Closely contested Women’s club finals expected

Above: The Wainuiomata and Hutt Old Boys Marist scrums pack down against each other a few weeks ago. Tomorrow Wainui hosts Oriental-Rongotai in the Division 1 Women's final and HOBM hosts Marist St Pat's in the Division 2 final. 

The first of the WRFU’s championships will be determined early on Saturday afternoon when the Women’s Victoria Tavern Trophy is decided.

This year’s Premier final will be played out at Wainuiomata’s William Jones Park between the home side – last champions in 2012 – and 2014 winners Oriental-Rongotai.

Notably for the first time in several seasons Northern United will not be part of it, and unlike last year the final will not be part of the Premier finals day programme due to the Women’s NPC kicking off on 6 August, the same day as the Jubilee and Hardham Cup Finals this year.

At this stage last year Wainuiomata found themselves in the second-tier having missed out on the Premier division after finishing sixth in the round-robin. While they took that title comfortably it seemed an underwhelming outcome.

This time around they finished third in the Fleurs Trophy, winning seven of their nine games and contenders up until a narrow loss to Norths in the penultimate round on a cold night at Ascot Park. They had however announced their presence with their 29-15 win over Ories two weeks before that.

Then followed an unbeaten Victoria Tavern Trophy round-robin, starting with avenging their only other loss this season with a 28-17 win over Old Boys-University. The following week in the Gala round at the Petone Rec they trailed Ories 0-18 at halftime and 14-30 after 60 minutes before rallying with three late tries to win 31-30. Wins over an understrength Avalon (83-3), and Norths (19-12) saw them finish top-qualifier where they beat Norths for the second successive week - this time by 35-10 - to claim the right to host the decider.

Skipper Maryann Collins sums up the team’s feelings going into the final “The team is excited and quietly nervous. It’s going to be a big weekend for our team; we have a mixture of players who have played in rugby finals and a few who will be playing their first finals so there will be some anxious girls in the team. If we win it will mean a lot to the girls, we have worked hard to get here I can't speak for them but for me winning the finals will just top off the amazing season. This weekend we play for each other, our family, supporters, the club and also for Wainui in general.”

“I like to think that the strength of our team comes from everyone that has been part of the team right from the start from our management team to all who play. We have a few key players – our Black Fern Jackie Patea has been a real stand out in the forwards, together with Brooke Tauaneai, Eseta Mamea and Kiri Mei. In the backs Acacia [Te Iwimate] has been steering the ship with her precise passing and kicking and fullback Nelly [Chanelle] Kohika-Skipper has been gracing us with her blistering speed. We will be concentrating on all areas especially our ball security and defence.” she added.

Oriental-Rongotai will contest the final for the fourth straight year. Last year they qualified top, but with the final played as the curtainraiser to the Hardham and Jubilee Cup deciders they had to travel and play Norths at Porirua Park.

Given their level of recent success, reclaiming both the Fleurs and Victoria Tavern trophies would seem to have been the minimum return going into the year. Racking up big wins in their opening three matches was a signal of intent, but were perhaps underdone in losing to Wainuiomata after both MSP and Johnsonville-Tawa defaulted to them in the weeks prior. That loss contributed to them being five points adrift of Norths when the two met in the final match of the first-round, meaning they couldn’t win the Fleurs Trophy outright but could claim a share with their great rivals if they took a bonus point win and held Norths without any competition points, which they did with a 26-12 win.

In the Victoria Tavern round-robin they had the bye first up before that second loss to Wainuiomata, however wins over OBU (32-22), Norths (52-5), and Avalon (94-3), saw them qualify second, where they beat OBU 41-10.

Ories should get three players who missed last week’s semi-final back, with Lizzie Goulden, Amanda Rasch, and captain Joanah Ngan-Woo all returning from the University 7’s in Wales. Like her opposite, Ngan-Woo knows what being in the final means for her side. “The team is so fizzed and excited to have the opportunity to play the final this week, it would mean a lot to the team for all our hard-work and sacrifices, especially from our coach and management who have put endless amounts of time and effort into the girls, to have paid off”.

“(The) strengths of my team would be the depth we have from numbers 1-27,  how we have a range of experienced players such as prop Raylene Lolo, Amanda Rasch, workhorse Kirsty Stewart, and Lizzie Goulden; as well as young emerging talent from the likes of Alicia Print, Ayesha Leti I'iga and Tylah Reihana-Aukuso. We will be concentrating on cohesion, playing our own game, playing how we train and ultimately having fun.”

Both captains are also clear on what they need to do to be successful on Saturday; “To beat the opposition it is going to take a lot of patience and commitment. Ories are the sort of team that if we make a mistake they will pounce on it and take the opportunity with open arms. They have a strong forward pack and backs with lots of speed and skill so our defence has to be on point” says Collins, while Ngan-Woo offers “I believe it is going to come down to who wants it more from the get go, Wainui are a physical team that front up and play the full 80, however we will do what we do best, focus on ourselves and be the tight unit we are.”

