Sideline Conversions 22 June (some news and information to start the week)

Xavier Numia and Billy Proctor running freely during the Super Rugby Final. They won a College First XV Premiership final together in 2015 for St Pat’s Town and have now won the Super Rugby title together for the Hurricanes. Photo: Caroline Lewis.

Monday morning edition – updates expected later today. It’s the last week of the regular season, and with Petone having won the Swindale Shield and previously HOBM the Colts and Tawa the U85kgs first round titles, it is up to the Premier 2 Harper Lock Shield to be won this coming weekend.

Leaders Petone will just need to beat Poneke at Kilbirnie Park to register their 13th straight win and take the Premier 2 first round spoils for 2026. HOBM are at Ories and will win should Poneke cause a boilover at home.

13th round Premier Swindale Shield matches at a glance this coming Saturday (check back Friday for the preview):

• Johnsonville v Marist St Pat’s (Trent Eagle Cup), Helston Park
• Old Boys University v Northern United (Ken Douglas Trophy), Nairnville Park
• Oriental-Rongotai v Hutt Old Boys Marist (Bondy Memorial Cup), Polo Ground
• Poneke v Petone (Fred Tilyard Memorial Shield), Kilbirnie Park
• Tawa v Wellington Axemen (Murray and Alan Mexted Cup), Lyndhurst Park
• Upper Hutt Rams v Avalon (Harper Vine Trophy and Bill Brien Challenge Shield), Maidstone Park
• Wainuiomata v Paremata-Plimmerton (Smith and Wilson Cup), William Jones Park

In college rugby, the Beard Trophy returns for round two this Wednesday, with Tawa College meeting the challenge of Aotea College. Kick-off at Porirua Park is 5.00pm. The match doubles as a Murray Jensen Cup Premier 2 game. Aotea will be coming off a 55-0 win over Porirua College while Tawas missed out to the Silverstream 3rds 48-5 on Saturday. Will the Beard Trophy change hands?

+++++

The rugby news cycle will be dominated today by the All Blacks’ naming at the Feilding Yellows club. Expect some new names. Generally, first All Blacks teams of the year are fairly conservative so we will see who gets in.

The Māori All Blacks are also in action shortly, so presumably their squad will be selected too.

+++++

+++++

On a euphoric night for the Hurricanes, there was nothing more legendary than the original winning captain, Dane Coles (2016), queuing for beers near Aisle 31. If the spotty-faced bartender had known, he wouldn’t have paid.

Perhaps the only performance to rival the Hurricanes mastery of the howling Wellington Stadium wind was the All Blacks 43-6 demolition of Australia at Athletic Park in 1996. Although Wellington’s 49-7 win over Queensland in 1896 at the then new Athletic Park would have to be up there too.  A Top 10 Emphatic wins in Wellington article could be coming on.

+++++

The Upper Hutt Rams will lock away the Bill Brien Challenge Cup for the season should they beat the Avalon Wolves at home on Saturday. They won it last year so this will have defended in all their home matches this season.

+++++

Rest in Peace Rocky Leofo

+++++

Will Old Boys University get Kyle Preston back for the next few weeks, having finished up for the year with the Crusaders last weekend?

Some other players to start coming back for the last few weeks of the club season, such as Matolu Petaia to Tawa.

+++++

A Tawa team without Penieli Tokakece? His absence was noted in the Tawa Premier 2s on Saturday! Same with Tawa administrator and Tawa TV executive producer Amy Visvalingam – both to return shortly.

+++++

Will the Hurricanes’ win translate into renewed interest in the game and in the NPC in Wellington? Or will the Yellow Seats Army wrestle back full control?

+++++

Oriental-Rongotai supporters could be nervous early this week. Their third men’s side, their Reserve Grade one, pulled out of the grade two weeks ago which means – according to the rules – that they are not eligible to be a Premier club as they don’t have enough teams. It is understood this is being discussed at a meeting tonight, so there could be some updates.

+++++

Have the Petone Premiers played the same hooker two weeks in a row this season? It seems that Conley Alexander and Kaleb Saxon have been trading places every week. Ryan Imrie has also started at hooker for them this year, bringing up his 100th match earlier in the year.

+++++

A strong first half by Tawa and a weaker second spell in their Swindale Shield match on Saturday against the Upper Hutt Rams – usually the opposite with them, particularly playing at home!

+++++

Jane Bryce played her 100th Women’s club match on Saturday, for the Wellington Axewomen. She started off playing for Ories as a teenager and still at school at Newlands College and at one stage was scoring tries as a wing and midfielder at an Ayesha Leti L’iga clip, but was set back by a broken leg. She returned as a hooker and that is where she is currently playing for the Wellington Axewomen.

+++++

Did you know? So far in 2026, 17 of 25 Premiership First XV games have been decided by more than 20 points. Since 2017, 234 games—well over half—ended with that margin. Wellington hasn’t produced a New Zealand Secondary Schools player in the past two seasons.

+++++

The Wellington Axemen selected a new player on their bench on Saturday, one Jimmy Proctor. This is of course James Proctor who has previously played many seasons for both Oriental-Rongotai and Marist St Pat’s and whose younger brother Billy Proctor won the Super Rugby title later that night. His inclusion comes a week after 200-game MSP midfielder Isaia Petelo made his debut for the club and who was elevated to the starting XV for their match on Saturday against Ories. The Axemen also had a player named Rim Reaper on their bench. It is unclear if it became grim enough during their 0-31 loss for him to

+++++

Oriental-Rongotai’s Jordan Soli leads the Swindale Shield points scorers list with 169. MSP’s Tomasi Connor is next with 113, followed by the Upper Hutt Rams’ Liam Slight on 99 and poised to raise his century.

