Petone hoping to strike success in 2017

Above: Petone's last competitive Wellington club rugby outing was the Hardham Cup final last August in pouring rain against Hutt Old Boys Marist. Photo by Hugh Pretorius. 

The 14 Wellington club rugby Premier teams are busy putting the finishing touches on their preparations for the opening round of Swindale Shield matches next Saturday.

Petone, Wellington’s third oldest club and proud winner of 38 Wellington club rugby titles, starts the new season having not won the first round Swindale Shield since 2009 nor the championship Jubilee Cup since 2005.

Last season was not a memorable one at the Village, falling to 10th in the first round and going on to lose 5-17 to rivals Hutt Old Boys Marist last August in the final of the Premier 2 Hardham Cup in driving rain. The only way is up.

New co-coach Tui Bradbrook is hoping they can wipe the slate clean and challenge for the Jubilee Cup this year. “We have a proud past, and looking at the talent and depth that’s coming through our grades right now means our future looks strong,” said Bradbrook.

Bradbrook, a three-decade Petone club veteran and back-to-back Jubilee Cup winner in 1989-90, and former Waikato and All Blacks prop Graham Purvis have taken over the Premier coaching reins from Riki Flutey (Wellington representative coaching) and Dan Farani (Wainuiomata).

Talking with Club Rugby this week, Bradbrook said the pre-season has gone well.

“Our trip to the Hawke’s Bay Sevens tournament at Waipukurau was successful. The Colts won their final over Hastings, the [new] women’s side were beaten finalists and the A and B senior teams had a good hit-out and team bonding. It was a day with everyone having a blast and the change in culture around 'One Club' began on a high note,” explained Bradbrook.

“On Saturday we had a fantastic day at the club hosting the Newman Rugby Club from Argentina. Our B’s put up a good fight and our Colts looked good getting up over a top side - as the season progresses we will look at promoting our Colts into our Premier side from time to time to give them a taste of Premier rugby. We came up against a well drilled Newman side, falling short 29-26 in the dying stages.

The scrum was positive. “As we all know any team traveling from Argentina is going to be well drilled at scrum time so to be on par with and dominate at times was pleasing, our backline attack caused havoc on the left edge when given clean ball plus our big men all completed 80 minutes. Like any club at this time of year we have plenty to work on.”

Petone’s final hit out is away against Clive this coming Saturday, and then it’s straight in to in round one against Northern United.

“Norths first up is always a tough ask, then MSP a week later and Avalon in round three so we need to hit the ground running.

Our old foes MSP will be coming off the Spillane Shield [NZ Marist tournament, this weekend] so any team facing them in the first six weeks will have to be on task for 80 minutes.

Avalon is always a handful for us so must be shown respect with whatever team they field.”

Bradbrook said it’s an exciting group of players for the coaching staff to work with.

“Dan and Riki have left the side in good stead after giving a number of young men an opportunity to play Premier rugby so I see part of our job is to continue this growth of depth and to continue giving our boys an opportunity to hone their rugby skills and to promote players.”

He ran through some of the young players to look out for this year.

Names include halfback Carlos Price from St Kentigern College and a member of the Ropati bloodline, Petone’s own Lester Maulolo from St Pat’s Silverstream, Bruce Kauika-Petersen (Colts captain), hard running Losi Filipo, man mountain Pasi Ululaikepa from Marist Brothers High School in Fiji, 2 Michael Vaeno and Viliami Vake from Rotorua BHS and Angus Morton and Jake Quinn from Kapiti College.

“Carlos and Bruce are pushing for a place in the NZ U20s so we may not have their services for big parts of the season. We still have the services of Piri Paraone (Hurricanes U20s) and local boys Willie Fine (St Bernard’s) Logan Henry (HIBS) and Willie Tufui (Naenae College).”

What about experienced players to lead the young guns into battle when the going gets tough.

“Mateaki Kafatolu is our captain for 2017, backed up by Jared Kahu and Jack Ross respectively. We are probably at a time at the club where great club men like Cam Incledon, August Collins and Chris Molenaar (Bush) have now moved on but not away, which means that guys like Jacob Gooch, Ta’amilo Va’a and Carne Green take the step up. Talking of the older guys Eugene Smith is still hanging around, so we expect to see him out running around when the grounds get a little softer.”

What style of play to expect? “I guess when you look at the players we have, a strong set-piece and work-rate up front, good carry from our loose forwards, maturity from our inside backs and then electric outside backs to complement our pack.”

It’s not just the Premiers where Petone are focusing their resources.

“It’s exciting that we’ll be running out a women’s team in 2017. With the introduction of women’s rugby 7s to the Olympics, it’s a real pathway for girls and woman to explore plus it’s also a push from our club as ‘One Club’. [Recently departed Wellington Pride coach] James Porter has joined us for 2017 as our Rugby Development Officer and is doing a great job.”

Like the Premiers, Petone’s Colts side had a less than memorable 2016, finishing down the field at the end of the first round Paris Memorial Trophy competition and then being docked five points and missing out qualification for the second round John E Kelly Cup championship round.

The coach’s last word: “Play as well as we can and the outcome will take care of itself.”