Sideline Conversions 12 October (some rugby news and information to start the new week)

Horowhenua-Kapiti No. 8 Mika Alaifatu scores a try that wasn’t on Saturday, after running on to a pass that was ruled forward by flanker David Leota-Johnson. H-K did score soon after and led with two minutes to play before a try on fulltime and then extra time momentum carried Whanganui to a 39-38 win. 

Monday morning edition – updates will be included and re-saved: That is the conclusion of 15s rugby for this season in Wellington, and it is just about all over in the lower North Island.

There is one match that is scheduled to be played this coming Saturday, that between the Wellington U85kgs and the Manawatu U85kgs. Match details are to be confirmed, and it was previously reported that they might be meeting halfway on the Kapiti Coast or Levin.

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Following that, there are some sevens tournaments coming up. The annual Condor 7s are at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday, 26 October. This is followed by the Hurricanes Schools 7s at Feilding a fortnight later and then the WRFU Club Sevens, all at Rugby League Park. The WRFU has two women’s tournaments on 31 October and 7 Novemeber and then two men’s tournaments on 21 and 28 November.

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In All Blacks news, Du ‘Plessis Kirifi is with the All Blacks in Sydney this week.

Asafo Aumua failed his second head injury assessment and will have a minimum twelve day stand-down.

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Disappointing that the Waikato U85kgs couldn’t front for their scheduled annual match in Taihape against the Wellington U85kgs. The Wellington side are down to play the Manawatu U85kgs this coming Saturday, so here’s hoping the match goes ahead.

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Look out for our annual Best & Fairest competition Teams of the Season article published here in the next day or two.

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Ohh Ahh Taniwha – Awesome to hear the The Northland Taniwha supporters break out into full voice at the end of their quarter-final on Friday night against Tasman. Not since the days of Umaga has a similar chant been heard on national television!

Otago beat Hawke’s Bay 50-19 in their quarter-final – that’s five losses in a row for the Magpies. Wellington supporters understand the feeling.

Canterbury had a big win over Waikato, so the semi-finals are:

• Northland v Otago, Friday night lights in Whangarei
• Canterbury v Taranaki, Sunday afternoon in Christchurch

Interesting that the winner of the first semi-final gets an extra full day and a half to prepare for the final.

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Poneke Women’s prop Keiana Roffey, Norths prop Faithe Finau and Petone outside back Keira Su’a-Smith have been selected in the Black Ferns U21s to play Australia NewGen in Christchurch on 31 October.

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Petone’s Bailey Nightingale and Norths’ Anyis Drossaerts-Lake (women’s) and Upper Hutt’s Preston Maraku, Wellington’s Johnny Edwards, Norths’ Rico Poutama and St Pat’s Town’s Charlie Carter (men’s) have been selected in the Māori U20s Invitational Sevens teams to travel to India.

The two Māori squads will depart for India on 21 October for a tour that will see them travel through Kolkata, Patna and Rajgir, before playing four competitive Sevens matches. The fixtures will include Tama Toa v India, Hine Toa v India, followed by two mixed matches, which will see players from each country mixed together for respective men’s and women’s matches.

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We understand that the 2027 club rugby draw, together with some structural tweaks that we previously alluded to, might be coming out soon!

It is also understood there could be some personnel changes coming up soon at the WRFU and these are completely separate to the fallout of the Wellington Lions which will surely spark the same – watch this space.

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What a legend – enjoy your retirement:

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More solid Premier club rugby appointments and reappointments in the case of MSP for next year:

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From the When in Rome Auckland Files:

Sideline Conversions notes the outrageous, screaming hypocrisy of Auckland Grammar School. Their team was in the final of the Secondary Schools Basketball Championships (against Westlake) last week, but due to their policy this game was not broadcast on the livestream like all other games. However races at the Maadi Cup rowing regatta featuring Grammar boats are still broadcast. Perhaps Rowing NZ simply tells Grammar to either accept it or not enter – and that is what all sports need to start doing to do to halt the encroachment on to the rest of the country of this policy. AGS went close to winning Auckland and making the National rugby Top 4 so what if there was a situation where St Pat’s Silverstream had played them but this wasn’t broadcast because of the latter’s objection? Who misses out? How sad it would be for Silverstream and Wellington supporters not to be able to see their team on the national stage because of this hubris.

Getting back to the basketball, Harper Wilson, son of Jeff Wilson got MVP for Westlake Boys’ who won.

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The Bledisloe Cup as a contest – maybe next year.

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South Africa it is then for next year’s RWC quarter-finals opponent for the All Blacks?

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Manawatu players John Tapueluelu, Ngani Laumape and Taniela Filimone have been selected to play for the Ikale Tahi, the Tongan national team. Many people say that Laumape should have been an All Black.

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An experienced management duo at the Eagles next year, and it looks like Gillies is asking us to ‘caption this’ but we won’t!

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Canterbury Women – After three consecutive final defeats, Canterbury romped to a 50-24 win over Auckland to claim their sixth Farah Palmer Cup (FPC) Premiership title. Since 2017, Canterbury have been the standard bearers in New Zealand women’s rugby, winning 69 of 79 games, with 2026 arguably their most dominant season, scoring 50 or more points in five wins, including the semi-final and final.

Players of real promise include fullback Winnie Palamo, wingers Louise Blyde (15 games, 12 tries) and Binky Muamua (12 games, 18 tries), hooker Hooly Wratt-Groeneweg, lock Paris Lokotui, loose forward Fiaali’i Solomon, and halfback Kelsey McCook. Former English international flanker Maisy Allen (5 Tests, 5 wins) was a dominant addition.

Only two previous occasions have a team passed 50 points in a FPC Premiership decider. In 2002, Auckland smacked Canterbury 53-3 in the midst of a 71-game winning streak. In 2018, Canterbury powered past Counties Manukau 52-29, with the Black Ferns’ most-capped player, Kendra Cocksedge, scoring 27 points.

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This column is winding down for 2026 but after a break to recharge and paint the house, it will burst forth again in the new year. It 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.

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!

A couple of recent tweaks/upgrades (ongoing) to the photos website, including:

1. A name change to photos.clubrugby.nz to go alongside clubrugby.nz and stats.clubrugby.nz
2. Uploading now complete of approximately 1,000 video clips and try scoring highlights from the last decade or so since we started doing this. All folders and galleries are ordered by year, so 2026, 2025, 2024 and so on down to the first photos back in 2006.