Sideline Conversions 29 June (some news and information to start the new rugby week)

Above: Petone were awarded the Harper Lock Shield late on Sunday after the competition was declared closed after the last round was unable to go ahead on Saturday after extreme weather late last week. PHOTO: Petone Rugby

Monday morning edition – updates expected later in the day: Four weeks until the end of the Wellington club rugby season. As noted in our weekend review, here is the Premier grade draw for Saturday’s opening round of championship rugby:

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).

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More school rugby this coming week. The third Beard Trophy series match is scheduled for Porirua Park on Wednesday at 5.00pm. New holders Aotea College will want to stretch their tenure beyond a week when they host Mana College. With Aotea being a Premier 2 side and Mana a Premiership one, this is a straight challenge and a Co-ed Cup match.

On Thursday St Bernard’s College hosts New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College in their traditional. There is an U15s match at 10.00am and then the First XVs play at 12.00pm.

We were asking about the annual St Pat’s Town-St Bedes’s College (Christchurch) and have been told this will be played in Wellington in the school holidays on 15 July.

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With the cancellation of all lower grade club rugby rounds on Saturday, it is understood that all teams were given 3 points from the rounds and the first round Premier 2 Harper Lock Shield competition declared closed. Leaders Petone were thus declared the first round Premier 2 winners, doing the ‘Swindale-Harper Lock’ double.

Check back here on Friday for our full preview of the opening round of championship games and other grades. The Premier 2 grade’s championship round is played under the same structure as Premier with the top tier Ed Chaney Cup and second division HD Morgan Memorial Cups on the line.

As far as we understand as of Monday morning College Sport Wellington have yet to make a decision on what happens with all their college competitions that weren’t played on Saturday.  It could get busy in there as they also have football and hockey competitions to attend to!

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All roads in Upper Hutt this coming Saturday lead to NZCIS, not Maidstone Park, for the Upper Hutt Rams’ opening Jubilee Cup match against Tawa. The ‘Stone’ is out of action as it has been booked for the day by the Hurricanes Poua. It will be the same on 18 July should the Rams get a home semi-final. At least the Rams have multiple venues to choose from as a back-up home ground. If their opposition wasn’t Tawa and thus close enough to a home game for them perhaps they could have played this on a neutral field at Porirua Park?

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On the subject of Porirua Park, the WRFU must be close to announcing their venue for their Club Rugby Finals Day on 25 July.

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It’s semi-finals in several other club rugby competitions around the country on Saturday, as fewer teams mean shorter competitions (Auckland being an example). For example, Wellington’s closest neighbour, Manawatu have their Hankins Shield semi-finals this weekend. Top qualifier Varsity host fourth placed Old Boys Marist at Massey and Kia Toa play Feilding Yellows in the 2 v 3 semi-final at Bill Brown Park. The next four teams contest the second tier Val Holland semi-finals.

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Congratulations to Petone’s Alapati Soke for playing his 100th Premier game on Saturday, the prop scoring a try in their 50-10 win over Poneke for the Fred Tilyard Shield.

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Congratulations to Tyler Reihana-Aukuso for playing her 100th game for the Ories Women’s team on Saturday, helping her side to a 20-10 win over Northern United.

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In Southland club rugby, Jason Rutledge played his 300th match for his Woodlands side.

This got us thinking – who is the most capped Premier grade player in Wellington club rugby history?

We have reached out to the 14 clubs to ask for ask for this and about half have responded thus far. If we can get these numbers then look out for our story soon.

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150 Premier games on Saturday for Waikanae’s Aaron Lahmert in the Horowhenua-Kapiti Ramsbotham Cup competition.

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And just like that it’s all on. The Tipping competition has tightened up and there could be some sleepless nights coming up. Our administrator will be entering the draw on a week-by-week basis from now on, so this coming weekend’s week 14 draw will be added soon if not there already.

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A message received that here could be some Hurricanes players returning to club rugby for the tail-end of the season. But who? Hugo Plummer (Tawa) and Callum Harkin (OBU) are two that could come back for a game or two.

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On that note, the Wellington Lions will be preparing to name their squad soon. So look out for that, and something we will start taking a proactive interest in before the middle of July.

A Wellington XV plays a pre-season match against Manawatu on Friday 17 July at Johnston Park, Feilding at 1.00pm.

The other consideration fans will have to deduce is which club rugby players are being taken out of club rugby the following day, which is semi-finals day, and the following week’s Jubilee and Hardham Cup finals.

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Two more tries on Saturday for HOBM’s first year openside flanker Rupeni Raviyawa, to take his tally to 15 for the season, three ahead of Louis Northcott (Pare-Plim), Jacob Kennedy (Johnsonville) and Archie Treadwell (Wellington) on 12.

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Is there scope for officials to pivot and play games on Sundays if Saturdays are cancelled well in advance?

Is there a need for a community rugby field with a roof in Wellington, or a converted air craft hangar or something similar, so rugby can still be played? Particularly junior rugby, so the kids can play. Not suggesting multiple millions of dollars, but some protection where the kids can get out there and play if they are losing a few days a year to the weather or field closures.

