Off the Ball for 24 April

Above: Paremata-Plimmerton play Northern United for the Ivan Hargreaves Trophy tomorrow. Photo credit: Peter Mcdonald.

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

Looking at some of the news in briefs, milestones, happenings, statistics and observations from the weekend of rugby just gone and what’s coming up this coming week.

A quick turnaround for Wellington’s Premier and Premier Reserve teams this week, with tomorrow’s ANZAC Day round the second of three rounds in eight days for Swindale Shield and Harper Lock Shield teams.

It’s also make or break as early as tomorrow for several sides hovering around or well below the cut-off line for the ‘top 8’, while for others at the top of the table, namely Old Boys University, Oriental-Rongotai and Northern United, they could qualify for the championship round as early as tomorrow if they win (and other results fall favourably).

Tomorrow’s round is Derby Day, with interclub trophies on the line in every match. The trophies at stake are: Harper Vine Trophy (Avalon v Upper Hutt Rams), Father Cleary Trophy (HOBM v MSP), Ivan Hargreaves Trophy (Norths v Paremata-Plimmerton), Jim Grbirch Memorial Trophy (Ories v Poneke), Darren Larsen Cup (Wainuiomata v Petone), Carman Cup (Johnsonville v Tawa) and the Dean Gifford Memorial Cup (Wellington v OBU). More details in the Round 7 preview to come.

Saturday’s round was played under bright blue skies. Defences were optional in some matches early on, but all settled down into tough battles. Cumulatively, 61 tries were scored, which is about normal for this time of the year and included Avalon not scoring any.

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Northern United flanker Antony Fox is the current outright leader of the Best and Fairest competition. Fox is on 9 points, ahead of Wainuiomata No. 8 Ben Tupuola on 8 and Upper Hutt Rams outside back Joyner Key and Tawa lock Hemi Fermanis both on 7. With the Dominion Post not reporting tomorrow’s games, it is unclear if Billy Wallace competition points will be awarded in Round 7.

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Last week Thomas Umaga-Jensen was named in the New Zealand U20s squad for the upcoming Oceania Tournament. No surprises there. But he was listed as a Wellington player not an Otago one on the official media release, so he has joined his brother Peter (currently injured) as a Wellington player. Would be great to see the pair playing together in the midfield for Wainuiomata and in representative teams in the future.

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Wellington rugby hasn’t had a shortage of centres over the past couple of decades. Names like Umaga, Nonu, Ellison, Fruean and Leiua are synonymous with the club competition. As well as the Umaga-Jensen’s, two other names to add to the current list are Lester Maulolo (Petone) and Pepesana Patafilo (Tawa). This pair’s match-up at 13 was terrific to watch on Saturday.

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Congratulations to MSP and last year’s Wellington U19s pro Ivan Fepuleai  who has been named captain of the Samoa U20s for the upcoming Oceania Cup tournament with New Zealand and Australia.

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Now contracted to Bay of Plenty, Hutt Old Boys Marist hooker James O’Reilly was prominent on Saturday for the Eagles against Johnsonville. Wellington Pride flyhalf Lizzie Goulden also returned from Kia Toa in the Manawatu where she is now based to appear for Ories on their bench against OBU in the women’s competition.

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Ories have made a lightning start to the Fleurs Trophy women’s competition, beating HOBM 102-10 and OBU 71-3 in their opening two games. This coming Saturday they play Wainuiomata at William Jones Park in a replay of last year’s championship final that was won by Wainuiomata.

Hooker Alicia Print and lock Annie Mativa both played their 50th games for the Ories women’s team on Saturday, both scoring tries.

The Petone Women's side has been docked its points and Tawa awarded the win in last week's 82-0 win to Petone as Petone fielded ineligable (school aged) players.  

