Sideline Conversions 17 August (some rugby news and information to start the week)

Lineout time at Rugby League Park on Saturday, with the Wellington Centurions and Māori teams in action in drizzly conditions. 

Monday midday updates: A busy weekend of rugby just completed, with St Pat’s Silverstream and Poneke celebrating the most. Silverstream won five college rugby titles on Saturday and Sunday to cement their position as the Wellington region’s strongest rugby school.

Poneke won the Reserve Grade final and their U85kg side beat Paremata-Plimmerton to advance to the fourth round of the National Knockout Cup competition. Details of their next opponent to be confirmed.

In a school traditional, Hutt Valley High School and St Bernard’s College meet today at 3.30pm on HVHS 1.

Moving ahead to this coming weekend, there are slimmer pickings for Wellington rugby supporters – and some games and venues are also in the ‘to be confirmed’ category. Here are the games that we know of below:

• Wellington Pride v Manawatu – RLP (FPC preseason)
• Pride Development v Whanganui – RLP
• Wellington Centurions v Hawke’s Bay B – Napier
• Wellington U20s v Hawkes Bay – Napier
• Manawatu U20s v Hurricanes Heartland U21s, Palmerston North
• Wellington Fijians v Horowhenua-Kapiti Pasifika – TBC
• Wellington Māori Tournament – Porirua Park Friday and Saturday
• Hurricanes First XV Life Members Cup semi-finals – TBC
• Hurricanes First XV Boys semi-final. St Pat’s Silverstream v Lindisfarne College (Napier BHS and Hastings BHS to play the other semi-final)

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The Central Region Shield starts this coming Saturday. This is the three-week U20s competition (formerly U19s) featuring the Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu and Hurricanes Heartland U20s sides. Wellington have won this every year since 2014 with Manawatu the last non-Wellington winners in 2013. If Wellington are to win a 13-peat then it might be decided this coming Saturday with the opening game between them and Hawke’s Bay. Although Manawatu enjoyed an 85-10 win over the Wellington Pasifika U20s side on Saturday.

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Where to now for the Wellington Lions? To Dunedin to play Otago for the Mike Gibson Memorial Trophy, that’s where. Otago narrowly defeated the Manawatu Turbos 29-27 in Palmerston North on Saturday – running in three tries in the final 10 minutes. Wellington’s most important match of the season kicks off at 5.05pm next Sunday as the last match of the round. Unbeaten Hawke’s Bay host Manawatu for the Kel Tremain Memorial Trophy in Napier on Friday night.

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Social media was ablaze with anger after the Wellington Lions 47-7 loss to North Harbour on Thursday night: “Inexcusable,” “Totally embarrassing,” “Harden up,” “Poor and that’s generous,” “Renata needs to go,” “Bloody shambles” and “WTF” were just some of the sentiments shared by fans after the embarrassing defeat.

North Harbour’s win was their first against Wellington in any match since a 42-34 success at Albany in 2019. Bryn Hall scored a try in that game, as did All Blacks Matt Duffie (2) and Shaun Stevenson. North Harbour had last previously won in Wellington 40-37 in 2016, with Bryn Gatland scoring half of their points. Their biggest win previously against Wellington was 43-17 in 1994 at the Onewa Domain. At their tallest peak, North Harbour fielded 10 All Blacks, with Eric Rush (2), Blair Larsen (2), Richard Turner and Ian Jones scoring tries; Glen Osborne kicked 13 points.

The last time the Lions lost consecutive games at Hnry Stadium was in 2018 to Tasman 28-22 on September 29 and then Auckland 29-24 on October 4.

In the Wellington Lions mire, Du’Plessis Kirifi, in his second appearance at second five-eighth, was again heroic in a lost cause, topping the tackle count with 22, including two try-saving interventions and two ruck turnovers as the Lions were backpedalling. On August 13, Kirifi was the top “jackaler” in the NPC despite defending in a position where he arrives at the ruck less frequently.

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The national leagues – below the Prem and Champ – were due to begin on Saturday, September 5, but with two-thirds of England now declared to be in drought, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was concerned about the potential for an increased risk of injury for players on hard and dry pitches.

It informed clubs on Saturday that there would be a blanket directive to delay the start of the new season until the week commencing September 21.

Read more HERE

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Northern United’s Arene Landon-Lane played at first-five for a Black Ferns XV against the Black Ferns at Maidstone Park on Friday. The Black Ferns won 62-19. Photo: Hugh Pretorius. 

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The ‘Curse of the Top Qualifier’ continued in Sunday’s First XV final with Wellington College becoming the latest in a long line of sides in the modern era to fall in the decider.

