Off the Ball for Monday 10 April

A new series for Mondays looking at some of the news in briefs, milestones, happenings, statistics and observations from the weekend of rugby just gone.

Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max , Lovelocks Sports Bar  and Harcourts Johnsonville 

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Chainsaw Photos (photo credit above) took his eyes off the rugby action at Porirua Park on Saturday to capture Northern United’s two Hurricanes water boys, TJ Perenara and Leni Apisai. The realities of the modern professional game mean that All Blacks, Super Rugby players and even fringe Super Rugby players are rarely playing club rugby anymore, but most are still big supporters of their clubs which is great to see.

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In Christchurch on Saturday, All Blacks captain Kieran Read returned from injury to play for his University club, helping them to a 60-11 win over Linwood.

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The Hurricanes were fast out of the starting gates on Friday in racing to a 19-0 lead. That start reminded us of one the Wellington Lions made in 2004 at Westpac Stadium against Taranaki, the (almost full) crowd was in full voice when the Lions led 28-0 after about 15 minutes, going on to prevail 74-20.

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Wellington club rugby saw some heated scoring action on Saturday, with 451 points and 67 tries scored in seven Premier games played at an average of 64 points and 9.5 tries per match.

Old Boys University’s 86-8 (14 tries to 1) win over Paremata-Plimmerton inflated that of course, with wing Te Wehi Wright becoming the first player this season to bag four tries in a match. This was his second four-try bag for OBU, after crossing for four against Norths in 2012.

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The first century of the season was raised in the opening round of the Fleurs Trophy between Oriental-Rongotai in their 102-10 win over Hutt Old Boys Marist. The ‘back three’ all scored hat-tricks. Left wing Ayesha Leti-Liga, right wing Bernadette Robertson and fullback Timena Tumaai each scored three tries.

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Good luck to Wellington Pride and Wellington Women’s 7s player Georgia Daals in the next stage of her rugby journey, in Japan. Georgia scored two tries for the OBU Impalas on Saturday, but leaves shortly for Yokkaichi in Mie. She will be playing for the Mie women's rugby club, the Pearls. Georgia said that its exiting that they already have about six sevens tournaments scheduled. Georgia added: “I'll miss my Pride sevens sisters and OBU Impalas but I’m excited about this opportunity as it's always been a dream to play in Japan and for this to happen is pretty surreal. So I can't wait to get there and just have a jam with all the girls. A huge thank you to john Fiso for getting me this opportunity too!”

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The 40 points the Marist St Pat’s Premiers conceded to Wainuiomata on Saturday were the most they've let in on Evans Bay Park since April 2011 when they let in 48 to Norths. Tries are coming in pairs for players in red - backs Billy Proctor and Yuki Takahira each scored a brace on Saturday, matching the efforts of James Tuia and Lucky Tuia in the previous two weeks.

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Meanwhile, the Premier Reserve competition remains tight, with three of seven matches on Saturday decided within two points, and 10 of 28 games so far this season decided by margins inside 5 points and several others just outside that band.

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One of those close Premier Reserve games on Saturday was Petone’s 24-22 win over Oriental-Rongotai. With the last play of the game, Ories’ goal-kicking prop Lauina Fa’atau lined up a match-equalising conversion from the sideline but it just shaved the outside of the poles. Previously, Lauina had already slotted a sideline conversion and a 38m penalty and had been a key part of a dominant scrum. He was the recipient of Ories’ Club Captain’s Player of the Year award last year. The difference in this match though was an 80m runaway to Petone’s Aleks Noble-Campbell. He was stopped just short of the corner flag, but a penalty try was awarded for a dangerous tackle and Petone slotted the conversion from dead in front.

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Former winner Ben Tupuola (Wainuiomata) and Antony Fox (Northern United) remain the joint leaders of the Best & Fairest competition on 6 points, despite not picking up any points on Saturday.

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After leaving Scots College in 2015, Thomas Umaga-Jensen headed to Otago and played Dunedin club rugby and made the Otago U19s. On Saturday against Marist St Pat’s he made his debut for Wainuiomata off the bench.

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Look out for new Petone tight forward Kaliopasi Uluilakepa. The 18-year old has made three appearances off the bench for the Villagers so far this season and could be going places in the future. Kaliopasi, who has Tongan lineage was schooled at Suva’s Marist Brothers High School  and played tighthead prop for Fiji Schools last season.

