Off the Ball for 5 June

Above: The Paremata-Plmmerton Colts team outside their clubrooms with the Division 2 first round Les Mills Colts JRD Cup, winning this for the first time since 1995. Photo credit: Paremata Plimmerton Facebook 

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 week.

Congratulations to Old Boys University (first and second XVs), Petone (Colts, Division 1) and Paremata-Plimmerton (Colts, Division 2) for winning their respective first round competitions on Saturday.

The WRFU will be releasing second round draws this afternoon, including the opening weekend match-ups for the championship Jubilee Cup round.

Another exciting weekend of rugby on Saturday, particularly in the Hutt Valley, where Northern United almost effected the ‘comeback of the season’ but fell short to Hutt Old Boys Marist 33-36 after trailing 0-33 and at the Petone Rec where the home side came back from 7-24 down to edge the Upper Hutt Rams 43-32.

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In winning the Swindale Shield – Harper Lock Shield double, Old Boys University became the first club since Norths in 2010 to win the first round Premier and Premier Reserve competitions. This is just the seventh time this has been achieved (since 1969) and the fourth time as standalone winners, as is highlighted below:

1983: Petone/MSP (Swindale Shield) and Petone (Harper Lock Shield)
1984: Wellington (Swindale) and Petone/Pare-Plim/Wellington (Harper Lock)
1986: Petone (Swindale) and Petone/Titahi Bay (Harper Lock)
1995: MSP (Swindale) and MSP (Harper Lock)
1999: MSP (Swindale) and MSP (Harper Lock)
2010: Northern United (Swindale) and Northern United (Harper Lock)
2017: Old Boys University (Swindale) and Old Boys University (Harper Lock)

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As the first round wraps up, some background about the Swindale and Harper Lock Shields:

Joseph Swindale was the Licensee of the Palace Hotel and Life Member of the Petone RFC, who donated the shield to WRFU in 1910 for the purposes of ‘pre-season competition between clubs’. It fell away but was famously found in an Athletic Park broom cupboard and resurrected for competition for first round honours in 1969.

Brigadier Harper and Brigadier Lock were stationed in the Egyptian desert during WWII, combined to create the Harper Lock Shield in 1943. The Shield was contested in games between a Pakeha team and a Maori team during the war and was continued when the soldiers returned after the war. In 1951 the WRFU made it part of their regular competition.

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In 13 matches, the OBU Goats scored 496 points (447 last year) and conceded 236 (219 last year). OBU scored the most tries (70), while bottom-placed Avalon scored the fewest tries (22).

For the second year in succession, Ories finished second in the Swindale Shield, after finishing third in 2015. Ories were only a mid-table attacking side though, scoring 48 tries and only the ninth most points (371). In contrast, Poneke scored the fourth most points (438) but finished ninth. Nor was Poneke had the seventh best defence (letting in 296 points, equal with eight placed Petone). Of the top nine teams, third placed HOBM leaked the most points (301).

Overall, a cumulative total of 4,939 points (4,809 last year) were scored in the 91 games of this year's Swindale Shield, at an average of 54.2 points per game (53.7 last year).

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Tyler Tane’s dropped goal for the Upper Hutt Rams against Petone on Saturday was the first dropped goal of the season in Wellington Premier Rugby, and the only one kicked in 91 Swindale Shield matches this year!

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By securing their place in the Jubilee Cup round, Marist St Pat's continues a 43-year streak of qualification for the top prize in Wellingotn club rugby. The next longest active streak? Ten years!

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With eight of his side’s 13 points in his side's loss to Poneke, Paremata-Plimmerton fullback Blake Neve took his personal tally to 99 for the season. With the Ngati Toa side scoring 169 during the Swindale Shield, Neve's contribution was 58.5% of their output, which we at Club Rugby think might be something of a record - certainly in recent times. In 2010 James So’oialo scored 206 points out of 546 for Norths, which was 37.7% of their tally.

With 19 points all of the boot on Saturday, Ories' Adam Deck headed off OBU's Dale Sabbagh - who came off the bench against Avalon - as top points-scorer with 143 to 138. Upper Hutt's Joyner Key was third while Tawa's James So'oialo and HOBM's Sheridan Rangihuna also topped 100.

Poneke's Michael Sage topped the tryscoring with 12, following up last weekend’s hat-trick against Avalon with another against Pare-Plim. Lester Maulolo's own hat-trick on Saturday took him to 11, while MSP's Mike Buckley finished with 10 including 5 in last four games. The top-scoring forward was Upper Hutt's Mitchell Markov with 8.

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Some supporters at the Petone Rec were bemused seeing Poneke’s number one supporter Sheryl there watching Petone versus the Upper Hutt Rams. Who was she supporting? She lives in Upper Hutt and would have wanted the Rams to beat Petone to see Poneke make the Jubilee Cup. But on the other hand she had swapped her bright red coat for a dark blue one to match Petone’s colours!

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Wainuiomata ended the first round as Bill Brien Challenge Cup holders, and will defend it next in their first home game of the Jubilee Cup round.

