Sideline Conversions 28 September (rugby news and information to start the week)

Commitment – Halfback Milly Mackey looks to get the offload away to Baylee Meroiti in driving rain in the second half of their win over Tasman on Sunday. Photo: Tane Nathan/Kinetic Images.

We are just about at the end of the line for representative 15s rugby for 2026, particularly in Wellington.

The Wellington Pride have a home Division 2 Farah Palmer Cup semi-final this coming weekend against Hawke’s Bay. Match details and venue to be announced.

The Wellington U16s have this weekend off, but this time next week will be in Whanganui for three days competing in their tournament, and defending their Division 1 Don Broughton Cup title.

The Wellington Girls U18s and Centurions Girls U18s are in Napier this week for their annual Hurricanes region camp.

The Wellington Lions will be trying to avoid a winless season and an end to stave off what would be a record run of 12 losses when they travel to New Plymouth to play Taranaki in their final match of the year.

The Wellington U85kgs play the first of their three represeantive matches when they travel to Napier to play the Hawke’s Bay U85kgs. More on this team below.

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More people at the Wellington U16s game at Lyndhurst Park on Saturday than the Wellington Lions on Sunday. Awful weather taken into account.

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Some positive rugby by the Wellington Pride on Sunday in some poor conditions. Another good game by teenaged wing/centre Ana Kerr, the St Mary’s College player scoring a first half try as they led 31-0 at halftime. Three tries between them by the replacement wings who were showing their skills from excelling in other sports. Baylee Meroiti (netball) scored one and Phoebe Edwards (athletics) two. The Pride won 53-14. Discipline will be a work-on heading into their semi-final against the Tui who beat them 37-29 a fortnight ago in Napier.

Phoebe Edwards – 2015 College Sport Wellington Female Sportsperson of the Year.

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North Harbour have won six NPC matches, five more than they did in 2025. Their three losses to top eight sides Tasman, Canterbury and Manawatu have been by a combined six points. Earlier this month, the Silverdale Procut Truffle Pigs won the U85kg National Club Cup, completing a 20-0 season. By contrast, Auckland have lost six out of nine with seven imports in their side. Sounds like Wellington.

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Up the Manawatu Turbos!

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Paying $9 on the TAB, decimated in the scrums and trailing at halftime playing into the wind, Counties Manukau pulled off the impossible by toppling top-of-the-table Northland to claim the Ranfurly Shield for just the second time and for the first time since 2013. First-five and Samoan international AJ Alatimu kicked a tricky 77th-minute angled penalty from 30 metres out to push the Steelers in front for the only time in the match, landing the goal from a similar spot to where he converted the match-tying try by elusive fullback Adam Morrison ten minutes earlier. Though Counties have won only three games, a win like this is one to hang a season on. Counties select almost exclusively local talent, enjoys growing participation numbers, and has a stable balance sheet, unlike Wellington, which has spent recklessly, recruited poorly, and has a toxic culture, as shown by events like the referees’ boycott and next to no one attending Lions games.

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In the Dame Farah Palmer Cup, Manawatū beat Auckland 41-38 in golden point extra time to win their first-ever match at Eden Park and claim the JJ Stewart trophy, the Ranfurly Shield of women’s rugby for the first time. Corrineke Windle kicked just her second penalty in 41 games to win the match.

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The Wellington Co-ed Schools U18s team were beaten 50-7 by the Taranaki U18s on Saturday in their second and final match of their inaugural campaign. But this could be seen as a respectable result, considering they were up against a combined New Plymouth Boys’ High School and Francis Douglas Memorial College First XV team. NPBHS had a good year in this year’s Super 8 and were third. A good exercise to ‘find their level’ and in future seasons perhaps the Co-ed Schools side could set up matches against Heartland U18s teams such as Wairarapa-Bush. They could even join Division 2 of the HYRC U18s competition. In summary, we support this team and hope it continues next year.

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The New Zealand Schools’ 86-0 win over the Waikato U19s on Saturday was their fifth-largest in 165 matches (142 wins). Either the NZ Schools this year are about to run red-hot or the Waikato U19s aren’t up to much this year, we will see soon when their international series unfolds.

In 1992 in Melbourne, New Zealand demolished Australia B 112-5 with some eye-popping numbers. New Zealand scored 18 tries and 11 conversions while the squad contained ten future All Blacks, including Jonah Lomu, Jeff Wilson and co-captain Nico Stanley’s dad Jeremy Stanley. Additionally, hooker Trevor Leota (Kelston BHS) and Ngapaku Ngapaku (De Salle College) represented Samoa.

The Māori U18s’ 59-6 win over Samoa Schools was their third-largest. They have won four in a row, their best run since winning their first five matches. Their overall record is 11-3.

