Marist St Pat’s and Tawa to meet in Jubilee Cup final

Above: Tawa's players celebrate their semi-final win over Wainuiomata moments after fulltime in today's championship semi-final at Lyndhurst Park.

Marist St Pat’s will be gunning for their 15th title and Tawa their second when the two teams meet in next weekend’s 2016 bucqi Jubilee Cup final at Jerry Collins Stadium at Porirua Park.

MSP and Tawa will meet after both winning brutal championship semi-finals in difficult conditions this afternoon.

MSP quelled the challenge of eastern suburbs neighbours Oriental-Rongotai to win 24-3 in a big forwards effort, while Tawa held off Wainuiomata 16-10 in a defensive epic at Lyndhurst Park in the battle of the community clubs.

The Premier 2 Hardham Cup will be an all Hutt Valley affair after top qualifier Hutt Old Boys Marist defeated fourth placed Paremata-Plimmerton 43-6 and Petone defeated Northern United 39-30 in an extra-time blockbuster at Porirua after scores were locked up at 25-25 at the end of 80 minutes.

The days and kick-off times of both the Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup finals are to be confirmed - pending the outcome of the Hurricanes-Chiefs professional rugby game this evening.

Meanwhile, there were two massive results in today’s WelTec Premiership quarterfinals, with both St Pat’s Silverstream and Scots College losing their home fixtures.

Fifth placed qualifier Rongotai College tipped over fourth placed Silverstream 20-13 and sixth placed Wairarapa College knocked over third placed Scots College 7-3.

Next week’s semi-finals will see top qualifier Wellington College hosting Wairarapa College and second placed St Pat’s Town welcoming Rongotai College.

Three teams – Poneke, Upper Hutt Rams and Ories - were tied in fourth place on 26 points at the conclusion of the Colts Division 1 competition today. With wins in the round-robin over the Rams, and Ories, Poneke secured fourth spot.

Next week’s semi-finals will see top qualifier OBU Green host Poneke and second placed Tawa and third placed Marist St Pat’s meet. Of note, Tawa and MSP met in today’s last round at Redwood Park with Tawa leading 17-0 but MSP coming back to win 19-17.

Petone will play Paremata-Plimmerton in the final of the Colts Division 2 Vic Calcinai Memorial Cup, after Petone beat Avalon 27-7 and Paremata-Plimmerton defeated Wainuiomata 28-11 in the two semi-finals this afternoon. 

The Tawa Titans will meet Eastbourne and Wellington will play Johnsonville in the semi-finals of next weekend’s U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield competition. There were just two matches today, with Johnsonville beating Avalon 27-12 and Eastbourne defeating the OBU Bunnies 46-0. Tawa had the bye, while Wellington were defaulted to by the Upper Hutt Rams.

In Division 2, top qualifier the Wests Roosters will play MSP Red in one semi-final and Stokes Valley and HOBM will contend the other playoff fixture.

In today’s semi-finals of the Alan Seerup Cup Reserve Grade Division 2 competition, the OBU Righteous Brothers defeated the OBU 69ers 28-10 and the OBU Pink Ginners beat Wests 17-13. The Righteous Brothers will meet the Pink Ginners in next week’s final.

The Upper Hutt Rams continue to set a hot pace in the Premier Reserve competition. Today they beat Wellington 36-5 to seal top spot for the semi-finals with one round to spare next weekend.

Petone are second after beating Poneke 18-7, while Norths defeated Tawa 22-12 in another Ed Chaney Cup clash in a match that featured six yellow cards. HOBM beat Wellington 36-5, while Wainuiomata will qualify top in the HD Morgan Cup after their bonus point 38-5 win today over Paremata-Plimmerton.

Top qualifier and unbeaten Petone Brotherhood will play keen rivals the HOBM Barbarians in one semi-final and Old Boys University and Northern United will meet in the other semi-final of the First Grade Johnsonville Centennium Cup competition next weekend.

The Brotherhood had the bye today, while Norths beat Petone’s other side, the Saxons, 21-7, and OBU defeated Avalon 28-5 this afternoon. Poneke beat Tawa 34-7 in the other match that was played on the last afternoon of the regular season for those teams.

Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup match semi-final match summaries

Marist St Pat's booked a spot in their second consecutive Jubilee Cup final with a commanding 24-3 victory over Oriental-Rongotai at Evans Bay Park.

