Tight playoff race set to continue this Saturday

With just three weeks remaining until the playoffs, it could hardly be tighter at the sharp end of the club competition in the bucqi Jubilee Cup where just a handful of points separate the contenders and any misstep at this stage could prove costly.

Elsewhere the first set of playoffs for the year take place with the Women at the semi-final stage, and significant matchups up and down the grades; and with tomorrow’s forecast looking clear, albeit cool, conditions should be ideal for rugby.

This week’s main game on the radio is the Marist St Pats vs Upper Hutt Rams game from Evans Bay with Adam Julian having the call from RadioSport (1503AM). Gordon Noble-Campbell and Paddy Gough will have the Old Boys-University and Poneke game at the Basin Reserve on 1161AM and tunein.com.

Premier bucqi Jubilee Cup

With the top team losing and the bottom side winning last weekend the table has become compressed with just five points between leaders Oriental-Rongotai and Wellington in seventh, and with no fewer than four teams on 11 points. Even Tawa, three points adrift at the bottom of the ladder, aren’t out of it yet.

Once again the majority of the action tomorrow is in the city. Starting at Evans Bay Marist St Pat's (11 points) will have to put last week’s loss to Poneke behind them when they welcome the Upper Hutt Rams (10) to Evans Bay with the Bill Brien Challenge Cup at stake long with valuable competition points. The Rams may want a better start than last week when they found themselves trailing 7-24 to Ories at Polo before kicking into overdrive to run out 41-29 winners; and while success at home remains an issue, road trips seemingly present few problems. MSP’s second half swoon was uncharacteristic, especially in light of their dominant performance a week earlier against OBU.

Upper Hutt have named an unchanged forward pack, but in the backline assistant coach Ben Aoina straps on the boots to play at #10, Petara Rikiriki returns to fullback, and Max Pearson remains at centre with twin brother Nik making a nowadays rare star outside him on the wing. MSP bring Vince Sakaria back into the front row, while their other two changes are in midfield with Isaia Petelo restored after coming off the bench in his return from international duty and he’ll be partnered by Lote Raikabula who turned out for the Hardham Cup side last weekend.

Just up the road Wellington (9) return home, with Tawa (6) the visitors to Hataitai Park. With these two sides currently occupying the bottom-two places on the ladder it shapes as a must-win for both, as the loser will find they’ll need not just their own wins, but will likely also be reliant on other results to go their way if they are to make the playoffs.

Wellington have shuffled their deck, with Alex Dazell moving into lock to accommodate another loose forward in Ryan Hapi and Sam Gard’ner shifting back to openside, with Eremia Tapsell replacing Ahtun Masun in the backline and Matthew Goosen moving to centre. Conversely Tawa makes just a single change coming off their success at Westpac Stadium over Wainuiomata with Tito Ioane in at lock. Their last meeting came all the way back on the Opening Day of the season, where the Axemen prevailed by 32-19.

The only match between sides that both won last weekend is at the Basin Reserve where two of those sides on eleven points, Old Boys-University (11) and Poneke (11), clash. The Goats returned to winning ways over Wellington, and will be out to avenge the only loss (20-23) that they suffered during their victorious Swindale campaign. Poneke earned local head-to-head bragging rights for the summer with their win over MSP and will clearly fancy their chances of doing the season double over the defending champions. Their changes for tomorrow are all in the tight five with Hennie Tui and Tevita Falekakala back in the front row and NZ U20 rep Isiah Walker-Leaware named at lock.

The Goats are another side with just one change, with Daven Candy replacing Hugh Renton at the back of the scrum, perhaps with an eye on Poneke’s willingness to contest the breakdown, with Best & Fairest leader Wes Goosen again in club colours after being overlooked by the Hurricanes for this weekend.

The only game out of the city is around the harbor and over the hill, with leaders Oriental-Rongotai (14) making the circuitous journey to face Wainuiomata (11) at William Jones Park, where the atmosphere could well have be determined by the result of the Women’s semi-final earlier in the day. Both sides come in on the back of performances they’d like to forget – Ories blowing a large lead to Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata never really got started against Tawa.

