone men’s create buffer at top of Swindale standings as their women win their first round title

Above: The Petone Ponies with the Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy today after their last round top-of-the-table 33-15 win over Northern United today. More on this game in the Women’s round-up below. Photo: Andy McArthur.

• By Steven White & Scott MacLean

Swindale Shield points table (unofficial) after 10 rounds: https://stats.clubrugby.nz/table/2026-swindale-shield/

Petone have one hand on the Swindale Shield, while their women’s have both hands on the Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy after today’s rugby played in dry overhead conditions following torrential rain the previous day and overnight.

In the Premier Swindale Shield leaders Petone defeated bottom placed the Avalon Wolves 62-0 (more on this game below) while two other results today have done them favours, namely at Lyndhurst Park and Maidstone Park.

At Lyndhurst, visitors Oriental-Rongotai beat Tawa 24-22 with a 45-metre penalty in the 78th minute to fullback Jordan Soli.

Tawa had gone up early but Ories had responded with three fast tries to lead 21-7. Tawa crossed again and it was 21-14 at halftime to the Magpies. The second half developed into a back and forth grind and a brusing forwards battle for the most part, and Tawa kicked a late penalty to put themselves ahead 22-21 before Soli’s match-winner in reply with two minutes to play.

At Maidstone, home side the Upper Hutt Rams held on at the end to beat Hutt Old Boys Marist 24-23 (more on this game below).

The outcome of these three results means that Petone are 6 points clear at the top of the table with three rounds to go, ahead of their McBain Shield match next Saturday. Petone are on 44 competition points and the Rams, HOBM and Tawa are all next on 38.

Old Boys University and Paremata-Plimmerton are jointly on 37, after their wins at home today. OBU beat the Wellington Axemen 63-41 in a Nairnville Park points fest for the Dean Gifford Memorial Trophy, while Paremata-Plimmerton followed the pattern of both the Rams and Ories by winning late, getting up to beat Johnsonville 31-26. Johnsonville would count themselves unlucky, missing out on at least two first half tries with a foot in touch and a player held up, while Louis Northcott was contained only up to the end when he flew in front of the scoreboard to break a 26-26 deadlock.

The other two results saw the visiting teams win on their hosts Old Timers’ Days, with Marist St Pat’s defeating Pōneke 27-23 in a typically tight Horan-Millar Trophy clash and Wainuiomata run clear of Northern United 48-31 for the Alf Keating Cup at Porirua Park (More on this game below).

On Old Timers’ Day at Maidstone Park, the stoic Upper Hutt Rams held on over a desperate final two minutes to beat Hutt Old Boys Marist 24-23. The game finished in the 83^rd minute with the Eagles pressing hard, but a turnover by the Rams ended the match.

The Rams had taken the lead with a try to flanker Pene To’o, after the Eagles kicked a penalty to put them up 23-17.

The visitors had previously missed a couple of golden chances to push ahead in the second half, and it remained tight. They had also lost flanker Luca Rees to the sinbin as the Rams dug deep.

Hutt had also missed chances at the start of the game, as the Rams replied with two converted tries, to To’o and wing Nikau Nicholls as the Rams went up 14-0.

The Eagles put themselves on the board with a try to prop Brett Manaia and to fullback Thelan Rona who ran on to a cross kick by first five Khya Wilson.

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It was the Stanley Solomon show at Fraser Park, as Petone maintained top spot with a 62-0 over home side Avalon. As a contest, the game was over inside 13 minutes as the Villager ran in four tries to lead 26-0, and four more to have a 50-0 lead at the interval.

Fresh off his Super Rugby debut and with dad Nigel and mum and newly-minted NZR President Erin in attendance, Solomon ran riot in the opening 40 minutes. Skipper Connor Tuifao was first across inside three minutes, before from a scrum free kick Solomon danced through four tacklers and put youngster Wesley Faitele over. Next Solomon produced a deft grubber off his left foot that William Davis was first to get to, and the rout was on when yet more good work from the Petone fullback set a platform for Jono Bailey to score and secure the bonus point before 15 minutes had passed. Solomon would play a hand in the next three for tries to Jacob Waikari-Jones, Faitele’s second, and a sumptuous inside ball to a steaming Kaleb Saxon, before inevitably scoring one for himself.

Understandably shellshocked, Avalon repeatedly tried to regroup but simply had no answer, and when Kingston Hill scored minutes into the second half the possibility of three figures seemed ominous.

