Sideline Conversions 31 August (some rugby news and information to start the week)

Action from Kilbirnie Park on Saturday in the National U85kg competition semi-final between Poneke and Pakuranga. Photo: Tane Nathan/Kinetic Images.

Monday afternoon updates:  Another busy week and weekend of rugby coming up, with rugby on every day between today and Saturday across several age groups. This includes the annual Hurricanes regional U14 and U15 tournaments this week in Wellington and Upper Hutt and more on this weekend.

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St Pat’s Silverstream are in this year’s Top 4 tournament, held at Palmerston North this Friday and Sunday. They play South Island qualifier St Andrew’s College on Friday, and are the first Wellington boys school to make it since Scots College in 2015. More details below.

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The Hurricanes U18s tournament starts this coming Saturday, the first of three weekends to decide the Division 1 John Hornal Cup and Division 2 GNC Cup champions.

Division 1 games this Saturday see Manawatu host Hawke’s Bay and the Wellington Maori and Wellington Centurions teams meet at Kilbirnie Park. Division 2 games are between Whanganui and Horowhenua-Kapiti and Poverty Bay and Wairarapa-Bush.

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Whilst that competition gets underway, the Hurricanes U20s competition winds up this weekend. Hawke’s Bay play Manawatu and will need just a bonus point to win the title for the first time since 2012. Wellington play the Hurricanes Heartland U21s in Wellington.

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The Wellington Centurions have one more contest to go in their 2026 campaign, this coming weekend in Blenheim against the Tasman Development team. The Wellington Lions are also in Blenheim on Saturday, so presumably this will be a double-header.

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The Wellington Lions’ dire season plunged to a new low, beaten 46-35 by Counties Manukau at Hnry Stadium in their NPC match on Sunday afternoon. Supercharged by “Bricks on legs” Gibson Popoali’i, Counties won in the capital for the first time since 2010, scoring their highest total in Wellington since a 43-9 win in 1977. All Black and New Zealand Army serviceman Robert Kururangi scored three tries in that game. Kururangi won all eight games he played for the All Blacks on the 1978 (17-1) “Grand Slam tour.”

The Lions have lost seven consecutive matches and three in a row at Hnry Stadium, where they’ve won 103 of 145, for the first time since 2014. Wellington have lost 12 of their last 15 games and in each of those games conceded 35 or more points. Including this year’s two NPC pre-season games, Wellington has lost nine in a row.

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Halfback Riley Williams added real spark from the bench for Wellington, as did Divad Palu in his best display. Lock Hugo Plummer played with some courage and scored a try.

Counties-Manukau No.8 Cameron Church made 25 tackles and scored a try. Second five Popoali’i beat 13 defenders, eight more than the next best player.

Steelers blindside Leo Ngatai-Tafau (18 tackles) was very lucky not to escape a red card for his disgraceful foot trip, which would have been a red at many games. Down 21-12 when the incident happened, the Steelers scored two tries to lead 26-21, turning with the wind at halftime.

Counties-Manukau’s worst run in the NPC was five wins in 42 matches between 2006 and 2019 with no wins in 2007. The last time Counties only had one win in a full season was in 2019.

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The Wellington Pride beat the Otago Spirit 49-31 in their opening round Women’s NPC Farah Palmer Cup match on Saturday in Dunedin. This reverses a run of losses against them in recent years. Unfortunately there is scant information about the women’s NPC that we can find online. It appears that NZR themselves have abandoned covering the FPC this year. The Pride are at home this coming Saturday at Rugby League Park against the North Harbour Hibiscus.

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A shout out to Advent Va’a, who left the field with a nasty knee injury during the first half whilst playing first-five for the Wellington U20s on Saturday. Hopefully not too serious.

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As we alluded to in Saturday’s review, another good game on Saturday to Petone’s Archie Schrader, playing blindside flanker. As well as scoring the game’s first try he once more secured a couple of big turnovers and breakdown penalties, as he has done in every game we have seen him play since the Jubilee Cup final. Like this play here:

He is out of Rathkeale College in 2024, as is tighthead prop Hamish Huggins also involved in the start of this clip here (#17). A third Rathkeale player out of that same team is Johnny Falloon who is gaining valuable experience playing for the Lions at the moment.  Meanwhile, Mitchell Shields, a former Wairarapa College player, played well at blindside flanker for the Wellington Centurions in the second match at Rugby League Park on Saturday.

