Wellington U85kgs shut out Manawatu U85kgs, King Country win Meads Cup

Johnsonville No. 8 and Wellington U85kg captain Seamus Rowberry scores the second of his two tries in Wellington’s comfortable win over the Manawatu U85kgs in Feilding on Saturday.

• By Steven White

A well-drilled Wellington representative U85kg team beat their Manawatu counterparts 62-0 in their one-off fixture played at Johnston Park, Feilding on Saturday afternoon.

In cloudy, dry conditions, the Wellington team outscored their Manawatu hosts 10 tries to nil, after leading 31-0 at halftime.

A dominant scrum and committed work at the breakdown allowed Wellington’s pack to establish the upper hand early and, despite a couple of bursts of threatening moments by Manawatu, were well in control.

No. 8 and captain Seamus Rowberry led from the front and scored two first half tries, while there were were strong matches from all the front rowers that took the field as well as both starting locks, Hamish Mansell and Neo Adams. First year senior Tawa halfback Carter Stefanidis and HOBM Premier first-five Dominic Ernst often proved too hot to handle.

Wellington opened the scoring early by the man with no number after some good build-up work and then doubled it to 10-0 with a second try to lock Adams. A tap penalty and burst over the whitewash by tighthead prop Gus McKinnon and the first conversion of the day to wing Max Rodgers put Wellington up 17-0 inside the first quarter.

Captain and No.8 Rowberry then scored his first try to extend Wellington’s lead to 24-0.

Manawatu regrouped and enjoyed a positive period on attack inside Wellington’s 22, culminating in them being held up over the line and they probably deserved a try for some committed lead-up work.

Instead Wellington poured back on to attack and Rowberry scored his second and Wellington’s fifth try on halftime.

Wellington’s forwards continued their close-quarter attack and came up with their sixth try early in the second half. A penalty and a lineout soon led to second five Flynn Ruscoe scoring after some phase play.

Wellington’s backs were getting in on the action at this point and and a kick ahead after a scrum on their own side of halfway led their eighth try and a 50-0 lead.

This soon became 55-0 when Ernst, sporting a beach blonde haircut, sailed through a gap in general play and put his foot down to go all the way to the tryline in what was the best open field try of the afternoon for the hearty crowd of mostly locals.

Both sides made full use of their eight-man benches and the match evened up over the last quarter, Manawatu again getting their hands on the ball for longer periods and going close to scoring on at least a couple of occasions.

Wellington had the final say, scoring their final try of the afternoon after another period stretching the defence and taking a tap penalty close to the chalk.

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This concludes the Wellington U85kgs short campaign, which consisted of just two matches after Waikato were unable to front last weekend. They had earlier beaten Hawke’s Bay 45-12.

It is also the end of the road for 2026 for 15s rugby for Wellington and Manawatu representative teams, with the 7s season to come.

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The King Country Rams won their first title in 35 years and took home the Meads Cup after their most famous son with a 24-14 win in the tier 1 Heartland Championship decider over Mid Canterbury in Ashburton.

The Hammers had ridden a wave of home town support to take a 14-5 lead into halftime. King Country dug deep early in the second half and after 14 phases of solid attack they scored a try in the blindside corner to prop Joe Walsh.

The Rams then turned attack into stoic defence, holding out the Hammers for long periods, before tries in the 65th and 76th minutes, both converted gave them a 10-point win.

The Lochore Cup decider is being contested on Sunday between home side South Canterbury and visitors the Whanganui Butcher Boys.