Sideline Conversions 24 August (some rugby news and information to start the new week in rugby)

Welcome back to a new week of rugby. We are slow and steady and don’t do gossip, shock or thrills here on Club Rugby and Sideline Conversions but if we did there would be as many discussion points as ever across several teams and topics (not just the Wellington Lions). As a late August 2026 snapshot, the state of the game and its representative programme, its apparent governance and reputation in the Wellington region is not what it has been in the past. This all comes on top of the unsatisfactory end to the club season in July.

+++++

Back to the rugby on the field, a look at some of what is coming up over the next several days:

A double header representative match at Rugby League Park on Saturday, with the Wellington U20s playing Manawatu U20s in round two of the Central Region Shield and the Wellington Centurions meeting the Manawatu Evergreens.

St Pat’s Silverstream play Napier Boys’ High School in the final of the Hurricanes Boys First XV competition at Palmerston North this coming Saturday. Details to be worked through.

There will also be a bunch of other matches being played, but the draw hasn’t been confirmed across our desk as at Monday morning, including the Pōneke U85kgs in the semi-finals of the National Knockout Cup, and Wellington Fijians and Pasifika teams, as well as U18s sides ahead of their competitions starting up and running through September.

The Wellington Pride open their 2026 Farah Palmer Cup campaign with a match against their modern-day bogey team the Otago Spirit at Dunedin next Saturday afternoon.

The Wellington Lions host Counties Manukau for the Jonah Lomu Trophy at the Stadium in their next NPC match next Sunday afternoon. With a policy of picking from within their own region, Counties-Manukau are a strong Jubilee Cup standard side so the good news for fans is this is winnable.

++++++

The Hawke’s Bay Junior Magpies are in the driving seat to go on and win this year’s Hurricanes region U20s (formerly U19s) Central Region Shield competition.

They beat Wellington, champions every year since 2014, 29-14 in their opening round at home on Saturday.

Manawatu beat the Hurricanes Heartland U21s 52-22 on Saturday and Hawke’s Bay will just need to beat these two teams over the next fortnight to win the title for the first time since 2012.

+++++

+++++

Many supporters aren’t pleased with the Wellington Lions at the moment. One comment on social media was by Malcolm Gillies, the Hurricanes’ owner and made before this most recent defeat to Otago on Sunday:

“Club rugby and NPC are both very important to the rugby system and the problem is we have our priorities wrong in Wellington. Club rugby must be number one, you should have to play club rugby in Wellington or be a Hurricane to be picked. Our clubs are where our fans come from they want to watch their players play and every club player should have the dream that they could represent Wellington we have taken that dream from them with our selection policy. NPC is a mixture of older players and up and coming youth, all playing with pride in our union supported by die hard Wellington fans willing them on. It should be a breeding ground for future Hurricanes players and coaches. We can come back, but there must be change and alignment. Malcolm Gillies Chairman Hurricanes.”

++++++

New Ranfurly Shield holders Northland are an example of a team built with care and intelligence, with only finite resources. Coach Ryan Martin is a schoolteacher who took 15 years to land his first professional head coaching role in New Zealand. He was the halfback and captain of the 1998 Otago Boys High School First XV that shared the National Top Four (Richie McCaw played openside). After a life-changing stint in tough South Auckland schools, Martin returned to Otago Boys’ and coached the First XV to three National Top Four appearances in five years, remaining unbeaten in 60 local games. He then led Kaikorai to their first senior title in 19 years. Martin spent time on the backroom staff of Otago, winning the Ranfurly Shield before gaining further experience with the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby. He then moved to New England, where he won two Major League Rugby titles. Hutt Old Boys’ backs Harrison Boyle and Kienan Higgins were part of the team. In 2025, he finally landed the Northland role. In his first season, the team won five matches and drew against Canterbury, a massive improvement on previous seasons. This year Northland has a very smart team with a fringe Super Rugby hooker, a very experienced tighthead to anchor the scrum, a world-class lock in Allan Craig, gritty loose forwards, and most crucially an accomplished nine/ten duo in Sam Nock and Rivez Reihana, who have played 148 NPC games combined. Add good fitness, culture, and tactics, and suddenly things happen. Granted, Wellington has several All Blacks and injuries, but do Wellington’s coaches and players emulate something similar?

+++++

Northland’s 36-12 win is their first against Canterbury since at Okara Park in 1999. In 2025 Northland held Canterbury to a 19-19 draw; Man of the Match Rob Rush, who scored twice on Thursday night, crossed in that game too. Canterbury conceded the most points they have in Christchurch since a 45-26 loss to Hawke’s Bay in 2021, and it was their heaviest home defeat since a 38-10 hiding at the hands of Tasman in 2014. Canterbury are 15-time NPC champions. Their biggest defeat as defending champions was 32-3 to Auckland in 1984. That year Auckland won 19 out of 20 games overall, including their first NPC title with an All Blacks-laden team. It was the first of 10 titles in 13 years, until 1996, when Auckland won 208 out of 235 games between 1984 and 1996. In 1978, en route to winning their first title, Wellington beat defending champions Canterbury 29-7 with Bernie Fraser scoring four tries.

+++++

St Mary’s College have defaulted their Hurricanes Regional girls final against Manukura on Wednesday, handing Manukura an unobstructed path back to the Top 4 in a fortnight. This is a heartbreaking decline for a programme that has won the Wellington title 11 of the past 12 years and produced Black Ferns Dhys Faleafaga, Monica Tagoai and Justine McGregor. Unfortunately, Club Rugby understands they are a divided house with a player-coach schism. Mercy-Lea Lilo, Ana Kerr and Fono Bason were all outstanding for Tia Passi Memorial Cup winners Petone in 2026 so it’s not like St Mary’s are short of talent that could at least push Manukura close.

Manukura had already screwed the scrum in their favour by having the hosting rights out of turn for that final, and now they move on to the Top 4 to defend their national title.

+++++

+++++

Auckland lost the “Battle of the Bridge” to North Harbour for the first time since 2020. Auckland have only won six of their last 24 NPC games, an awful return for the most storied Union in the competition with 17 titles in 50 years.

Auckland have won 6 of their last 24 NPC matches and their Under-20 lost to North Harbour yesterday 50-14.

So, it is Auckland as well as Wellington struggling at the moment. A common denominator could be that these unions both were at the centre of and host cities of winning the last two Super Rugby titles. Both won convincingly, but the wheels have been falling off both NPC provinces.

++++

Jeff McTainsh looks set to be the permanent replacement for Grant Nisbett as commentator for All Blacks Tests on Sky Sport. Though he has patter, does every try have to be a “What A”? Four of the five All Blacks tries were a “What A.” Surely he has more in the toolbag.

+++++

A proud moment for Avalon supporters in the wee small hours of Sunday morning, with George Bower and Asafo Aumua going big together at scrum-time against the Springboks!

++++++

This column is a collaborative effort – so if you have news and information to share and post please send through. It would help us to get our website staying online too after a recent 24 hour blackout for reasons out of our control. .

In her 1992 Christmas message, the late Queen Elizabeth 2 declared that year an annus horribilis for the royal family. Perhaps 2026 is this for the Wellington rugby family, and it can get better.

Finally, Club Rugby thanks everyone that reads and supports our content and our sponsors and supporters as we close in on the statistical milestone of 1,000,000 reads on our website since the start of the 2025.

We are working on a couple of ideas for fresh content packages next year too. If you want to be part of these from a support partner or investor point of view please get in touch and we can reveal more!