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Some spectators leaving Lyndhurst Park found themselves $60 poorer when they arrived at their cars, having been issued parking tickets during Tawa’s 47-22 win over Petone. But none can complain, having chosen to park on yellow lines or straddling the footpath. Nevertheless, parking at some of the region’s grounds remains a problem.

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Missed last week was Avalon’s change in Premier coaches. Aaron Falloon recently stepped down for family reasons and has been replaced by former Avalon Premier halfback John Bradbrook and former Avalon Premier prop Errol Weston.

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Best wishes to the St Mary's College sevens rugby team who left this weekend just gone to compete in the Sanix World Rugby Youth Tournament in Japan.

One of their players, Lyric Faleafaga, was on hand as a non-playing reserve on Sunday night as the Black Ferns Sevens team won the Kitakyushu Sevens tournament. New Zealand beat Canada 17-14 in the final, with Michaela Blyde crossing at the death. Wellington’s Kat Whata-Simpkins was in the team over the weekend.

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In European rugby news, HOBM lock Jeremy Thrush and Oriental-Rongotai hooker Motu Matu’u helped Gloucester beat La Rochelle 16-14 over the weekend and reach the final of the European Challenge Cup. Defeat for La Rochelle was the French Top leaders’ first at home this season. Stade Francais beat Bath 28-25 in the other semi-final, with Norths centre Robbie Fruean scoring a try for Bath.

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The Hurricanes beat the Brumbies 56-21 on Friday, their second biggest win over them in Super Rugby following their 56-9 win in 2009. They trailed 14-21 at halftime, scoring 42 unanswered points in the second half. Is this a Hurricanes record for most points in a half? In round one of this year the Hurricanes beat the Sunwolves 83-17 after leading 45-5 at halftime and in round two they beat the Rebels 71-6, scoring 40 points in the second half.

Friday’s win wasn’t the biggest win by the Hurricanes in Napier – it was just off the 56-20 win over the Highlanders there two years ago.

Vince Aso scored a hat-trick on Friday night and then got dragged with 10 minutes to play, denying him the opportunity to become the first Hurricanes to score four tries in a Super Rugby match. Aso has now scored 10 tries this season and second five-eighth Ngani Laumape nine. One or both players are on target to score the most tries in a season for the Hurricanes. The top five list for most tries in a season by a Hurricane currently reads:

Tana Umaga 12 tries in 1997
TJ Perenara 11 - 2016
Lome Fa’atau 10 – 2006
Andre Taylor 10 – 2012
Vince Aso 10 – 2017

First five-eighth Beauden Barrett is closing in on 1,000 Super Rugby points. He currently has 976 points, exactly 300 more than one of his predecessors David Holwell scored for the Hurricanes. Beauden might have to get to the milestone by scoring tries, with his brother Jordie doing the goal-kicking and landing 7 conversions on Friday!

Just past the halfway mark, Australia’s poor results are on track to yield the country’s worst season in the 23-year history of Super Rugby. The Australian conference ladder underlines just how badly the local sides are going in 2017. The Brumbies lead despite having a 3-5 record, the supposedly strong Reds and Waratahs, who clash in Brisbane on Saturday, are both 2-6, the Western Force are 2-5 and the Melbourne Rebels 1-1-5.

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The Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council and New Zealand Rugby are holding three Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council U18 Girls Development Days in Palmerston North on 14 May at Massey University, Hastings on 21 May at Karamu High School and Wellington on 28 May at Kilbirnie Park (TBC). To find out more go here 

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The St Bernard’s and Hutt Valley High School First XVs meet in a pre-season fixture at the Hutt Rec at 1.00pm tomorrow, ahead of the HOBM Eagles playing their first match there this season at 2.45pm.

This coming Saturday, there are two pre-season First XV matches of note, with Wellington College hosting Hastings Boys’ High School and St Pat’s Town entertaining Dilworth College. Hastings are running hot already this year, having already beaten last year’s national champions MAGS 43-5, while Dilworth finished eighth of 12 teams in last year’s Auckland 1A competition.

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