But Solomon left the field at that point, job obviously done. And if you’d arrived from Mars (or Washington DC since they’re much the same right now) right then, you would have really wondered if this was top versus bottom as the Wolves more than held their own for the next 35 minutes and if anything held the ascendency as they went close several times but could not breach the Petone line. This whole period was scoreless in complete contrast to the first half, and only ended when Jermaine Pepe snaffled an intercept and ran away to score in the final act of the match.

Solomon was a class above but had several able lieutenants including debutant blindside Levi Morgan who had a massive game. It was a rude return to earth for the Wolves after the high of last weeks win, but their second half effort will stand them in good stead. Lock Mark Savelio and fullback Site Timu were central to that.

Wainuiomata spoiled Northern United’s Old Timers’ Day celebrations with a blockbusting 48-31 win for the Alf Keating Memorial Trophy.

In an otherwise closely fought match across all facets, Wainuiomata won the game in the second half by ripping the Norths defence wide open on four occasions, each time resulting in a try.

The loudest cheer of the day wasn’t for a home player, rather it was for Wainui lock Matt Jacobs who sailed through a hole on a short, determined run to the tryline to score in his 150^th Premier outing. Jacobs’ try brought the scores back to 26-26, after veteran Norths flanker Faifili Levave had scored to put Norths in the lead early in the second half.

Jacobs’ try inspired his team mates and soon after a break by centre Mikade Fono set up a try to dangerous right wing Ray Va’a. No 8 Emmanuel Solomona followed up with a sideline conversion.

Soon after that, Wainui were in again following a similar bust in midfield soon after a lineout on halfway by second five Renata Kotuhi, leading directly to a try to flanker Braydon Soi to put Wainui up 40-26 with about 20 minutes still to play.

Home side Norths gave themselves a chance to come back when fullback Zion Fuiava scored in the far corner to make it 40-31.

Another break and some excellent support play and passing – which was a feature of Wainui’s game throughout – led to the industrious Soi breaking through to score another try, making it 45-31.

The final scoring play was a long range penalty kick to Solomona to seal the result of the game.

The mercurial Solomona was a leading protagonist in the first half – scoring a try, kicking a sideline conversion and helping ignite Wainui’s attack, as Wainui went up 14-7 inside 20 minutes.

Norths fullback Fuiava had opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he latched on to a grubber kick behind the posts by halfback Jayde Burns. Wainui replied with their first try by stretching Norths out wide and right wing Va’a scoring his first try.

This was followed by Solomona’s try after a scrum, penalty and lineout in the corner.

Norths rallied in their clubrooms corner, and that man Solomona was sinbinned. In his absence, Norths scored two tries, to flanker Ethan Lepou and lock Taniela Tuangalu, putting Norths ahead 19-14.

Both sides then blew golden opportunities for more tries before half time, when each messed up their lineout in the corner.

Now playing with a gentle southerly, Wainui started the second half spectacularly when they went wide to Va’a who made a telling break up the far side and was caught short inside the 22.

Wainui recycled and flanker Soi found a barnstorming tighthead prop Daniel Fiso who scored a try to make it 19-19.

Both sides should be happy with much of their attacking play, particularly Wainui, but both let themselves down with bouts of ill discipline and defensive lapses.

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Premier 2

The Harper Lock Shield is set for a titanic clash next week with both unbeaten frontrunners Petone and HOBM winning today.

Petone were 48-12 winners over Avalon, while HOBM thumped Upper Hutt 64-17.

MSP were also big winners 74-22 over neighbours Poneke, while Pare-Plim crushed Johnsonville 90-10. Elsewhere there were plenty of points with Tawa beating Ories 62-34, Wellington kept OBU at the bottom with a 63-24 win, and Norths topped Wainuiomata 32-26.

In the early game on a sodden Fraser Park #2 Petone kept their share of the Harper Lock Shield lead with a 48-12 win over Avalon. That score though belied the first 60 minutes where it seemed the home team might cause a boilover.

Petone lead 13-0 early through two tries and a penalty and it seemed they might break the hosts early. But Avalon regrouped and got in the back when Nimitz-class prop Daley Ena reached out from close range. Petone would have the last say before oranges when first-five Ben Brooking ran at the defence and then in the tackle produced an outrageous flick pass to put centre Keoni Ewington over.

Avalon closed the margin after the break through flanker Pita Taumaloto, but the backbreaker came on 63 minutes. After turning over an Avalon maul, from the resulting scrum Petone went left and winger Lika Tugalua Moliniu scorched 80 metres. Further tries to Marco Venter, Cam Ferreira – at that stage playing on the wing – and Josh Tanner blew the margin out, but the first three-quarters would serve as a useful warmup for the clash with HOBM next Saturday.