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The Tawa machine finally clicked into gear on Saturday, blunting the Axemen’s assault and winning back the Murray & Alan Mexted cup with a convincing 45-8 victory. The match was filmed by Grassroots TV so will be replayed on Sky TV later this week.
 
Great to see two All black No. 8’s present in the clubrooms post-match, with Murray Mexted and Rodney So’oialo enjoying a beer and discussing all things rugby.
  
Tawa celebrates its 70th Anniversary and Old Timers’ Day next weekend, hosting unbeaten neighbours Northern United for the Sammy Saili Trophy.

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Saturday’s Golden Oldies WONGO tournament saw 12 teams from across the region take to the field at Paraparaumu's Te Atiawa Park, hosted by the Kapiti Gorillas. The star-studded side however was OBU's "Dead Antiques" whose team boasted Chairman Jaeson Sumner, Premier coaches Paddy Gough and former Maori All Black Rua Tipoki, and long-time prop and water boy Hayden Smith amongst their numbers.

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Note to Dominion Post reporters covering the games each round. The first rule of rugby reporter club is check the teams with managers beforehand, the second rule of rugby reporter club is check the teams with managers beforehand and the third rule of rugby reporter club is check with managers after fulltime if in doubt of who scored the tries and points.

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WRRA referee Vincent Ringrose was in Hong Kong last week where he refereed the final of the 10s Invitational Tournament that runs in conjunction to the Hong Kong 7s. The Upper Hutt Rams Schrijvers brothers and Poneke’s Greg Foe were both playing in this tournament, as were MSP duo Valentine Meachen and Ha'amea Ahio.

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In First XV rugby news, Wellington College lost their second consecutive pre-season fixture to start their 150th year on Saturday, going down to Feilding High School 29-38. The Scots College - Palmerston North Boys’ High School encounter on Saturday was cancelled owing to ground closures, while St Pat’s Town pulled clear late in their warm-up game against Marlborough Boys’ College. SPC won 29-12 after it was 0-0 after the first quarter and 7-7 at halftime.

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Great to see Brian Coulter sideline on Sunday morning at Evans Bay Park watching the St Pat’s Town match. Coulter was MSP’s Premier coach in 1979 when they won all 20 Premier games and captured the Swindale Shield/Jubilee Cup double in the WRFU’s centenary year, coaching MSP to their famous run of 41 victories that ended in the 1980 Jubilee Cup final against Petone.

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The Transit Coachlines First XV Festival kicks off on Saturday 6 May, with four games at Masterton’s Memorial Park, involving Wellington College, Rongotai College, St Pat’s Town, Wairarapa College, Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Napier Boys’ High School and Hastings Boys’ High School. Rounds 2 and 3 are in Napier on 13 May and Wellington on 20 May.

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Sky Television released its schedule of First XV matches in 2017 and has largely passed Wellington by. Just two games will be on Sky TV this year. The first is Wellington College v Palmerston North Boys’ High School on 20 May, which is a curtain-raiser to a Hurricanes game at Westpac Stadium, so not only has Sky TV sewn up ‘exclusive’ filming rights to all curtain-raisers at the Stadium, whether they are going to broadcast them or not, they’ll be there anyway covering the main match that follows. The second is the Wellington final exactly three months later on 20 August.

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Former Avalon No. 8 Thomas Waldrom scored two tries for the Exeter Chiefs in their 38-34 win over Bristol over the weekend. Waldrom has now scored nine Premiership tries this season.

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With the Barbarians v All Blacks match later this year, it's always worth checking out 1973's Greatest Try Ever. But also worth checking out are two of the greatest coat-hanger tackles ever by All Blacks during the famous scoring sequence. That'd be two reds these days! 

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On the subject of GOAT tries, there were two in the Chiefs – Stormers Super Rugby clash in Cape Town in the weekend that could be compared to the Barbarians one in 1973. Wales Online suggest as much, read here 

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From the NZRU media release Sunday night about the Super Rugby cuts: “Each team will play eight matches within its conference (four home and four away) / Each team will play eight cross-conference matches – against four of the five teams from the other two conferences (four at home and four away) / Each team will play 12 of the other teams within the season (85% of opposition teams which is up from 70% in 2016) - Eight team Finals Series: Three Conference winners and five wild card places – the next best performing teams after the Conference winners regardless of Conference.” Eyes glaze over – how about a simple round-robin and each team plays each other once?

Contributions to Off the Ball to: editor@clubrugby.co.nz