Sideline Conversions 10 August (some rugby news and information to start the week)

Above: Thumbs up to Ma’a Nonu, who will wear the #23 jersey for the Sharks against the All Blacks on Wednesday at 5.00am at Durban. 

Monday morning edition (updates expected): It’s school finals week in Wellington, with the schoolgirls finals at Porirua Park on Wednesday evening, Premier 2 and lower grade boys college finals at St Pat’s Silverstream on Saturday and the Premiership decider on Sunday back at Porirua Park.

At a glance, it’s Taita College v multiple defending champions St Mary’s College in the Premier 1 girls decider at 6.00pm Wednesday. Saturday’s finals include the Premier 2 decider between the St Pat’s Silverstream and St Pat’s Town 2^nd XVs at 2.00pm and the bluechip U15 Division 1 Father Gus Hill Cup final between Silverstream and Wellington College at 11.30am. Then on Sunday at the intriguing kick-off time of 11.40am (more on that below) it’s the Premiership’s big dance between Wellington College and Silverstream.

More rugby on Saturday in town, including the Wellington Centurions up against Wellington Māori at Rugby League Park at 2.30pm and the Wellington U20s hosting the Tasman U20s and a Wellington Pasifika U20s team and the Manawatu U20s down on Kilbirnie/Evans Bay Parks (details of both to be confirmed).

Then it’s on to the Reserve Grade Division 1 final for the John Davies Cup in the Kilbirnie Park feature game between the Pōneke Ruffnuts and the Johnsonville Cripples.

Come back here on Friday and we will go over all these above games and more in greater detail.

The Wellington Lions are also at home for the second time this year on Thursday night, hosting North Harbour in round three of the NPC competition.

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Here is a statistic for Wellington College supporters. The lower-ranked side in the round robin of the Premiership has won nine finals since 2009. The ‘curse of the top qualifier’ was a real thing for several years there.

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After 19 seasons and 250 games for Eastbourne, Jesse “Chop” Gordon has announced his retirement. One of the greats to enjoy a beer with.

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The First XV final on Sunday is kicking off at 11.40am. Why so early? One reason could be so that the players and supporters can then return home by mid-afternoon and have the remainder of Sunday off to rest or catch up with family and prepare for the busy week ahead.

Another could be…Sky TV. The final is on Sky so they are perhaps scheduling the final around their own content, riding into town and dictating an AM kick-off time? If so, that is the height of hubris. The 2.05pm NPC match that it could otherwise ‘go up against’ on another channel is Southland v Waikato. Unsure if there is much crossover between audiences watching these games.

Similarly, the final is going to be exhaustively covered by local media with or without Sky. We will cover it, while no doubt a full line-up of photographers led by Andy McArthur and Joe at @tackld will be there with bells on. Plus, it’s also going to be live and free on Huddy Sports! Anyone with an internet connection can watch it there for free.

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Isi Saumaki scored a try for Wellington in their 34-31 loss to Auckland on Saturday. Are the stars aligning for his former school St Andrew’s College? In a Canterbury First XV Premiership semi-final on Saturday, they beat St Bede’s College 31-21. The last time St Andrew’s beat St Bede’s in a semi-final was in 2020 by 18-14. A week later, Saumaki scored two tries in their 35-26 victory over Christchurch Boys, Saturday’s final opponents. Christchurch beat Timaru 39-36, with captain and blindside flanker Jonty Leary achieving the rare feat of scoring four tries.

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Du’Plessis Kirifi’s stats from his first game ever at second five were 14 carries for 46 metres gained with a linebreak, seven defenders beaten and three offloads, ranking him in the top five of the match in all those attacking categories. His only linebreak resulted in a try for winger Reo Matsushita. Defensively, he made 10 tackles, though he missed three without effecting a turnover. However, he didn’t concede a penalty.

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Wairarapa-Bush won a four-peat of Hurricanes Heartland U21 titles (formerly U20s) at Bulls on Sunday afternoon.

Following this tournament, involving Wairarapa-Bush, Poverty Bay, Whanganui and Horowhenua-Kapiti, a 26-player squad was selected for the upcoming Hurricanes Heartland team to play in the Central Region Shield. That starts in a fortnight with games on 22 and 29 August and 5 September. More on this soon.

