Top eight to start the Jubilee Cup found on wet afternoon of club rugby

Mud and glory – Marzy Karim slides through to score the clincher for Paremata-Plimmerton over Wainuiomata. Photo: Andy McArthur.

• By Steven White and Scott MacLean

The top eight sides to start next weekend’s coveted Premier Jubilee Cup competition and next week’s opening round club rugby championship draw were found on a wet and wild afternoon around the Wellington region.

With Petone already confirmed as Swindale Shield winners and top qualifiers, much attention was drawn to who would miss out on the top eight. As circumstances transpired that side was Marist St Pat’s who lost 10-14 to Johnsonville at Helston Park.

Johnsonville won the game with a 72^nd minute try fullback and captain Finlay Sharp, which was converted by replacement Niall Delahunt. Both sides scored two tries in a tight contest in slushy conditions, but Johnsonville converted both their tries and  that was the difference. The game’s other tries were scored by Johnsonville flanker Tyler Hall, his opposite Fabio Minelli and MSP lock and captain James Zino.

Wainuiomata lost 12-19 to Paremata-Plimmerton in their home clash (more on this game below) but MSP’s loss ensured they finished eighth.

There was high drama late in the match at Lyndhurst Park, with the Wellington Axemen missing a handy conversion on fulltime that would have given them the win. Tawa breathed a collective sigh of relief and held on and won 19-18, to finish third behind Petone and the Upper Hutt Rams who sealed second on Friday night with their bonus point 27-10 win over Avalon.

The Rams retained the Harper Vine Trophy and locked up the Bill Brien Challenge Cup for the summer in hearty conditions in front of a healthy crowd at Maidstone Park. They led 12-10 at halftime and pulled away after the interval. Hooker Latu Tupou scored two tries.

Hutt Old Boys Marist are fourth, beating Oriental-Rongotai 27-11 for the Bondy Memorial Cup at the Polo Ground (more on this game below). Old Boys University cemented fifth with their 42-12 win for the Ken Douglas Cup over Northern United at Nairnville Park. Details and scoring from this match is pending at the time of publication.

Petone finished with a 50-10 win over Poneke for the Fred Tilard Memorial Shield, winning eight tries to one. Halfback Axel Daken scored two of these and prop Alipate Soke one in his 100^th Premier match.

An unofficial final Swindale Shield points table is:

Top 4: Petone 59, Upper Hutt Rams 52, Tawa, HOBM 48 (Tawa third as they beat HOBM in round-robin play).

Jubilee Cup positions 5-8: OBU 46, Paremata-Plimmerton 43, Ories 41, Wainuiomata 37

Hardham VC Memorial Cup starters 9-14: MSP 35, Johnsonville, 25, Wellington 22, Norths 21, Poneke 15, Avalon 6.

Next week’s draw (unofficial) is:

Jubilee Cup Top 4: Petone (1) v HOBM (4) and Upper Hutt Rams (2) v Tawa (3)

Jubilee Cup Round 1 Eliminations (losers to drop down to Hardham Cup for the following week): OBU (5) v Wainuiomata (8) and Paremata-Plimmerton (6) v Oriental-Rongotai (7)

Hardham VC Memorial Cup Round 1: MSP (9) v Avalon (14), Johnsonville (10) v Poneke (13) and Wellington (11) v Norths (12).

As noted in yesterday’s preview, all other club grades (except for Women’s – more below) and college rugby were cancelled yesterday owing to the weather conditions.

A decision on what happens in the Harper Lock Shield Premier 2 competition is pending. Like the Swindale Shield, this grade was scheduled to conclude this afternoon.

As noted above, the Axemen almost beat Tawa but missed their winning kick on fulltime after Tawa came down from 5-10 early in the second half with two tries to No. 8 George Risale to lead 19-10.

The Axemen landed a penalty with almost 10 minutes left, then crossed to put themselves a point behind at the end.

In more from a couple of fixtures more extensively covered this afternoon, in persistent rain at Williams Jones Park, the visitors Paremata-Plimmerton came home with a wet sail to break a 12-12 deadlock and win 19-12.

With the game on a knife-edge, Paremata-Plimmerton’s winning converted try came rather fortuitously, but their team and small band of bedraggled supporters amongst the 47 lining the eastern side of the ground happily accepted it. With about 10 minutes to play, replacement Mika Cooper-Finau lined up an ambitious 49 metre penalty from dead in front. The kick was on target but it landed well short, however the Wainuiomata defender knocked the ball on, and Paremata-Plimmerton had an attacking scrum. From this, halfback Esi Komaisavai went left to second five Marzy Karim who slid over the line to score.

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As they had done for the entire second half playing into a moderate wind and steady rain, the home side launched straight back on to attack and went close to constructing a try in reply, but they were denied.

Paremata-Plimmerton almost scored a fourth try with a few minutes to play when Komaisavai kicked ahead for right wing Louis Northcott. However, he knocked on over the line in the clubrooms corner and the score remained unchanged to the end.

Earlier in the second half, Wainuiomata had scored their second try to go ahead 12-5. This followed several minutes when they attempted to defy the conditions and play positively. They built phases and won a penalty, and halfback Liam Aitken attacked and offloaded to all-action No 8 Emmanuel Solomona to score the try.

The Hammerheads regrouped and in the 65^th minute, they returned the favour and after a minute of pick-and-goes, they scored through the forwards to make it 12-12.

Wainuiomata had another golden chance to go ahead when they broke out up towards the southeastern end, but wing Ray Va’a knocked on in the corner in a desperate tackle.

Earlier in the match, Paremata-Plimmerton looked to gain ascendancy through their scrum and their set piece. This paid off when they scored the game’s first try in the 14^th minute to halfback Komaisavai who darted through the forwards after a penalty and lineout drive.