On the season Wainuiomata have scored 685 points including 112 tries, and conceded 140. Ories have 107 tries in their total of 719 points – which came in two fewer games than Wainuiomata’s owing to defaults – and conceded just 126. Flanker Mei is Wainuiomata’s top points scorer on the year with 115, including 16 tries that ties here with Skipper for the most on the team. Ories’ Goulden’s 194 points is tops for the competition, with Ngan-Woo their top try-scorer with 15.

A few kilometres away the Division 2 title will also be decided on Saturday. Hutt Old Boys Marist earned top qualifier status by winning all four of their second-round matches, racking up 214 points and conceding just 26 in those. The Lady Eagles then made no race of their semi-final against the Johnsonville-Tawa combined side, leading 34-7 at halftime and then kicking clear in the second half for a 73-12 victory, ensuring that the final would be played on their home ground at the Hutt Rec.

After playing in the Victoria Tavern Trophy in their return to the competition last year, HOBM missed out this year. In hindsight their 5-12 loss to Avalon in the very first game of the season proved their undoing as they were unable to beat any of the sides that finished ahead of them on the table and would wind up three points behind the Fraser Park side in sixth.

“This final is really exciting for us as we have had many ups and downs during the season and lots of serious injuries so to make it this far is awesome. Not to mention playing on our home number 1 which is always a special occasion for the girls. We have been lucky enough to have our amazing club, coaches and management back us the whole way so will be special to be able to have a win and give back to them and all the hard work they have done for us.” says captain Rosie Stirling on what the day means for them. On her side itself she says “In our team we are sisters, family. We have no superstars or key players, everyone who steps foot on the field is key. We give our all for each other week in and week out. We have always been told we are only as strong as our weakest player.”

Marist St Pat’s re-emerged this year as a standalone side after playing recent seasons either combined with Poneke, or with their affiliated players playing under the Poneke name. Central to that has been the efforts of coach (and Men’s Premier player) Ryan Setefano, who has taken a small group of seven’s players and grown it into a fifteen’s side with several of his squad playing their very first season of rugby, but he’s quick to put the spotlight on the team and the club.

“Our girls are really excited to be a part of the senior women’s trophy final this year, Especially with it being our first year. The club are already proud of how far this team have come and a win would be a major boost for women's rugby at MSP. The club are making a huge effort to create a pathway for women's rugby at MSP and want this side to have a home here permanently,” he says.

Qualifying second behind HOBM, they prevailed against neighbours Poneke 46-39 in a back-and-forth semi-final that saw 15 tries scored and could have gone either ultimately gone either way.

Setefano says the side has a simple plan for the final, “We'll go out this Saturday playing our last game of footy for the club this year, so we'll want to keep the ball as much as we can so these girls can enjoy and express themselves with ball in hand. We'll rely a lot on our more senior players to control the pace of the game with the likes of Molly Maligi-Leota, Jane Bryce & Helen Vaimoli who have all played finals rugby for their previous clubs; and our halfback Taimane Siaosi is growing and showing great leadership through her action on the field. Georgia Broughton has been playing well and she will captain the side this weekend.” 

Fullback Bryce has been the team’s top points and try scorer with 140 points including 15 tries. In 2014 she scored 25 tries in 15 games for Oriental-Rongotai (including 6 in one game against Stokes Valley), before breaking her leg in the semi-final and taking last year off from rugby.

Setefano has also paid attention to their opposition. “They have a wealth of experience throughout their side and dangerous attacking threats through Jaydah Timu, Monica Tagoai and Atalina Molivae just to name only a few who are playing really well. We will have to be on guard for the full 80 minutes against anyone in a HOBM jersey really. Also we will just try and play our game plan and know that we can also bring some flair to the occasion”. Similarly Stirling says for HOBM “We will need to be tight on defence and not underestimate MSP's talent. To win we will need to ensure we execute when we have possession of the ball and stick to our game plan.” 

HOBM have taken the honours over their Marist sisters in each of their two meetings this year, winning 43-12 in their Fleurs Trophy encounter and 29-12 in the round-robin three weeks ago.

Both finals kickoff at 11.30am.

In the case that either final finishes tied at the conclusion of 80 minutes, then the following will apply:

· Extra-time of 10 minutes each way will be played. The teams will play the same direction as they did in the first half of regulation, with the same team with kicking-off. Teams will then swap directions at half-time.
· If still tied, then an additional period of 10 minutes ‘Sudden Death’ will be played with the teams playing in the same direction as they did in the first-half of regulation and extra-time, with the same team kicking. If either team scores the game ends immediately at that point.
· If no winner is found after this, then the winner will be:
o the team that scored the most tries in the final, but if this is equal then
o points difference from the second round round-robin. If it gets this far the winners would be Ories and HOBM.