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Off-field drama provides a little more intrigue to the club rugby scene. This past week it was Oriental- Rongotai in the spotlight, and whether they should be permitted to remain in the Premier competition. The reason? An insufficient number of active teams in senior grades to meet the requirement for Premier status in 2026 as laid out in the WRFU By-laws, which is four.

How did this come about? Ories’ fourth team – after their Premier Men’s and Women’s sides and their Premier 2 Men – was their Reserve Grade side. However, the former grade-winning Vatos were unable to front on several occasions (despite, we are told, assurances earlier this season they would see out the year), and were removed from competition by the union a fortnight ago, triggering the possibility of exclusion.

However, by a vote of clubs, Ories have been permitted to stay in the grade. Which raises a few questions for us:

1) Given the current state of the game, is a criteria necessary? We here at Club Rugby think there should be, but perhaps not as onerous as what is currently on the books.

2) By-law breaches should be a fairly black and white matter. Either it is, or it’s not.

3) Why did this go to a vote of clubs? Surely decisions like this should rest with WRFU management.

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Poor weather late last week closed grounds and cancelled rugby on Saturday across the board except for Premier and Women’s. Has there been instances of rugby being called off completely because of bad weather?

We could find one example on 6 July 1973. All rugby was cancelled that day and the season was put back a week.

Here are three examples of poor-weather days from the Today in History files:

5 June 1982: The big cold hits Wellington club rugby hard today. Petone fullback Allan Hewson is treated for exposure at halftime in his side’s 4-3 win over MSP. Athletic captain Brian Cederwall discusses the possibility of calling their game with Wainuiomata off during the second half after two players from each side are forced from the field in need of respite from bitter cold.

22 June 2013: Club rugby heats up on the worst day of the year today, following a frightful storm on Thursday night. Ories beat Tawa 18-13 in the battle of the heavyweights at Kilbirnie Park, MSP defeat Poneke 23-6 at the first ever Premier game on the new St Pat’s Artificial ground, Old Boys University account for Wainuiomata 26-8 at the Hutt Rec and Hutt Old Boys Marist blank Petone 20-0 at the Petone Rec.

17 July  2021: The big wet comes to Wellington club rugby, with torrential rain and flooded fields dominating the headlines. Steady rain increases throughout the day to the point where it is sheeting down by mid- afternoon when teams take the field for the Jubilee Cup quarterfinals. In Jubilee Cup results, Norths beat Old Boys University 13-0 and Tawa beat Oriental-Rongotai 19-14. Winners Tawa and Norths will play HOBM and MSP respectively in the semi-finals next week, the latter two teams having the weekend off.

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Callum Watts-Pointer has returned to the Norths line-up over the past couple of weeks, and he scored a double (both of his team’s tries) in their defeat to Old Boys University on Saturday.

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Two-time Jubilee Cup champion Parekura Lalaga has been appointed Northern United’s new Club Development Officer.

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Wellington Pride loose forward and current St Mary’s College player Fono Bason has been selected in one of two NZ U18s Schoolgirls pathways team.

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Super Rugby is now going to be Super 10 next year – back to the future and the South Pacific Championship of the 1980s?

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Another well known club rugby stalwart gone, rest in peace Greg Diggins.

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Poneke’s Jordyn Tihore made her Hurricanes Poua debut this weekend, in their win over the Chiefs Manawa. They won 34-29, their first win in over two years in Super Rugby Aupiki and reversing seven straight previous losses against them. Her club teamate Keana Roffey didn’t play this game, but had made her debut in an earlier game.

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Is St Mary’s College about to lose its decade-long hold on the Wellington Secondary Schools girls’ title? On Wednesday, they lost their first competition game since losing to a Sacred Heart combined side in 2022 when they were stunned 25-24 by Taita College (NZPAA) after leading 24-10 at halftime.

Taita, the school of recent internationals George Bower and Brad Shields, combines its girls’ team with the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA), a charter school modelled on a kaupapa similar to that of the stunningly successful Manukura, current Hine Pounamu National Top Four First XV champions. NZPAA trains with the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand (IRANZ) at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS).

It was the Ana Kerr show in the first half for St Mary’s with her two tries and two conversions, building a comfortable lead.

However, Taita College (NZPAA) rallied in the second half to cause a massive boilover. Three of their five unconverted tries came then. Ivy West-Nuku scored twice. Lesieli Maake scored the winner. Centre Sina Ioane was a prominent member of the Wellington Under-16s last year.

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There could have been an extraordinary plot twist in the two wins on the same day by the Wellington College First XV against Nelson College (43-13) at Whanganui Collegiate and St Bernard’s College (34-12) at Wellington College last Saturday. An administrative error by Wellington College meant an ineligible player was fielded in the St Bernard’s game. His eligibility to play was not in question but the paperwork was submitted after the deadline. Graciously, St Bernard’s refused to take the matter further.

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Wellington Rugby Rules For Chiefs Fans

1. If it’s very windy and your captain wins the toss. he will know from his DNA to play with the wind and kick everything deep into the opposition half to get positional advantage through the first 40 minutes.
2. Then in the second half when his team is playing into the strong wind the captain and coach know that passes will be drifting back towards their tummies so they keep the passes between players short and snappy as the Hurricanes did. All kicks should be flat and not high.

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