Wainuiomata sought to make use of the wind and went close to replying not long after. Paremata-Plimmerton hooker Toby Mallon was sinbinned, and Wainuiomata replied with an almost identical try up the other end to lock Markus Stowers-McCarthy who rumbled over after a penalty and lineout to make it 5-5 after 20 minutes.

There was no further scoring in the first half, however Wainuiomata will rue a couple of clear missed opportunities with Paremata-Plimmerton coming up with some big defensive plays including their seven-man scrum winning a defensive penalty under their posts.

At the very end of the first half, Paremata-Plimmerton went close to scoring again but this time the home team snuffed them out.

In a hard day for flowing rugby, both sides can take acclaim for trying to play in an attacking manner. A number of players from both sides had strong games as they prepare for next week’s opening round of the Jubilee Cup.

When conditions are this challenging, there’s likely few places worse than the Polo Ground. But given where the strength of their side lies, it was tailor-made for Hutt Old Boys Marist as they secured their Top Four place for next week – a second encounter with old rivals Petone – and put a crimp on Oriental Rongatai’s Old Timers’ Day with a grinding 27-11 victory.

There were a few hardy souls out, and it didn’t take long for the Polo mud to emerge. The visitors made the stronger start, but their initial attempt to breach the Magpies line saw them held up. It wasn’t long before they were across though, when Rupeni Raviyawa charged down a kick in midfield, scooped it up, and ran away to score untouched with Khya Wilson adding the extras. Ories quickly replied through a short-range penalty to Jordan Soli, and he would add a second after the hosts turned down an opportunity and were unsuccessful with a goal-line barrage.

Raviyawa provided the platform for the Eagles second try, getting his team to the clubrooms goalline before the ball was fed to a steaming George Jacobs to crash over, and then following a yellow card for Ories, it was former Magpie Luca Rees who did likewise in trademark fashion. HOBM would see yellow themselves, and Ories finished out the half with a try in the northeast corner to trail 11-17.

Whatever hopes they had were snuffed out though soon after the re-start. Not for the first time in Wellington Premier rugby, Dominic Ropeti saw yellow and Wilson chipped over the resulting penalty. HOBM were swiftly back on attack and from an attacking scrum Raviyawa went right and fed a charging Caleb Robson before getting the ball back and crossing for his second with Wilson adding the extras.

That was the end of the scoring action. HOBM were content to simply play possession and force Ories to come out of their own end when they kicked it away. Ories tried hard, but found the Eagles defence to well organised to get through. As mentioned above HOBM will be at Petone next week, while Ories will have to travel to Ngati Toa and a clash with Paremata-Plimmerton.

Women’s

The only rugby anywhere in the morning was the four Women’s matches.

Out at the Polo Ground Ories may have locked up a home semi-final as they beat Norths 20-10. The pair were locked up at 5-all at the interval, but Ories props Laina Semu and Emelei La’ai both crossed in the second half with the rest of the points coming from the boot of Drenna Falaniko.

In the other Division 1 Tia Paasi Memorial match, Petone were too good for Wainuiomata, winning 41-5 on their home patch.  Winger Ofeira Hunt scored twice for the Villagers, with Litia Bulicakau scoring one and kicking three conversions. Flanker Taliah Mapakaitolo scored Wainuiomata’s try.

The two Division 2 Izzy Ford Cup matches both produced resounding, and largely expected, wins for the visiting side.

Stokes Valley and Avalon finally faced off for the first time this year, with the Shewolves leading 24-0 at the half on their way to a 36-5 win; former Pride No8 Hosanna Aumua scoring twice. Over at Ngati Toa Domain OBU were largely untroubled in a 10-tries-to-two, 58-14 win over Pare-Plim with “Name Withheld” accounting for six tries between them.

Poneke and Wellington had the byes, perhaps somewhat fortunately.

Elsewhere

Defending champions Taradale made a big statement in today’s final round of matches in Hawkes Bay‘s Maddison Trophy, skewering main rivals Napier OB Marist 53-27 and securing top spot for next week’s semi-finals. They’ll face Napier Tech who accounted for MAC 49-17, while Hastings will visit NOBM after they beat Pirates 43-26. Havelock North were the unlucky side, doing all they could with a 53-12 win over minnows Bridge Pa but coming up one point short.

One stunning result in the last round of matches in Manawatu, with College Old Boys – trounced 105-0 by Kia Toa six weeks ago – turning that around to beat the same opposition by 38-17 today. That result however didn’t get them into next week’s Hankins Shield semi-finals, as Feilding Yellows crushed Freyberg 92-10 and Old Boys Marist beat Feilding OB-Oroua 40-19. Varsity beat Linton 31-5 to secure top spot.

One more round left in Horowhenua-Kapiti next week ahead of their Ramsbotham Cup playoffs. Foxton continued on their merry way with a 39-27 home win over Paraparaumu, Waikanae smoked Levin College OB 83-17, and Wanderers put Rahui on the brink of elimination with a 50-24 win.

The weather and road closures saw the cancellation of all Senior Reserve rugby in Wairarapa-Bush and both Premier matches transferred to Memorial Park and its artificial turf. Greytown continued their unbeaten 150th season in the first match with a 43-7 win over Marist. The Schrijvers brothers Hayden (1) and Daniel (2) scored three of their six tries with ageless speedster Charlie Brown also bagging a double. East Coast followed that with a 28-15 win over Masterton Red Star that secures a playoff spot with a week to go. Prop and captain George Parke bagged a double for the Coasties, as did his opposite number Caedman Hawkins for MRS.