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How did it come to pass that the John Davies Cup was unavailable to be presented to the winning team on Saturday in the Reserve Grade final and the Poneke Ruffnuts were instead handed the U85kg JC Bowl at the Presentation? This is the second occasion in recent memory this has happened.

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The HYRC confirmed that the 2026 Hurricanes Girls Final between Manukura and St Mary’s College for the Rex Kerr Cup is coming up on Wednesday 26 August. The winner goes to the Top 4, with Manukura the defending champions. This final is listed to be played at Palmerston North, but it is Wellington’s ‘turn’ to host this as it is played in Palmerston North and Wellington on alternate years (these two schools being the only pair to have contested this final since at least 2016, if not earlier). Yes Manukura will be installed as favourites to win again, but if St Mary’s field their top team they could at least push them close. Having the final on Manukura’s home turf again will give them an extra advantage. Why not play this halfway, like at Ōhau Domain?

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Mouthguards continue to be optional – even for Wellington’s high performance and representative players.

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Below: found in real time at the Poneke clubrooms on Saturday afternoon. The trophy cabinet was being cleared out and silverware removed ahead of the Poneke prize giving and this was pulled out from the back of it. What is it? It appears to be a intricately woven (Māori?) cloak that is in the shape of a shield. The glare of the photos in the glass case don’t do it justice. But the photo on the left and close up in the middle appears to be in hessian and the dates range from 1883 to 1911. Some of the initials next to the dates include SC and JC which will denote that the club won the Senior Championship and the Junior Championship those years, but other initials such as PA, EC and AN and single letters such as M would need further investigation . The third photo shows the back of it that appears to be lined with silk or a fine fabric with this image of a Poneke or perhaps an ‘Our Boys’ Football Club’ player on the back.

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It was a clash of the colours when Aotea College beat Naenae College 45-24 in the Coed Cup final on Saturday. The blue-on-blue action aside, it is perhaps a shame that the Co-ed Cup tournament doesn’t exist anymore at the National Top 4 tournament. A school like Aotea College is a good fit this, but instead leading rugby schools like St Peter’s Cambridge, St Kent’s, St Andrews and Feilding High School entered it and smaller schools had no chance.

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Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wairarapa-Bush are both away in the second round of the Heartland Championship. Horowhenua-Kapiti travel to Gisborne to play Poverty Bay and Wairarapa-Bush meet Mid Canterbury in Ashburton.

Horowhenua-Kapiti opened their season with a 41-45 defeat to King Country at home, after it was 17-17 at halftime and King Country led 45-29 with about five minutes to go before two more Horo-Kapiti tries including a try on fulltime to fullback Zane Ainslie made it close.  Wairarapa-Bush beat Poverty Bay 20-17 in their opener.

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Most Points In A Season for St Pats Silverstream

• 2026: Fletcher Cooper, 255
• 2025: Fletcher Cooper, 234
• 1989: Simon Mannix, 233
• 1972: Murray Tocker, 231

Note: Murray Tocker scored 601 points in 78 games for Silverstream between 1971 and 1974. He kicked three drop goals and scored all four ways against Naenane in a 36-0 club win in 1973.

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A nasty flu passed through the Wellington College First XV before the final. That might go someway towards explaining their disappointing performance. In the last three finals against St Patrick’s College, Silverstream they have been outscored 104-47.

The lower-ranked qualifier for the First XV finals also won in Auckland: Kelston beat Auckland Grammar School 27-15, and in Canterbury, St Andrew’s College defeated Christchurch Boys 33-17.

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Southland Boys’ First XV has won a quartet of Southern Schools Rugby Championships and 35 competition games in a row. Silverstream won 28 Wellington games in a row between 2017 and 2019. From 2011 to 2014 Otago Boys’ had 54 wins on the bounce. Christchurch Boys’ between 2003 and 2006 won 42 competition games in a row.

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Northland smashed Taranaki 42-0 on Friday night. Could they win the Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury in Christchurch on Thursday? Northland last held the Shield when they beat Manawatu 12-10 in 1978. Northland’s captain in 1978 was All Blacks hooker and future Crusaders and Blues Super Rugby winning coach Peter Sloane. The coach was All Black halfback and insurance broker Lindsay Townsend, who won 31 of 61 games. From Mataura, Southland, the same town fellow All Black halfbacks Jimmy Cowan and Justin Marshall played rugby in, Townsend won the Shield as a player with Otago in 1957. Northland’s head coach in 2026, Ryan Martin, is originally from Otago; he captained the Otago Boys’ High School First XV in 1998, which won the National Top Four with Richie McCaw on openside, and he also won the Shield as an assistant coach of Otago. Northland challenges Canterbury for the Ranfurly Shield on Thursday night.

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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