The NZ U18s Barbarians held an opponent to zero for the first time in 22 matches (16 wins). Their 89-0 win against Tonga was marginally smaller than the 102-10 win against Samoa Schools in 2024. Wellington Lions No.8 Rupeni Raviyawa, out of Feilding High School, scored four of the 16 tries then. Perhaps the Island tourists would be better advised to face similarly strengthened opposition. However, funding often comes with the caveat that they face full-strength opposition.

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With Waikato beating Wellington 34-10 on Sunday, this was the 21^st occasion in 57 meetings (or at a 37 percent rate) since their first in 1953 that the winning team in this match has scored between 30-39 points. It is the third time that the winner has posted 34, with Wellington beating Waikato by 34-10 in 2017 in Hamilton. The most common winning score between Wellington and Waikato is 37, while the losing team has also posted between 30-39 on five occasions, including one losing score of 37.

Wellington’s Biggest Defeats to Waikato by Margin, NPC Era 1976-2026:

• 1989: 38-7, Hamilton
• 1992: 39-10, Wellington
• 1997: 41-14, Hamilton (Waikato beat Wellington 58-8 in a non-NPC game)
• 2020: 53-28, Hamilton
• 2026: 34-10, Wellington
• 2006: 37-21, Hamilton

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The Waikato union website is a barren wasteland though – the latest news section on it hasn’t had a post in two years!

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The Avalon Wolves are looking for coaches for next year:

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Jeremy Thrush to take over the assistant coach job Bryn Evans was doing at the Hurricanes?

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St Pat’s Town captain and Centurions U18s loose forward Remy Fitisimanu has been selected in the Lakapi Tama Samoa U18s for their current age grade series in Hamilton against the New Zealand Schools, U18s and U18s Maori sides, the two Australian teams and the Tongan U18s.

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The WRFU awards are being held on Wednesday 7 October, some of the awards on offer in the WRFU post below.

Plus the announcement of the Best & Fairest winners (men’s and women’s) amongst other awards.

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Our last ‘history profile‘ of the year being published on this website for the year coming up later this week. A legend of the game and an appropriate name associated with the U16s tournament next week in Whanganui!

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The Hurricanes announced the signing of Taradale and Hawke’s Bay’s Hunter Morrison:

“The Hurricanes are pleased to confirm the signing of Hawke’s Bay lock Hunter Morrison on a two-year deal beginning next season.

“Morrison joins the club [franchise] after impressing for the Magpies in this year’s NPC and is excited to have secured his first opportunity in Super Rugby Pacific.”

Morrison joins Otago’s Oliver Haig as second row signings. Can one or both replace Warner Dearns? Are they tall enough?

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Plenty of talk recently about restructuring the rugby season in New Zealand and what to do with various competitions, in particular Super Rugby and the NPC.

How would changes affect club rugby and local competitions? Whatever happens, does community rugby get considered or it is at the bottom of the pile and like a cork bobbing around on the ocean?

A question was asked who is representing the clubs on a national level? Not the Super Rugby franchises who call themselves ‘clubs’, but the actual clubs. The answer is that they come under Provincial Unions and the PU’s are there to look after their interests at a national level.

Would club rugby be better off and have a greater say if it effectively formed a union to amplify its collective voice? The ‘New Zealand Rugby Clubs Association’ could be more effective?

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On the same subject, there was some correspondence recently questioning the club rugby season calendar.

If the professional season is going to be re-structured, then instead of running club rugby competitions from April-July what about a July-October club season? In turn all the high performance and much of the representative rugby – and preferably the professional competition – can be played in the first part of the year, and it doesn’t affect the international rugby window for the elite players from July-November and in theory more players can return to their clubs over the second half of the year.

In this scenario, college rugby and age grade competitions could stay unchanged, as they follow the school year, whilst anything below Premier/Premier 2 club rugby could still be played earlier in the year.

Several pros and cons of this happening, not least a simple consideration like ground availability later in the year – but the point of suggesting this is to keep community and club rugby consideration in this discussion!

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The Wellington U85kgs have selected their team and have three matches coming up, these being:

• 3 October v Hawke’s Bay, Napier
• 10 October v Waikato, Taihape
• 17th October v Manawatu, Otaki/Levin TBC

Forwards: Codi Hannan – Paremata-Plimmerton, Edward Bloomfield – Tawa, Gus McKinnon – Tawa, Jasper Spencer – Pōneke, Kieran Mee – Johnsonville, Mike Francis – Johnsonville, Nathan Wanders – Tawa, Neo Adams – Paremata-Plimmerton, Pasia Asiata – Pōneke, Pouniu Sialafua – Paremata-Plimmerton, Sautia Misa – HOBM, Seamus Rowberry – Johnsonville (co-captain), Tom Doyle – OBU, Troy Howe – Tawa (co-captain), Will Tobin – Pōneke

Backs: Alex Morrissey – Pōneke, Ben Huntley – Pōneke, Campbell Withington – Tawa, Carter Stefanidis – Tawa, Connor Piper – HOBM, Dom Ernst – HOBM, Jakob Tainui – Petone, Lachlan Hannon – Paremata-Plimmerton, Max Rodgers – Pōneke, Ryan Carter – Paremata-Plimmerton, Ryan Preston – Tawa

Reserves: Joshus Tanielu – OBU, Hamish Mansell – OBU, Flynn Ruscoe – HOBM

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Sarah Hirini has re-signed with the Black Ferns Sevens, extending her contract through to the end of 2028.

