Pride win semi-final, maiden win for the Wellington Co-ed Schools, U85kgs reps win well, lower NI Heartland teams advance to semi-finals

Trytime for the Wellington Co-ed Schools against the Wellington Māori U18s. Photo: Andy McArthur.

• By Steven White & Scott MacLean

The Wellington Pride defeated the Hawke’s Bay Tuis 54-26 in today’s Farah Palmer Cup Championship division semi-final at Rugby League Park, while the Wellington Co-ed Schools won their maiden victory in beating the Wellington Māori U18s 33-20 down on Evans Bay Park in two matches in Wellington today.

Elsewhere, Horowhenua-Kapiti, Wairarapa-Bush and Whanganui will all be featuring in next week’s Heartland Championship Lochore Cup semi-finals.

Some more on today’s action below.

The Wellington U85kgs representative side opened its three-match campaign with a 45-12 win over the Hawke’s Bay U85kgs in Napier.

Wellington led 19-5. Tries were scored by Will Tobin, Jakib Tainui, Wiggy Bloomfield, Ryan Carter, Troy Howe, Seamus Rowberry, Kieran Mee.  and Dominic Ernst (2) and Max Rodgers (3) kicked conversions. Player of the Match was Paremata-Plimmerton’s Codi Hannan.

Played in awful conditions, Wellington went down early to a charged down clearing kick, but fought back well settling into their structure to hold a solid lead at the half. The full 25-player squad contributed but much to work on ahead of meeting the strong Waikato side next week.

The Co-ed Schools ran in five tries to the Māori U18 team’s four and led 12-10 in a well-contested conclusion to their seasons.

The Wellington Pride will host Northland next weekend in their 2026 Women’s Division 2 final after beating Hawke’s Bay 51-26 in today’s semi-final at Rugby League Park.

The Pride won eight tries to four and returning Black Ferns first-five Arene Landon-Lane kicked a late penalty for them to raise the half century.

Despite the scoreline, the Pride were asked to work hard for their win, overcoming difficult weather conditions, their own first half lineout and unforced errors and two long injury breaks to Hawke’s Bay players early in the second half.

They opened the scoring early by keeping the ball alive in broken play and teenaged left wing Ana Kerr cutting in on an angled run to score her eighth try of the season.

There was no further scoring until the 20^th minute mark when the visiting Tui scored through No. 8 Talaivosa Lolohea under the posts to level it up 7-7.

This spurred the Pride into action, and they ran in another four tries to lead 31-7 at halftime, turning to play into the wind. Landon-Lane created spark twice for centre Melania Paraone and halfback Milly Mackey to both cross. Two tries following consecutive penalties and forwards drives led to lock Eva Maora and hooker and captain Vailani Vaka scoring.

Right wing Fia Laikong ran on to a kick put through by second five Litia Buliacakau after a break by Paraone to extend the lead to 36-7 just after halftime.

A couple of injury breaks characterised the next period of play, followed by both teams scoring again, Vaka scoring her second for the Pride.

The Tui enjoyed another strong period of the match and they ran in two more tries to close the gap to 48-26. They were hunting another and an unlikely comeback when the Pride turned it over and set off up field, leading to Landon-Lane kicking a penalty to give the final score.

The Pride will play Northland next week, after the Kauri beat Otago 54-19 in the other semi-final.

The Wellington Lions play Taranaki in New Plymouth on Sunday afternoon for the John F Henning Trophy, while the Hurricanes Youth Council’s U16 tournament is this Monday-Wednesday in Whanganui.

Heartland Championship

Wairarapa-Bush used a big final quarter and a hat-trick to centre Caleb Robson to subdue a plucky East Coast side by 56-26 at Masterton’s Memorial Park this afternoon.

In dreary, showery, and cold conditions both sides had early chances, but it was the hosts who opened the scoring. A Coast clearing kick was partially charged with the ball falling into the hands of winger Charles Mataitai – playing his 25th and Blazer game – who beat his opposite into the southeast corner. In what became a tit-for-tat first half East Coast scored next before the Bush replied almost straight away; from a midfield scrum East Coast dropped the ball cold and Mataitai scooped it up and ran 40m to score. East Coast would respond through a textbook lineout drive before Robson got his first, pirouetting across from close range. But despite being down a man, the visitors closed it to just two points at the half when they went in under the posts after the Bush proved unable to shut it down after a goal-line dropout.

After the interval the home side dominated territory but couldn’t land the final blows. The introduction of Folau Finau-Vea, Soli Malatai, and Archie Bennett gave them some impetus and it paid off when Robson snuck across for his second after a quick tap just 5m out. Just five minutes later Malakai Biumaiwai strolled over, followed two minutes after that by Leon Tuiloma, and if that wasn’t enough Robson scored his third when he hobbled over in the corner having been down receiving treatment moments prior. East Coast got a deserved fourth try with what was really their only opportunity in the final 20, before Hayden Cooper completed matters. First-five Josh Pepperell nailed all eight conversions.

In Westport Horowhenua-Kapiti did what they needed to in notching a 52-26 win over Buller. Winger Leighton Ralph scored a hat-trick, while loanees David Johnson (2) and Kafaonga Katoa also got across the line.

Those performances were ultimately in vain in terms of improving their standings though. The big result of the day was in Whanganui where the Butcher Boys turned around an early 0-14 deficit to down leaders King Country 31-21. The Rams failure to even get one bonus point proved significant, as Mid-Canterbury leaped into top spot with a 39-34 win in Ashburton over Thames Valley, and North Otago’s 71-33 romp over West Coast combined with their earlier 22-21 win over King Country means they hold the tiebreaker, and will host the Rams next weekend. The two bonus points Thames Valley got was enough to see them hold onto fourth and a return trip to Ashburton next week.

South Canterbury’s 52-29 win over Poverty Bay wasn’t enough for them to make the Meads Cup either.

Next week’s semifinals look like this:

Meads Cup

• (1) Mid-Canty vs (4) Thames Valley
• (2) North Otago vs (3) King Country

Lochore Cup

• (5) South Canty vs (8) Wairarapa-Bush
• (6) Horo-Kap vs (7) Whanganui