All set for Swindale Shield club rugby opener tomorrow

Swindale Shield Premier | 17 March 2017 | Scott MacLean

And so it begins. Tomorrow is kick-off of the 2017 season with the Tranzit Coachlines Gala Day out in Upper Hutt, spread across Awakairangi and Maoribank Parks. The first prizes on offer are the Swindale Shield and its Premier Reserve equivalent, the Harper Lock Shield, but the other battle over the next three months will be the contest to make the top eight and the right to contest the Jubilee Cup at the business end of the season.

The Swindale returns full-time to daytime rugby, with this year’s earlier start and a midweek round on Anzac Day eliminating the need for the two night rounds that were played last year.

And as always, there will be the usual intrigue and which players have moved where, and how teams and their coaches perform over the next few weeks. One added bonus tomorrow will be that a number of members of the Hurricanes squad will be in action in club colours, while on the other hand some sides will be shorn of their young stars owing to the Hurricanes U20s being in action as the curtain raiser to the senior side’s match against the Highlanders.

Premier Swindale Shield

Just two of the games feature match-ups of sides that both played in the Jubilee Cup. The highlighter will be about three-quarters of the way up Awakairangi Park where Tawa and Marist St Pat’s meet in a re-match of the Jubilee Cup Final. Both sides have been busy on the recruitment front in the offseason and also with players who have returned after a period away such as Andrew Wells for MSP and James So’oialo and Tolu Fahamokoia for Tawa.

MSP will be without several players tomorrow who are away at a wedding, but still start a side bristling with experience at this level and will be led by hooker Valentine Meachen as he brings up 100 Premier outings. Pago Haini, Isaac O’Connor, and Peter Sciascia are all named on the bench. Tawa will be captained tomorrow by Meachen’s opposite Matt Treeby in his 99th Premier game and will have four players on their club debut, plus another quartet in the reserves. One of those starting debutants is Hurricane and former Blues and NZ 7’s rep Ben Lam.

MSP won both this meeting (31-20) and their Jubilee Cup round-robin clash (12-8) last year, but Tawa had the last word with their 24-20 win in the title decider, while also adding to the feel of familiarity is that Wellington’s #1 amateur referee Richard Gordon will control this game, having refereed that Jubilee Cup final and been a regular appointee to this fixture in recent seasons. Of note, the Bill Brien Challenge Trophy is not up for grabs despite it being held by MSP, as its rules mean it’s only at stake when the holder is playing on their ‘regular’ home ground.

The other all-Jubilee match-up is on the ground closest to the entrance to Awakairangi where Old Boys-University get their Swindale Shield defence underway against Poneke. The Goats have had the whole off-season to mull over the somewhat-controversial manner in which they were excluded from the Jubilee Cup playoffs and undoubtedly will come out with a full head of steam up. They’ll front with their big front-row of club cult hero Finnbarr Kerr-Newell, Junior Makapelu, and Jonathan Fuimaono and build from there, with the return of Te Wehi Wright after a year away a boon for their finishing.

Poneke will likewise be looking to kick on and re-establish themselves as a Jubilee Cup contender, but will have to do without two players who have been hugely influential for them in recent seasons in skipper Joe Scheres who was moved to south Waikato, and Greg Mullany who is taking time away from the game. Galu Taufale and Greg Foe will co-captain the team from the side of the scrum, with Pakai Turia moving into the pivot role. Hurricanes squad member Toa Halafihi will pack down at the back of the scrum.

At stake between the two sides is their interclub Beet Algar Rosebowl. Beet – short for Beethoven and named after the composer – played for Poneke and was a Wellington representative both before and after World War I, during which he served with Petone’s William Hardham VC and survived being wounded in the Battle of Jerusalem. He was also an All Black in 1920-21, and after retiring was a Poneke coach, administrator, and club patron until his death in 1989. Poneke holds this after their 23-20 win last year which also ended OBU’s 19-game winning run, though OBU turned the tables in the Jubilee Cup winning 24-17.

The only other interclub trophy will be played for across the river and road at Maoribank Park when Wellington and Johnsonville contest their Mick Kenny Memorial Cup. Kenny played for Johnsonville before World War II and the Axemen after it, and the trophy was donated by his family after his death in 2001. He was also instrumental in the WRFU taking over a services trophy that he had played for and won while stationed in Egypt during the War and putting into play in 1951; the Harper Lock Shield.