Wainuiomata have rattled off the changes for tomorrow. Josh Kohika comes in at hooker for injured veteran Justin Va’a, Jalan Ferris and Ben Tupuola are restored to the loose trio, there are recalls for backs Jason Love and Isaiah Mamea, and Peter Umaga-Jensen returns from NZ U20 duty at fullback. Loosehead prop Norm Fa’aliga is also playing his 150th match tomorrow for the green and blacks. His compatriots, and former Scots College teammates, Alex Fidow and Malo Tuitama, are at hooker and centre respectively for the Magpies, and their returns are needed for a team that’s down on manpower. Declan Hay is giving the job of steering the side at #10.

All four Jubilee Cup matches kickoff at the usual time of 2.45pm.

Premier 2 Hardham Cup

It’s a different story in the Hardham Cup where Hutt Old Boys Marist, Norths, and Petone have cleared out at the head of the table. All three could potentially seal semi-final places as early as tomorrow if they take bonus-point wins (and Johnsonville does not do the same), which would leave the other five sides battling it out for the last place over the remaining two weeks.

HOBM and Norths both face 1pm assignments, away to the two ‘B’ sides. The unbeaten HOBM Eagles (19 points) travel to the Basin Reserve to take on OBU B (5), who have slid to the bottom of the table, and have named a strong looking side that includes James O’Reilly at hooker and Brandyn Laursen reverting to fullback. The Goats seconds usually pull off a win over a Premier side when they’re in the Hardham Cup, and would like nothing better to take down the competition leaders.

Northern United (16) head through the tunnel to face MSP B (9) in the early game at Evans Bay. The hosts came close to snaring a second Premier scalp last weekend against Johnsonville, but ultimately had to settle for a draw and what could be still three valuable competition points. Norths however will present a step-up to meet, with the visitors looking to retain their advantage over Petone, who they meet in the last round, for the right to host a semi-final. Two Norths players, winger Jonty Garrett and former Scots College loose forward Patrick Fenika, will make their starting Premier debuts.

The remaining games are both 2.45pm kickoffs. At Ngatitoa Domain Paremata-Plimmerton (9) welcome Petone (15) to the harbourside with both coming off wins last weekend. The home side will be the underdogs, but will have taking heart from pushing Petone when they last met six weeks ago, and will be keen to put in a good performance in what seems, at this stage, likely to be their last home game of the season. Petone put their loss to HOBM a week earlier behind them with a first-half blitz of Avalon, but were forced to defend in the second stanza to hold out the Wolves’ fightback.

Back to the south Avalon (5) make the journey to Helston Park to face Johnsonville (8) for the second time this year. The Wolves have climbed off the bottom of the table, but are still looking for their first win and were left ruing a slow start that saw them playing catch-up against Petone last weekend. The home side rebounded from their shellacking’s the two previous weeks to draw 29-all with MSP however are still winless against Premier opposition.

Avalon’s last win came in the two’s previous encounter, eventually running out 36-18 winners in a stop-start encounter, and will be looking for the same outcome while Johnsonville hope differently. Avalon’s U20 rep Asafo Aumua returns at hooker, while Johnsonville won’t have the services of their allocated Hurricane Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi.

Premier Reserve Ed Chaney and HD Morgan Cups

What’s been established so far is that the teams in the Ed Chaney division have had their way in the crossover matches, with none of the HD Morgan division sides able to register an upset as yet. This weekend however sees an equal number of inter and intra-division games.

The two Ed Chaney contests look interesting, on paper at least, as top-side Norths host Poneke at Porirua Park and the Upper Hutt Rams visit Hutt Old Boys Marist at the Hutt Rec. However, all four sides could be depleted with their top sides all playing in the city, particularly the two home sides who’s Premiers at playing at the same time.