Hirini’s new contract extends her professional career into a 16th season to make her NZR’s longest serving current professional women’s rugby player as she looks toward a potential fourth Olympic Games in Los Angeles Olympics.

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Black Ferns v England Chat

Heartbreaking, cruel, unlucky, the Black Ferns’ 26-19 loss to England was all of those things. The visitors had two-thirds of possession and territory. England made 283 tackles compared to the visitors’ 95, yet the Red Roses extended their unbeaten run to 41 matches.

English lock Morwenna Talling made 38 tackles; Lilli Ives Campion 32. Another five players made more than 20 tackles, including player of the match, loose forward Maddie Feaunati with 23. The Black Ferns’ top tacklers were Georgia Ponsonby and Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu with 11 each.

Ayesha Leti-I’iga was on fire with 16 carries, 98 metres gained, five defenders beaten, and two line breaks. In the fifth minute, she crashed over for what she thought was the first try, but it was ruled out on review for a double movement.

The rest of the attack was in sync, with all 16 lineouts secured and strong games from captain and hooker Ponsonby, lock Maia Roos, and No.8 Kaipo Olsen-Baker (24 carries, 10 tackles). England dominated the scrum, and a lack of discipline hurt, with the penalty count 11-8 in England’s favour. In the 52nd minute, Mahutariki-Fakalelu was yellow-carded for a high tackle on English veteran Marile Packer, who achieved her 106th win in 120 Tests. Jess Breach scored a soft try while New Zealand was down to 14. She has scored 58 tries in 59 Tests and never lost. English prop Hannah Botterman (65 Tests, 63 wins) made a sizeable impact from the bench.

Ellie Kildunne is England’s most popular female player. She even has her own Barbie doll. The Red Roses fullback was electric, gaining more meters than any player and making four linebreaks, including her 45th-minute try. England was gridlocked in a maul on the 22 and soon lost possession. Kildunne ripped the ball defiantly from the congestion and snuck shortside, darting 25 meters to score. Kildinne has scored 53 tries in 65 Tests, including at least one try in six of seven Tests against New Zealand.

The Black Ferns chanced their arm at fulltime by spreading the ball wide in their 22 and pushing for a win. An Amy du Plessis pass was intercepted, and the game was lost. In an All Blacks Test, such a risk would be deemed outrageous and the fallout immense, possibly career-ending. The Black Ferns defended du Plessis’ risk by saying their DNA is all-out attack and a draw is a loss. In a tournament format, perhaps that pass wouldn’t have been thrown, but in a one-off, why not? Is there really any difference between a big risk like the du Plessis pass and being pinged for hanging on, side entry, or any other infraction that gives the opposition a chance of success? Earlier, du Plessis scored a try and delivered the last pass for another.

The Black Ferns and England have jousted 34 times since their first Test in 1997. New Zealand have won 19 times, England 14, and the Red Roses have achieved five consecutive wins for the first time.

England’s first-ever match at Allianz Stadium was on 15th February 2003, when they whitewashed France 57-0. Since then, they have won 26 of 28 internationals, with their only two defeats to France in 2013 and 2015. The Black Ferns have lost all five Tests they’ve played at Twickenham against England.

England are unbeaten in 54 successive home internationals. Their last loss at home was to the Black Ferns 25-20 at the Stoop in London on 19 November 2016. Kendra Cocksedge scored 20 of the Black Ferns 25 points. The Black Ferns have won 122 of their 148 Tests.

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Absolutely farcical officiating in the Wallabies’ 42-38 win over the Springboks in Perth on Sunday night. It became 15 Springboks to 11 Wallabies, with cell-phone calls to the main referee from the television match officials because of a communication breakdown. The interference from the assistant referees was pedantic beyond reason and Eben Etzebeth clearly feigned injury. Everybody involved should be reviewed thoroughly and suspended if need be as players would be.

Australian wingers caught the high kicks – a major contrast with the All Blacks.

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This column is a collaborative effort – so if you have news and information to share and post please send through.

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

As of the end of September we can confirm that we are now in the process of uploading most of our video clips/tries highlights from our flash drives to the photos website so they are there as an online record going forward. A slow but steady job as there are now about 1,200 clips in this folder and all need to be sized and named appropriately. These will go alongside the 1,500 or so photo galleries at https://clubrugby.smugmug.com/ . As such we will be moving to upgrade this website soon as well.

We are working on a couple of ideas for fresh content packages next year. 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!