Sideline Conversions 19 October (some rugby news and information to start the new week)

The Wellington U85kgs plot their next move from the penalty and upcoming lineout in the corner in their match against Manawatu on Saturday.

Monday morning edition – updates expected later today: That’s it for 15s rugby for the year for most. Just the NPC final to come, but for many readers of this website, when your team finishes dead last it is hard to maintain peak interest to the end.

It is a Northland v Canterbury decider and neither team will go down wondering after the all-out attack of their semi-finals. After slaying Otago on Friday night in at times heavy rain, Canterbury held out Taranaki in bright sunshine on Sunday. The final is next Monday afternoon, on the surface a strange day for this, but apparently the Christchurch Stadium is out of action for some of the weekend and the NZRU want their decks cleared of rugby when the Black Ferns are playing.

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Rugby supporters in Wellington won’t be in a position to watch the NPC final because they will all be at the annual Wellington region secondary schools Condor 7s tournament at Naenae College. The Condors are being played all day next Monday. Look out for our preview of the tournament later this week or next Sunday as we gear up for it.

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The Condors 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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It is understood that Rathkeale College will be playing in this year’s Condors at Naenae, and they will have the jump on the rest of the field as the only Wellington-competition team that travelled to Napier on Saturday for the Napier Boys’ High School-hosted tournament. So perhaps disappointing that no Wellington team could make the trip up for this. Feilding High School beat Napier Boys’ High School 12-5 in the final. Rathkeale were beaten by Hastings Boys’ High School in their Plate semi-final. Hastings beat Whanganui Collegiate in the Plate final.

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Look out for Club Rugby’s annual ‘Awards’ article, as soon as the middle of this week. This is where we look at the rearview mirror at the season just played and canvas some of the highlights and memorable moments of the year covering rugby from the ground up. This will be from a handful of collaborative contributions, so if you have a favourite moment or match and a highlight (or a lowlight, but we try not to be negative here) please get in touch in the next couple of days.

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A shoutout to U85kg rugby, which continues to deliver with entertaining, exciting rugby. Wellington beat Manawatu 62-0 on Saturday, which was as reflective of their attacking play in which they scored 10 tries (five in each half) as their defence. Despite the score, Manawatu had a couple of strong periods on attack during the game and deserved points but Wellington held them out

They already back and run the U85kg club knockout tournament, but some format of a NZRU U85kg NPC would go well. Perhaps a Top 4 style tournament, after some regional qualifying could be the way to go about this.

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Vote in the Farmlands Club Legend competition for Wellington’s sole representative, Mike ‘Soody’ Sood.

To vote:

1. visit this link HERE
2. Find Mike ‘Soody’ Sood’s name (the order of the names are generated automatically each time the page refreshes).
3. Click the green vote button and watch the vote counter increase by one.

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He’s in! Whanganui take it! 🏆

#hiluxheartlandchampionship https://t.co/iYkxfWdT6p

— Hilux NPC (@HiluxNPC) October 18, 2026

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King Country won the Heartland Championship for the first time on Saturday, beating defending champions Mid Canterbury 24-14 in the final in Ashburton. The Rams had only two wins last season and have had just seven seasons with more wins than losses since the Heartland Championship began in 2006.

​King Country was one of three teams to win six of eight games in the round robin, while five other teams won five games. In the semi-final, they upset North Otago 36-24 in Oamaru. Halfback Kristian Gent-Standen scored two tries. First-five Hone Mathieson was a key figure and has scored 92 points for his province. Prop Joe Walsh, who played 75 games for Southland, strengthened the set-piece. Veteran hooker Liam Rowlands, with 63 appearances, was consistently reliable. Lock Peter Te Kahu has been a mainstay for two seasons, and openside Leveson Gower is a workhorse. Head coach Aarin Dunster played 113 games for King Country, including appearances with his son Cruise.

​King Country President Paul “Ox” Mitchell has played more games for King Country than anyone else (146). He is the younger brother of former All Blacks and England women’s coach John Mitchell. Paul is married to former New Zealand basketball player Shelley Meads, daughter of King Country’s most famous rugby identity, Sir Colin “Pine Tree” Meads, who played 139 games for the Rams. Black Ferns Rugby World Cup-winning captain Dame Farah Palmer and legendary commentator and writer Keith Quinn also hail from King Country.

King Country had only two wins last season and have had just seven seasons since the Heartland Championship began in 2006 where they won more games than they lost. Two World Rugby Hall of Famers, Sir Colin “Pine Tree” Meads and Dame Farah Palmer, as well as WRFU Academy Manager and 2000 NPC winner Dion Waller and legendary commentator and writer Keith Quinn, come from King Country.

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The Black Ferns beat France 81-12 on Saturday.

The Black Ferns’ biggest win in New Zealand was 95-12 against Japan at Eden Park in Auckland in 2022. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe scored seven tries. Their biggest win against France was a 109-0 demolition in Edmonton in 1996. Vanessa Cootes scored nine tries, still a world record for most tries by a female in a Test match.

Jess Breach holds the record for most tries scored on debut in a women’s international, scoring six tries forEngland in their 79-5 win againstCanada at Allianz Park, London on November 17, 2017. Breach lost for the first time in 60 Tests when Canada upset England 24-21 to end the Red Roses’ 41-game unbeaten streak in Toronto on Saturday.

The Black Ferns’ 81-12 win against France was their biggest since a 45-7 victory at the 2010 Rugby World Cup. Waikato winger Carla Hohepa scored two tries in that game.

The Black Ferns have won 40, lost five, and drawn one of their 46 home Tests. They are 5-0 in Hamilton and 12-0 at Eden Park, Auckland. Their away record is 83 wins in 103 Tests.

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Here is something rugby – particularly community rugby – could be doing in the future as AI and technology evolves and becomes common place:

“NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told CNBC this week that the league will be rolling out basketballs with built-in Bluetooth microchips as soon as 2027.

NFL fans are familiar with this technology. For years, an RFID tracking chip has been embedded in every NFL football used during games, practice, and training camp. Each player’s shoulder pads also have two RFID tracking chips, one on the left shoulder and one on the right. Combined with six Hawk-Eye optical tracking cameras located on the upper deck of each NFL stadium, this data powers Next Gen Stats. We’re talking about everything from a player’s location on the field to their top speed, acceleration, deceleration, separation, and distance traveled.

Teams use this data to scout players and track performance. TV networks use it to create visuals for their broadcasts. Fans dissect the data after every game, and the NFL packages it into fancy charts and dashboards to increase fan engagement.”

–Source: Huddle Up – a sports business newsletter by Joe Pompliano on Substack.

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This column is almost over for 2026 but hopes to return in the New Year.

It is a collaborative effort – so if you have news and information to share and post or want to help on an ongoing basis please send through.

Club Rugby thanks everyone that reads and supports our content and our sponsors and supporters as we close in (really close 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.