Across in the HD Morgan winless Johnsonville host Avalon in the early game at Helston, with leaders Wainuiomata and Oriental-Rongotai clashing in the second of three games at William Jones Park. The remaining matches are crossover affairs with Paremata-Plimmerton taking on Petone at Ngatitoa and Tawa visiting Wellington at Hataitai.

All matches kickoff at 1pm.

Colts John E Kelly Memorial

It’s also approaching crunch time in the Colts top-flight. The highlight game of the round has Old Boys-University, the new leaders after beating Tawa last weekend, take on the last remaining undefeated side; third-placed Poneke. This game was originally scheduled for tonight at Te Whaea but has been moved to tomorrow on Kilbirnie #2.

Elsewhere Norths will be looking to drag themselves back into semifinal contention against winless Johnsonville at Porirua Park, Upper Hutt will want to stay within striking distance when they host HOBM at Maidstone, and Tawa will want to stay in-line for a home semifinal against Wellington at Lyndhurst Park. All four of these matches kickoff at 1pm, while it’s a 1.30pm start for the local derby betweenMSP and Oriental-Rongotai, who are fourth and fifth respectively, on the St Pat’s artificial. 

Under 85kg Paul Potiki Shield

The lightweight’s round also starts tonight, with Johnsonville and the Kapiti side meeting under lights at Alex Moore Park in a game that could determine the semi-final aspirations of both.

Tomorrow’s three games are all 2.45pm kickoffs. Defending champions and leaders Tawa will remain at the top of the pile no matter what tomorrow, and could end the weekend already assured of a semi-finals berth should they beat first-round winners and second-placed Wellington at Te Whaea. Elsewhere midtable pair Poneke and Avalon clash at Kilbirnie and the bottom-two – the Upper Hutt Rams and OBU Bunnies – meet at Maidstone Park. Third-placed Eastbourne has this week’s bye.

First Grade Johnsonville Centennium Cup

Like the Colts and 85s, the first grade round starts tonight with top-four pair Avalon and Hutt Old Boys Marist meeting at Fraser Park.

The remaining games tomorrow are also all 2.45pm starts. The Petone Brotherhood have cleared out at the top of the ladder and form indicates that they should have little difficulty adding to that against their Saxon clubmates at the Petone Rec. Norths will look to stay second when they host Poneke at Porirua Park, while OBU will look for valuable competition points after successive losses against bottom side Tawa at Nairnville. Marist St Pat's has the bye.

WelTec College Premiership and Premier 2

Just three games tomorrow in the Premiership ahead of the school holidays, which is also the final round of matches for half the teams. Coming off their loss to Christ’s College in their annual Quad final Wellington College should have few problems returning to winning ways when they visit winless St Bernard’s at 2.30pm, while before that Bishop Viard makes the journey over to Masterton to take on Wairarapa College at 1pm, with the winner of that likely to finish 6th and qualify for the playoffs.

The highlight game of the day is at Rongotai, where the home school and neighbours Scots clash at 2.30pm. Neither seem likely to get a bye through to the semi-finals – St Pats Town have already secured one of those and Wellington College would have to lose both of their remaining matches to miss out – but at stake could be the right to host one of the quarter-final qualifiers in three weeks’ time and particularly the one against either Wairarapa or Bishop Viard.

The remaining game of the round is the St Pat's Town vs Silverstream traditional, which will be played and televised live on Wednesday 27 July. The Wellington College vs Bishop Viard game deferred from last weekend will be played on Tuesday 26 July.

In Premier 2 Tawa’s surprise loss to Porirua has seen coast pair Paraparaumu and Kapiti leapfrog them at the top. Paraparaumu have the easiest assignment of the three tomorrow, but it’s a still potentially tricky trip to Taita. Kapiti host Porirua, whose win over Tawa put them back into contention, while Tawa are at home against fourth-placed Wainuiomata who have already beaten them once this year. In the remaining games Aotea welcome winless Hutt International with all four matches at 2.30pm, while the St Pats Town 2nds face their Silverstream counterparts on Kilbirnie Park at 1pm.