Women’s

As noted above, Petone are the 2026 Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy champions.

Tries either side of halftime were the telling plays of the match in today’s top of the table clash at Porirua Park in front of a healthy crowd.

With Petone up 7-5 moments before halftime, centre Ana Kerr busted through to score under the posts to put the defending champions up 14-5.

A few minutes into the second half, a turnover in broken play saw Petone move swiftly on to attack, and halfback Milly Mackey scorched clear to make it 21-5.

Norths scorched up field from a lineout near halfway and scored to cut that lead to 21-10, but Petone got back on to attack and built pressure and scored their fourth to right wing Ofeira Hunt go up 28-10.

Once more, Norths hit back with a pick and go try through their forwards but a few minutes before the end midfielder Litia Bulicakau put through a short stab kick for her fullback Georgia Daals to run on to and score and Petone were celebrating another title win.

Ories finished third, overrunning Stokes Valley 95-0, while according to available information Wainuiomata beat Poneke 36-0. Avalon closed out OBU by 45-0, and Pare-Plim finally got their first win of the campaign by 22-12 over Wellington.

Colts

Fresh off their catch-up win last week over Pōneke, the MSP Colts defeated the Upper Hutt Rams 43-7. Petone continued on their way with a 45-19 win over Paremata-Plimmeton and the HOBM Colts were pushed by Pōneke in winning 36-29.

 In the Porirua Park curtain raiser, the Northern United Colts beat the Old Boys University Colts 58-34. In a 16 try extravaganza, Norths won 10 tries to six.

For the winners, fullback Rico Poutama scored four tries and wing Matthew Webster scored two tries.

Norths led 34-17 at half time, with six tries in the first half. They were up 22-5 after 30 minutes when a flurry of tries over the next 10 minutes before the break saw OBU close the gap to 22-17, only for Norths to extend it again.

OBU started the second half brightly with a try to their prop after a good build-up, and then scored again to close the margin to 34-29 after 55 minutes. From the next kick-off, Norths ran in their seventh and eighth tries, making it 46-29.

OBU kept coming back at them and scored their sixth try, but Norths regrouped and scored twice in five minutes towards the end of the match to seal victory.

Norths played the game in retro Titahi Bay club jerseys on their Old Timers’ Day.

College

One-way traffic for the most part in Wellington Premiership matches this afternoon.

St Pat’s Silverstream breezed past St Bernard’s 94-19 in their game, as they look ahead to this Wednesday when they host Wellington College.

Rathkeale College were 40-0 winners over HIBS, St Pat’s Town beat Scots College 69-19 and the closest result of the day saw Wairarapa College beat Mana College 38-14.

In Premier 2, the Silverstream 2nds ran through Tawa College 74-0, the St Pat’s Town 2nds defeated Porirua College 49-10 and Kapiti College beat HVHS 38-20. The other two results were even closer, with the Wellington College 2nds beating the Silverstream 3rds 33-22 and in the game of the day Aotea College pipped Paraparaumu College 24-22.

Elsewhere

With the leading duo – Greytown and Carterton – having the week off in Wairarapa Bush it was a chance for the others to have the limelight. In Masterton Marist outlasted East Coast 35-22, while down south Martinborough accounted for Masterton Red Star 38-15. The big result of the day however came in the Reserves competition, where Greytown ended Gladstone’s unbeaten start by 39-20.

After their defeat last week, Foxton returned to winning ways in Horowhenua Kapiti by beating Rahui 31-17. Waikanae outlasted Levin Wanderers 43-33, and Paraparaumu crushed Levin College OB 67-10.

Varsity’s unbeaten run in Manawatu‘s Hankins Shield came to an end today, beaten away 28-17 by rivals Kia Toa. Feilding Yellows also met defeat, losing 27-10 to Old Boys Marist, while College Old Boys thumped Linton 46-5. In the remaining match Feilding Old Boys-Oroua scored a morale-boosting win, beating Freyberg 45-26.

The result of the day in Hawke’s Bay was Napier Tech’s 38-28 win away over Havelock North. It was a close affair as Napier OB Marist beat Hastings 33-29, while the other two matches were predicted blowouts; Pirates thrashed Bridge Pa 92-19, and Taradale crushed MAC 85-7.

And lastly in Taranaki, Clifton booked a home semi with three weeks to spare as they beat Inglewood 36-19. Coastal are second after they beat Southern 38-29, and NPOB beat United 49-21. In the fourth match Tukapa’s woes deepened, trounced at home for a second successive week as they fell 34-5 to Stratford-Eltham.