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The Wellington and Horowhenua-Kapiti Pasifika teams meet this Saturday – match details to come later this week.

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It is Winter Tournament Week and there are two college tournaments being held in the Wellington region this week.

The Hurricanes U14 tournament is being played at Wakefield Park from Monday-Wednesday, while the Hurricanes U15 tournament runs at Maidstone Park, St Pat’s Silverstream and Trentham Memorial Park from Wednesday to Saturday.

The 20 teams are the Hurricanes U15 tournament this week:

Division 1

• Pool A: Silverstream, St Peters, Feilding, Hato Paora
• Pool B: Kelston, Scots, Francis Douglas, St Thomas’
• Pool C: John McGlashan, Gisborne Boys’,  Dilworth.  St Bernards

Division 2

• Pool D: Aotea, HVHS, Manukura, Nelson College (B-team. A’s are at the “National” tournament)
• Pool E: HIBS, Stratford, Cullinan,e NP East Coast

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Well and good promoting the Māori language; efforts to do that should be encouraged, but despite broadcasting First XV rugby since 2022, the commentary on Māori TV leaves a lot to be desired. Little background information on the players, little knowledge of rugby, and did you know that Erene Nanai-Seturo is an All Black out of Tauranga Boys’ College or Hamilton Boys’ High School? The trouble is, he isn’t an All Black and didn’t attend either school. He went to St Kentigern in Auckland.

Westlake Boys’ High School made their fourth National Top Four final in five years with a 40-40 draw against Kelston BHS.  Westlake advanced on the first try rule, a ridiculous World Rugby Under-19 rule that New Zealand should rally to change. These are some of the fittest, youngest players on the planet and they don’t even play a full-length game to start with. Remarkably, a 1A Auckland school hasn’t won the Top Four since 2018.

The Boys Top 4 draw on Friday will see St Pat’s Silverstream play St Andrew’s College and Westlake and Tauranga Boys’ College meet in the other semi-final.

Manukura will be hot favourites for the Top 4 tournament in their bid to retain the trophy and keep it in the lower North Island. They play Christchurch Girls’ High School on Friday, while previously multiple winners Hamilton Girls’ High School will play newcomers Epsom Girls’ Grammar School.

EGGS will be an unknown quantity, having beaten Howick College in the Blues region to qualify. As an elite urban Auckland school, our previous experience with EGGS has generally been through other sports such as lacrosse, football and netball, but presumably their rugby team won’t be a side of Chloe Swarbricks acolyte and will come to play.

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The Hurricanes U15 girls tournament is at Levin is now a one-day tournament being played today, owing to a lack of entries.

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Stanley Solomon and Brad Shields injury updates anyone?

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Congratulations to James O’Reilly for reaching 100 NPC matches for the Lions

UPDATE: We forgot he played 17 games for Bay of Plenty, so it is 100 games overall in the NPC (83 for the Lions).

For Wellington, Jackson Garden Bachop (2024) and Tana Umaga (2007) as the two most recent Lions Centurions. Kevin Horan (1971-80) is Wellington’s most capped hooker with 98 Wellington A caps.

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The National Top Four was previously an invitation-only tournament, but twice missing out as a player remains a sore point for St Patrick’s College Silverstream coach Karl Davis. In 1987 and 1988, Davis was an outside back in the Kelston Boys’ First XVs that won the Auckland 1A competition but weren’t invited to the Nationals each year. In 1987 Kelston won 16 of 19 games and in 1988, 18 of 20 games, producing talent like future All Blacks Kees Meeuws, Va’aiga Tuigamala and Samoan international Apollo Perelini, yet they were overlooked. In 1989, Kelston finished second in 1A to Auckland Grammar but was invited to the National Top Four in Pukekohe and duly won the tournament, beating Wesley College 22-19 in the final. Karl’s brother Ivan Davis was in the backline. Kelston won 14 of 17 games that year. Perhaps Silverstream’s finest First XV also missed out on the National Top Four.