Wellington hold that after winning 90-12 last year with the two clubs moving in very different directions last year, but the Hawks have high hopes of a much better season in 2017 on the back of recruitment and returning players – the hugely experienced Kane Thompson packs down at No. 8 – while the Axemen have some losses of personnel, but Hilton Mexted’s return is a positive. Expect this one to be closer than most think.

The other match over at Maoribank is the battle of the hyphens between Oriental-Rongotai and Paremata-Plimmerton. The Magpies will be without some of their young stars who are on Hurricanes U20 duty, but will still put out a strong-looking side featuring the axis of Whetu Henry, Sean Hay, and Paulo Aukuso. Pare-Plim return many of last year’s side, and expect that openside Shane Hedges will make a nuisance of himself at the breakdown. They are another to benefit from the availability of Hurricanes players, with Pita Ahki turning out at centre. The only meeting between these two last year was in the final round of the Swindale, with Ories winning 67-12.

Back over at Awakairangi and working up the ground, the two middle fields host tasty-looking matches. On the number 2 ground Norths and Petone clash on Opening Day for the second successive year; their last meeting came in the Hardham Cup semi-finals where Petone prevailed 39-30, but only in extra-time after locking up the scores 25-all at full time with a late try and after Norths thought the game was over with the ground clock well around the referee’s watch.

Norths start a familiar looking side having seemingly undergone much change in the off-season, and will be keen to ensure a return to the Jubilee Cup they dominated a decade ago. Like Ories, the Villagers have been hit hard by the Hurricanes U20’s fixture and will be without several members of their young backline, but the return of Carne Green from the Axemen in the pivot role should provide plenty of direction while up front many of the same grizzled faces return.

That semi-final victory was the only one that Petone had in the three meetings between the two last year, with Norths winning the Swindale and Hardham round-robin matches, both in tight encounters of 32-28 and 24-21 respectively.

Next door on #3 is the first of the many Hutt Valley derbies for the year with local side the Upper Hutt Rams taking on Hutt Old Boys Marist. These two swapped places last year with the Rams returning to the Jubilee Cup, while the Eagles after missing out on the top-8 at least had the solace of claiming the Hardham Cup that Upper Hutt won in 2015.

HOBM gave plenty of players a run at last week’s Spillane tournament in Palmerston North, losing 24-27 to MSP but finding their groove in beating the hosts 49-19 on Sunday. Much will depend on their inside back pairing of Sheridan Rangihuna and Brandyn Laursen and how their lightweight but mobile forward pack performs. The Rams are another side that should benefit from a returning player with Nua Fono-Hunt pulling on the #10 jersey after missing all of last year with injury. There will be interest in how one of last year’s Best and Fairest runners-up – openside Mitchell Markov – goes in 2017, while tomorrow the Rams start a new midfield pairing of former Norths player Konelio Feaunati and erstwhile backrower Josh Hunt.

The two shared the spoils in their only meeting last year, drawing 24-all at the Hutt Rec.

Lastly all the way down the far end is another all-Hutt Valley matchup between Avalon and Wainuiomata. The Wolves made a strong start last year, and on Opening Day held Ories to an 11-all, but struggled the longer the season went on and wound up missing the Hardham Cup semi-finals, while Wainuiomata made the last four of the Jubilee before dipping out to Tawa.

The green-and-blacks side tomorrow has an early-season feel to it but has several experienced heads in Justin Va’a, Mike Lealava’a, former Samoa sevens star Uale Mai, and former Norths captain Henry Smith, playing his first game for Wainuiomata and first Premier game since the 2014 Hardham Cup final. Avalon start a bunch of new faces but have an experienced backline spine in Damien Madsen, Thomas Kiwara, Ben Peni, and Cameron Cross. Wainuiomata won their only clash last year, prevailing 20-8 at William Jones Park.

Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield

Preceding each of the Swindale Shield clashes are the corresponding Harper Lock Shield matches between the same two clubs’ Premier Reserve teams.

Marist St Pat’s are the current holders and with the depth they have amassed over the off-season would be strong contenders to retain the title. However the WRFU’s changes to the grade mean that’s the only real prize on offer in the first two-thirds of the season with the end of second-tier sides being promoted to contest the Hardham Cup; and whether a side contests the Ed Chaney or HD Morgan Cup section totally in the hands of where their Premier side finishes, rather than on their own merits.

All seven Premier Reserve matches kick off at 1pm.