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Above: Flashback to 10 years ago – the Upper Hutt Rams after winning the 2016 American Ambassador’s 7s series.
The time remaining in the year is getting shorter and so are these columns. But a few things below this week, which will be added to as news comes in.
First a reminder of what’s coming up this month, which has been renamed Sevensvember:
- 14 November: Hurricanes Youth Council College 7s, Feilding High School
- 21 November: WRFU American Ambassador’s 7s Leg One, Rugby League Park
- 28 November: WRFU American Ambassador’s 7s Leg Two, Rugby League Park
Details of the Hurricanes secondary schools tournament to be firmed up later this week, but it understood that there is a bit extra riding on this than past years as it is a qualifier for those schools that haven’t locked in their National Condor 7s spots from their regional qualifiers. In Wellington, that is any schools that enter other than St Pat’s Silverstream and Wellington College (boys) and St Mary’s College (girls).
Sideline Conversions has also been told that at least 13 teams are confirmed for the men’s WRFU tournaments, which will mean full days of action and spillover matches up on Te Whaea in pool play.
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In news to close out this past weekend, College Sport Wellington held its annual SPOTYS awards on Sunday. The male and female Rugby Players of the Year were:
- Fletcher Cooper (St Pat’s Silverstream)
- Fono Bason (St Mary’s College)
St Mary’s College’s long-time rugby manager and organiser Mark Hurley also won the Contribution to School Sport award.
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News from Paremata-Plimmerton these past few days with the announcement they are heading for the Coral Coast 7s tournament in Fiji in January, and a fund-raising campaign to come:
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Jobs for the boys. Jeremy Thrush and Sam McNicol will join the Hurricanes coaching staff as assistant coaches for the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific campaign.
The addition of Thrush and McNicol, both former Hurricanes players, finalises next year’s coaching group, where they will join head coach Clark Laidlaw and fellow assistants Cory Jane, Jamie Mackintosh, and Roger Randle.
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The All Blacks beat Scotland 43-21 on Sunday morning NZT.
England defeated Australia 45-22 on Monday morning NZT.
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The New Zealand Heartland XV beat Manuma Samoa in their second match in Timaru on Friday. At chat with Horowhenua-Kapiti win Connor Paki:
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A brutal win in the boxing win this weekend for former Wellington College loose forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona. He finished off his opponent and then headed into the crowd WWF style and continued his bout down there.
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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 (very, very close to hitting that mark 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. After doing this for a while now, we recognise that content is king, so these are based around some meaty regular stories for 2027.
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!
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