HOBM’s Rupeni Raviyawa is the competition’s top try scorer with 13, followed by Paremata-Plimmerton’s Louis Northcott and Johsnonville’s Jacob Kennedy on 12 and the Axemen’s Archie Treadwell and Ories’ Soli on 11.

+++++

Below: Nate Ws lead narrows in the Tipping Competition. The Top 10 below.

+++++

The Upper Hutt Rams scrum won this big turnover and penalty on fulltime which won them the game. Tawa No. 8 George Risale had just run back 75 metres from the sin-bin to join this scrum and an ominous finish to the match was being lined up from the home team, but the Rams had other ideas.

+++++

The Hurricanes Poua Women’s team pushed the Matatu side from the South Island close on Sunday at Maidstone Park, missing out 15-18.

+++++

+++++

What about the art of the penalty? There have been several matches this year in which Sideline Conversions has witnessed penalties from in front or close to it being turned down in favour of the attacking team ‘going for the try’. In at least a few of these the try has been missed and the chance for points has been lost. Has the mindset of going for the penalty been disgarded?

+++++

Swindale Shield teams with best points for and against records last seven years since the start of the 13-week round-robin

It is interesting to look at the points for and against and points differential records of the teams with the best records from each of the past seven seasons when the Swindale Shield has been a 13-match round-robin. The competition winner usually has the best record each year, the exception being in 2021 when MSP were runners-up to Old Boys University but had the better record.

This week Petone plays Pōneke, so in straight points they need to score at least 94 to beat OBU’s record 607 points in 2024. This is highly unlikely but the next most was 564 by Paremata-Plimmeerton so they need 51 points this Saturday to be the second best attacking team of the past seven years. If they can hold Pōneke to 9 points or fewer then they will have the best defensive record.

More in the table below:

 Petone* has one more match to play in 2026.

MSP+ were second to OBU in 2021 but had a superior PF/PA record to OBU’s (494/168).

+++++

+++++

Rathkeale College caused the upset of the Premiership season when they rolled St Pat’s Town 27-26 on Saturday.

No.8 Jone Ralulu scored a try and was at the forefront of a committed pack that hassled Town into uncharacteristic mistakes. Town led 19-17 at halftime but were overtaken with second-half points from William Orsborn and Josiah McCallum. Town prop Noah Leavasa-Tavoi scored a try and was a towering presence.

Rathkeale’s Rugby Director is former Southland Ranfurly Shield-winning fullback, Robbie Robinson.

“It’s another stake in the ground for where we’re at as a programme. The forward pack put in some really dominant defence all game, Robinson said.

“Both the backs and forwards are starting to understand and grow their attacking skill sets, which is great to see. It was a tough, physical game, a real team effort to get the win.”

+++++

Two Games in One Day?

Wellington College won the Quad for the 34th time and for the first time since 2023 overpowering Nelson College 43-13 in the final. Back at Dufferin Street, Wellington College beat St Bernard’s College 34-12 in the fifth round of the Premiership.

Two full competition games on the same day is highly unusual in First XV rugby, and in two different cities, likely unprecedented. It is not unusual in pre-season for Festival days to feature shorter matches or for games to be divided into quarters with rolling substitutions to trial talent. An overseas tour may require ingenuity to achieve a common goal.

Remarkably, the All Blacks have twice played on the same day. On September 3, 1949, they lost two official Test matches to Australia in Auckland, 11-6, and then to South Africa in Durban, 9-3. Champion prop Okey Geffin kicked all of South Africa’s points, while the All Blacks’ sole try came from centre Morrie Goddard (Timaru Boys’ High School). Historian Huw Richards noted, “This double failure was rooted in the New Zealand Rugby Union’s guilt at having betrayed their players by bowing to South African apartheid laws, sending a touring team there minus several Māoris.  The consolation prize was a home series against Australia.”

There was better luck on June 14, 1970, when the All Blacks beat Western Australia (50-3) and an A.R.U. President’s XV 52-3 at Perry Lakes Stadium (1962-2009) in Perth en route to South Africa. Winger Bruce Hunter (Waitaki BHS) was the only player to start both games and scored five tries that day. He was also a three-time national 800m champion. Outside back Bill Davis (Hastings BHS) played in both games, replacing injured loose forward Brian Lochore (Wairarapa College) against Western Australia.

The A.R.U. President’s XV clash was also unique because 19-year-old Singapore-born medical student Jamie Hendire played his only first-class match for the All Blacks. He had played for Western Australia against New Zealand and was asked to fill in for the All Blacks against the President’s XV because Mormon Sid Going didn’t play on a Sunday due to religious beliefs.

On September 14 1946, Wellington won three first-class games on the same day. Wellington beat Auckland 17-9 in Auckland, while Wellington XV’s beat Manawatū 11-6 and Horowhenua 23-8.

In 1997, Black Ferns Rugby World Cup winners Tammi Wilson (Auckland Girls’ Grammar) and Dianne Kahura (Thames High School) played a touch Test for New Zealand against Australia in Auckland, but skipped the next Test a short while later to rush to a Black Ferns suit fitting even though they hadn’t been officially announced in the team.

+++++