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Great to see referees also play games, sometimes on the same day. Weliington Axemen Colts captain Cameron Rosinegrove recently went from referee to player in a week. His father is Tom Roseingrave, a vastly experienced referee over the Hill in the Wairarapa. Of course we’ve had Michelle Smyth mixing refereeing and playing Women’s Premier rugby for the past three seasons.

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Three players in Avalon’s starting XV with the name called L. Ah Wong on Saturday, which would have confused old school publications. The brothers Ah Wong were Leauro (known as Larry to his teammates) at hooker, Laman at lock and Lidston on the left wing.

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Congratulations to Tawa prop Tolu Fahamokioa for coming off the bench on Saturday night in Whangarei for the Provincial Barbarians in their 7-13 defeat to the British and Irish Lions.

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Marist St Pat’s held its Past Players and Supporters Day on Saturday. This included a reunion of the 1971-80 MSP teams, the one at the end of that decade famous for winning 44 straight games before being pipped by Petone in a deluge in the 1980 Jubilee Cup decider.

One of the attendees was Steve Hinds, who has just been appointed World Rugby Citing Commissioner Manager and starts his next role in early July. Hinds have been a central figure in SANZAAR, New Zealand Rugby and World Rugby disciplinary processes for more than 20 years and was a citing commissioner at three consecutive Rugby World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015). He will officially start his role on 3 July 2017.

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Tawa lock Hemi Fermanis leads the Best and Fairest standings after 13 rounds on 18 points, ahead of Wainuiomata No. 8 Ben Tupuola on 16, Petone centre Lester Maulolo on 15 and Poneke lock/flanker Cole Stewart on 14.

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A shame that traditional media is steadily going down the track of squeezing out community rugby and local sport in general. Two examples of this in the past week. Last Wednesday Wellington College beat St Pat’s Town 43-17 in their annual mid-week traditional and for the first time in many years the Dominion Post was nowhere to be seen. On Saturday many pundits tuned their dial to 1503AM to listen to the local rugby show. Instead of the usual excellent coverage by Damian and the team at the Saturday Rugby Club listeners were presented with commentary of a Super Rugby match involving two South Island teams that few ‘grassroots-minded’ Wellingtonians at that time would be interested in. What were their network bosses thinking and who made that decision?

Additionally, staging a Super Rugby on a Saturday afternoon to directly clash with a full round of club and college rugby shows what the Crusaders/CRFU think of the local game down there. Would the Hurricanes/WRFU get to the point of putting the Hurricanes on at Westpac Stadium at 2.35pm on a Saturday afternoon? 

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OBU’s Morgan Poi (No 8) and the Wellington Axemen’s Hone Haerewa (blindside flanker) both turned out for East Coast in a Heartland Championship pre-season match against Poverty Bay on Saturday.

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Today is Queen’s Birthday Monday. Traditionally, Wellington and Manawatu met this weekend for the Coronation Cup, which was as presented by the Arnott family to the Manawatu Rugby Union in the Queen's coronation year of 1953. There used to be a full round of club rugby matches on King’s/Queen’s Birthday Monday, with some gripping matches played throughout the years at Athletic Park and elsewhere.

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Some talk lately of spectators seemingly seeing conversions going over/missing and the assistant referees raise or waive away their flags otherwise. One of the famous instances of this was on Queen’s Birthday Monday in 1985 when Wellington beat Petone 15-12 in a top of the table clash. However. Many Petone supporters and Petone fullback Allan Hewson thought it should have been a draw though. Hewson’s kicked a late penalty that was flagged as good by the two touch touches behind the poles but their decision was overruled by the referee. Asked afterwards if his kick was successful Hewson said: “Yes. It went about three inches inside the right-hand upright.” It ultimately didn’t matter though as Wellington went on to beat Petone 18-3 in the decided a couple of months later to win that year’s Jubilee Cup outright.

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Hurricanes stats watch.

Beauden Barrett is now sitting on 996 career Super Rugby points for the Hurricanes and could become the fourth player to bring up 1,000 career points this coming Friday night against the Chiefs. The others to achieve this mark? Dan Carter, Stirling Mortlock and Morne Steyn.

Vince Aso scored a try against the Force to take his season tally to 14 tries, while Ngani Laumape bagged a brace to also go to 14. The updated Hurricanes single season try scoring list is: Vince Aso 14 (2017), Ngani Laumape 14 (2017), Tana Umaga 12 (1997), TJ Perenara 11 (2016), Lome Fa’atau 10 (2006), Andre Taylor 10 (2012).

The Hurricanes scored six tries against the Force on Saturday night to take their season tally to 83 and thus establish a new single-season competition try scoring record, beating the 81 that the Lions scored last year.

Australian teams are 0-23 against New Zealand sides this year. If the Highlanders beat the Reds in Dunedin on 14 July and the Chiefs overcome the Brumbies on 15 July (both home matches) then the whitewash will be completed.

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The Hurricanes Typhoons, featuring many Wellington Premier club players, are playing Wanganui this afternoon in Cooks Gardens.

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On Wednesday, St Pat’s Silverstream host Wellington College in a midweek traditional and in the second round of the WelTec Premiership. Kick-off at Silverstream is at 1.40pm (to be confirmed).

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