Final round of Women’s regular season tomorrow night

Perhaps under the radar of many is that the Wellington Women’s club rugby competition is rapidly coming to a close, with Friday night’s round under lights the conclusion of the round-robin and only the playoffs to come.
 
This is mostly due to the early start of the Women’s NPC with the Pride’s first game, a re-match of last year’s final away against the Auckland Storm, taking place on August 6. That’s the same day as the Men’s bucqui Jubilee and Hardham Cup finals, precluding the Women from playing the opening game on Finals day as they did last year.
 
In the Victoria Tavern Trophy Premier division, tomorrow night’s games pit Wainuiomata against Northern United at Alex Moore Park in Johnsonville at 7.30pm, while Avalon will play their final game of the year when they host Oriental-Rongotai at Fraser Park at 8pm.

All five sides know where they stand – Wainuiomata and Oriental-Rongotai are already guaranteed to host semi-finals and Norths and Old Boys-University (who have this week’s bye) know they’ll be on the road – but who’ll face who is still to be determined, giving plenty to play for.

Of note, several players involved with the inaugural NZ Tertiary Women’s Sevens team for their tournament in Wales from 6-9 July won’t be available for the semi-final playoffs. Wellington players on this tour include Joanah Ngan-Woo (Ories), Sauimoana Solia (OBU), Lizzie Goulden (Ories), Georgia Daals (OBU), Holly McDonald (OBU), Ruby Finau (Avalon) and Amanda Rasch (Ories).

Some of those possibilities for Friday night are:

• If Wainuiomata win then they will take top spot and will play Norths again next weekend, with Ories hosting OBU. The same also applies if Wainuiomata and Norths draw.
• If Norths win, then Wainuiomata will need both close-loss and try-scoring bonus points to ensure they hold onto top spot. Norths will need a bonus point as well to leapfrog OBU on the table.
• Ories can only take top spot if they win and Wainuiomata doesn’t. If Wainuiomata gets one bonus point then Ories would need a try-scoring bonus point as well, which is something they’ve achieved in every game they’ve played this year bar one.
• In the event there are ties on points Wainuiomata will be ranked higher than Ories, and OBU over Norths, because of their wins over the other in this round of matches.

Things are rather clearer cut in Division 2.  Hutt Old Boys Marist have already assured themselves of top spot and should have few problems in the 6.30pm kickoff at Fraser Park against the winless Upper Hutt Rams, who will end their debut season tomorrow night.  

HOBM would then take on Johnsonville-Tawa next week, unless the combined side springs a big surprise and beats MSP with a bonus point and holds their opponents without any in their clash at Te Whaea at 7.30pm. On form though you’d expect MSP to win, which would see them take on Poneke – who have the bye – in the other semi-final.