In 1988 Silverstream won 24 of 25 games, scoring 897 points, a record that stood until a 17-1 season scoring 957 points in 2017.

In 1988, Silverstream won the Wellington Under-19 club championship and all six interschool fixtures for just the fourth time since 1953, when they were 15-0 before the Top Four started in 1982. The 1988 Silverstream First XV was captained by hooker Shane McDonald, who later played 117 games for Taranaki. Future All Black Simon Mannix scored 217 points at first five-eighth. Future Scottish captain John Leslie played second-five. The coaches were former policeman Mark Guppy and Father Mark Walls, who won 170 out of 220 games in two tenures with the First XV.

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The All Blacks and the Springboks head back to Johannesburg this Saturday tied at one-all for the real series decider. Forget the gimmick Test in Baltimore, famous for Edgar Allan Poe, baseball, violent crime, severe sanitation, trash complaints, struggling public school performance, and deep-rooted economic and poverty challenges; Ellis Park is where it’s at. Will the All Blacks be brave and make some changes to refresh the lineup? Veteran hooker Codie Taylor looks tired; Tyrell Lomax is undercooked; Fletcher Newell is not a novice tighthead anymore.  Is openside Luke Jacobson a penalty merchant? Imagine Timoci Tavatavanawai off the bench in the last quarter against the fading Springboks. Is there a physical force more underutilised than “Jim” in the All Blacks?

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Has anyone taken a look at the ‘Business’ of the current All Blacks tour? What is it costing in millions, who is paying and is it taking resources away from the game back home?

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The crowd at Sunday’s NPC match in Wellington was at the southern end of the ground. The eastern side of the stadium in front of the television cameras was closed off because the stadium was also hosting the Food Show. To our knowledge this hasn’t happened before. Why? Is this the stadium doubling up on events or because of whatever contractual obligation the WRFU has to play every game there this year? Was the crowd told about this in advance?

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After a big impact from the bench in Manawatu’s come-from-behind 36-35 victory against Southland earlier in the NPC, first-five George Worboys secured the Turbos starting position. In this weekend’s season-saving win against North Harbour, Worboys kicked five penalties and converted all four tries for 23 points, the most by a Turbos player against North Harbour since Andre Taylor scored 27 in a 42-16 win in 2009. His cross-kick also directly led to a try for Mosese Bason, and he made the first pass in a break that led to a Kyle Brown try. Worboys’ 23 points are the most in any Manawatu player in a single game since Brett Cameron scored 23 in a 38-27 win against Southland in 2021, while his five penalties are the most since Cameron kicked six in a 39-21 win against Counties Manakau, also in 2021.

More impressively, in 2014 Worboys lost his younger brother Thomas ‘Toti’ Worboys to leukaemia at age 11. Together with his parents Nick and Amelia, George has helped The Children & Young People’s Cancer Association raise more than £250,000 for cancer victims and research.

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Northland held on to the Ranfurly Shield on Sunday with a gritty, compelling 20-10 win over Tasman. Their next challenger is Waikato.

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This public comment here on Wellington Rugby’s Facebook page by respected and experienced Petone man Mike Woollett below. Keeping in mind that Auckland has just cut their club competition to 10 teams and it is all over by the end of June for most players and they are languishing as well. Perhaps the correlation between hosting successful Super Rugby teams and having a NPC side in the same city needs to be looked at?

Where are all the developed 22-26 year old players that have been through acadamies in Wellington? The young guys that played today gave it there best shot but shouldnt really be in the situation of trying to perform at a level a cut above what they are ready for.

The Wellington clubs need to take some responsibility here as well.

They are the ones who have let a watered down 14 team club competition happen. There was an opportunity 15 years ago to cut the Premier competition to a 10 team competition. What did we do, increase it to 14 through a club vote.

Any man worth his salt knows a tougher club competition helps develop better players, especially given now that premier quality playing numbers are way down on what we have had in the past.

This is only part of the problem and any changes would take a few years to have any impact on our ability to be competitive again. There are many other challenges for the game as well.

So do we go the way of spending more money we haven’t got on outside players or do we look inward and do something positive ourselves?

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Good try here finished off by Wellington Axemen wing Fa’a Lokeni in the Wellington U20s 31-10 win over Manawatu on Saturday:

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