In testing conditions, a sloppy game played out as both teams struggled to retain possession and build any lengthy attacks, though it was MSP who made the most of their opportunities in Ories’ half.

The Red Machine would open up the scoring through wing Ryan Setefano after No 8 Matt Peni and halfback Peter Sciascia combined for a scrappy 8-9 move down the blind side, barely reaching Setefano on the left wing. Setefano, 10 metres out from the Ories try line, finished off the move acrobatically to put MSP up 5-0.

Fa’atonu Fili added a further three points onto MSP’s first half tally before Ories’ goal-kicking hooker Joey Mears missed a tough penalty attempt on half time to see the hosts go into the break up 8-0.

A slow start to the second half saw some scrappy play but it was Ories who were on the front foot for most of that time, earning their first three points of the game through the boot of Mears, though that was all the points scoring the Magpies could offer as the home side closed out a strong performance.

When Ories first five-eighth Hayden Whelan was yellow-carded for a late challenge on Mike Buckley, the game was all but over as a try to Matt Peni and a second to Ryan Setefano put the icing on a very impressive MSP cake.

At Lyndhurst Park, visitors Wainuiomata opened the scoring with a try to centre Michael Lealava’a, who scored two tries in the last game between these two clubs. He waltzed through a gaping hole to score under the bar and flanker Matt Jacobs converted to make it 7-0.

The pattern of the rest of the game was quickly established in short order. Playing against the wind, Wainuiomata tried to keep the ball tight and tried to bang the ball through their middle of the Tawa forwards.

The game was dominated by big defence and Tawa’s big forwards, No. 8 Peniasi Tokakece , blindside flanker Tavita Logovae and lock Chucky Koroi were particularly impressive throughout.

Tawa fullback Randall Bishop kicked two penalties in reply to close the gap to 7-6. But Jacobs then extended the lead with a penalty to put the green and blacks ahead 10-6.

The turning point of the match came just before halftime. Tawa hooker Matt Treeby was yellow carded and Wainuiomata attempted to sling it wide but try-scorer Lealava’a threw a mis-judged pass which was intercepted by reserve Tawa wing Elijah Vaa Brooking who scooted away to score to make it 13-10 to Tawa.

The second half was brutal stuff, with both teams going hammer and tongs at each other. There were three points in the second 40 minutes, a Bishop penalty for Tawa.

Wainuiomata went close to scoring tries, but were held up over the line and a blockbuster finish was diffused. For Wainuiomata, lock Glen Angus, prop Attila Va’a and hooker Justin Va’a had committed games. Sadly, reserve Wainuiomata flyhalf TJ Va’a left the field injured with what appeared to be a reoccurrence of his previous knee injury.

The Hardham Cup semi-final match at the Hutt Recreation Ground saw HOBM establish a 12-6 lead by halftime against Paremata-Plimmerton playing into the wind.

After halftime, the Eagles scored a try through No. 8 Lise Soloa and then pivot Brandyn Laursen kicked a dropped goal to extend their lead to 22-6 and they pulled clear from there.

In stark contrast, Norths and Petone needed 100 minutes to be separated at Porirua Park.
The two sides traded tries and penalties in the first half, with the home team taking a 17-15 lead to halftime but conceding the advantage of the elements. Both hookers and halfbacks got on the scoreboard; Philip Finau and Ethan Robinson-Mate for Norths, and evergreen pair Eugene Smith and Cam Incledon for Petone.

After oranges it was even more hard-fought as the game started to open up. Johnwhite Silva scored the hosts third to take a 25-15 lead, but Petone chipped way with a Piri Paraone penalty, and with time nearly up a neatly worked move put replacement winger Willie Fine in next to the posts. Paraone's conversion locked it up 25-all, and the sides went to extra-time.

Norths took the advantage at the end of the first extra period when winger Jonty Garrett snuck in the corner to take a 30-25 lead, but in the second Petone took the lead when Losi Filipo went over, converted by Paraone. With only moments remaining Norths pressed deep into Petone territory looking for the winner, but it was Lester Maulolo who took the spoils when he picked off a pass and ran 70 metres to score, ending a pulsating clash and sending the Villagers through to the decider against their rivals across the river.