The Hurricanes Heartland U21s squad is here: https://www.hyrc.org.nz/news/twenty-six-players-selected-for-hurricanes-heartland-side.html

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Just throwing this out there – how loud is too loud for a PA system? Especially with a crowd of 30-40 people in the stand?

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What’s happened to the Wellington’s senior men’s representative programme and teams?

The Wellington Samoans Senior Men’s and U18s are both not playing this year, a huge blow to the vibrancy and depth of the representative programme. It is understood (or at least hoped) this is soley because of funding rather than the want of 50 young and senior guys to keep playing for several weeks.

The Wellington Fijians (granted a new rep team on the scene) pulled out of their match on Saturday against a Whanganui Barbarians side, leaving two Whanganui teams playing each other in the Cooks Gardens curtain-raiser.

The Wellington Māori are back but they appear weaker than they have been in the past when they used to be stacked across the park with leading Premier players. They have conceded 139 points in two matches so far to the Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wairarapa-Bush Heartland squads and unless they strengthen their side this Saturday (here’s hoping they do) it’s not going to be competitive between them and the Centurions up at Rugby League Park.

A few seasons ago the Wellington Centurions team morphed into the Wellington B team, and presumably these guys are on standby for the Lions in case of illness or injuries.

A busy, healthy post-club ‘representative season’ seems to be a shadow of its former self. Why is this and why aren’t more Premier players playing on like they used to? Is this symptomatic of the wider retraction in rugby in general or something else?

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Manukura beat Hamilton Girls’ High School 47-19 in Palmerston North on Friday in a schoolgirls First XV match, following up on their 33-17 win over Christchurch Girls’ High School the previous Wednesday. All three schools are likely to feature at next month’s National Top Four in Palmerston North.

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After a four-try loss by two to Tasman in round one and a 59-19 thrashing of Counties Manukau on Thursday, North Harbour have seven championship points, nearly as many as their entire 2025 season when they earned 10 points with a 1-9 record. North Harbour have gone local to rebuild and improve their fortunes. In their original 39-man squad, there are 20 debutants, 18 of whom have played in the North Harbour Premier competition. That contrasts with unions like Wellington who have sourced players from Australia, Fiji, Japan, Tonga and the USA to fill gaps in their roster.

The Lions host North Harbour on Thursday night in a potentially niggly fixture. North Harbour last beat Wellington in 2019 while they last won at Hnry Stadium 40-37 in 2016 when Bryn Gatland scored 20 points.

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What about the Manawatu Turbos! After being well-beaten by Northland in their opener, they hosted Southland in the final game of the round on Sunday in a match they targeted as nearly a ‘must-win’. Up until injury time it appeared this was slipping out the window as the Stags had led from the start and led 28-7 early in the second half. On the last play of the game,  No. 8 Brayden Iose scored to give them a 36-35 win.

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As per our headline photo above, Oriental-Rongotai’s Ma’a Nonu is on the Sharks’ bench to face the All Blacks in their next match.

Let’s hope this second match is better because the first game against the Stormers was largely an unwatchable dirge for large parts of it. But unsure you can say that part out loud as its the All Blacks.

View this post on Instagram

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The Springboks won their 11th Test in a row 17-10 in Argentina. However, it was a ponderous display from the World Champions. There is concern for captain Siya Kolisi, who left the field injured, while star first-five Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu looked rusty against a Pumas side with four debutants. Maybe the All Blacks’ 38-21 win against the Stormers, which included three yellow cards, to start their South African tour wasn’t as unconvincing as it seemed.

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Below. The Wellington Centurions score their eighth and last try of the day on Saturday against the Whanganui Heartland squad in a 50-28 win. Archie Treadwell almost scored another try! His assist to Connor Tuifao was close enough. We will post our highlights of this match on You Tube Monday night. If you are a fan of Esi Komaisavai or the man himself, sorry we didn’t capture your magnificent second try in full as we were taking photos at the time and were caught napping, much like the Butcher Boys’ defence.

Photos website

View and bookmark the photos website at https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/2026

More photo galleries always added, and not all galleries go on social media.

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