Fifteen of the country’s leading club sevens teams will be out to prevent a three-peat from the host side Eden RFC at this weekend’s National Club Seven tournament at Auckland. The Middlesex County Wavell Cup. Last year Eden became the first club since Dunedin’s Alhambra-Union to successfully defend the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup when the beat hot-shot Hawke’s Bay outfit Napier Old Boys Marist 24-14 in the wet in the Cup final at their Sandringham enclave...More

Club Rugby has made some website changes. Much of the existing website, such as the Draws & Results, Profiles, Photos and our story archives going back to 2005 (the links across the top of this page), remains untouched, but a new home page and a new template for current stories has been implemented. This is to start modernising the website and to make it easier to read and navigate for the majority of the audience who are on mobile devices, while also providing better value for our current and future partners and supporters...More

The festive season is a time for family and friends, for relaxing and making merry. But soon enough, the attention will turn to the 2019 rugby season. See below for this year’s 12 rugby questions of Christmas heading into another bumper year of local, domestic and international rugby. 1. Are Wainuiomata too old? With nearly a dozen players in their squad from last year with over 100 Premier games, Wainuiomata aren’t short of experience, but is this preventing youngsters (if they exist) from being promoted...More

This weekend’s National Sevens will feature 16 provincial unions who qualified at the Northern, Central and Southern Regional Qualifiers held at the start of December. Sixteen men’s and 12 women’s teams will vie for top honours at the Tauranga Domain. In the men’s division, Tasman, Wellington and Counties Manukau topped their respective qualifying events, with defending champions Waikato finishing second in their Northern Region tournament. South Canterbury and Wairarapa Bush join the 14 NPC Unions to round out the 2018 men's competitors...More

I’m struggling to muster enthusiasm for the Japan thing. That bit where one part of the All Blacks play a pretty meaningless further Bledisloe match, then another part full of players most of us have never seen before, play the Japanese national team. It’s no-one’s fault except the Wallabies that they don’t set the pulse racing. As I’ve said before, we play them way too often these days, and frankly, it’s not actually helping them nor the prestige of the Bled...More

Farah Palmer is a global women’s rugby icon, having played 35 Test matches for the Black Ferns and represented Otago, Waikato and Manawatu at provincial level. In 2014, Palmer was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and two years later the National Provincial Championship was named after her. Palmer was initially reluctant to have a trophy bearing her name. “It was in 2016 they convinced me to let that happen. I agreed on the basis that it was all about women and encouraging them to play the game,” Palmer recalls...More

Above: Vaea Fifita and Greg Foe and the Wellington Lions play Manawatu for the Coronation Cup this coming Sunday in Palmerston North, kick-off 4.35pm.  Losing may be bad, but sometimes winning is worse. Everyone’s talking about Saturday’s seismic result from the New Zealand perspective, as if that is all that matters. What, though, will South Africa take from it once the tears have subsided. Well, if they play to their strengths and play out of their skins for 80 minutes, they can match the All Blacks and rattle them badly...More

Bay of Plenty with the Graham Mourie Cup. PHOTO: https://www.facebook.com/NationalUnder19s/ Bay of Plenty have become the fifth different winner of the Graham Mourie Cup in as many years, dramatically defeating Canterbury 35-30 in the Premiership final of the Jock Hobbs Memorial U19 tournament on Saturday. The dying stages of the match categorially illustrated how sought after this title has become. Bay of Plenty was ahead 27-23 with eight minutes remaining. The Junior Steamers put together 17 phases and earned a penalty which fullback Kaleb Trask failed to kick...More

Action from the Wellington v Canterbury semi-final. PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.facebook.com/NationalUnder19s/ Either Bay of Plenty or Canterbury will be crowned the best Under-19 team in New Zealand on Saturday. On day two of the Jock Hobbs Memorial tournament at Owen Delany Park in Taupo, both unions enjoyed commanding victories in their respective Graham Mourie Cup semi-finals. Meanwhile in the Michael Jones Trophy a new champion will be anointed after Otago edged Counties 27-25. Counties was down 24-22 with five minutes remaining, but an angled 35-meter penalty by Tala Potifara regained the lead for the defending champions...More

Above: Kienan Higgins makes a break for it for Wellington against Taranaki on Sunday. PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.facebook.com/NationalUnder19s/  The top four has been resolved at the Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 tournament in Taupo. Bay of Plenty are the favourites to win the Graham Mourie Premiership after crushing Hawke’s Bay by a record score of 90-0. Two weeks earlier Bay of Plenty thrashed Taranaki 94-0 in the seeding rounds and are so far unbeaten in 2018. Bay of Plenty will tackle North Harbour in the first semi-final after they edged Tasman 28-25...More