Jubilee and Hardham Cups both wide open this year ahead of second round openers

Above: Hutt Old Boys Marist and Northern United are both Jubilee Cup contenders this year. HOBM travel to play Ories in their competition opener while Norths host OBU. There will also be a moment’s silence before the Norths-OBU game to mark the two-year anniversary of Jerry Collins’ death.

And so it begins. The business end of the season and the 89th edition of the Jubilee Cup.

Standing between now and lifting the trophy on August 5 are seven weeks of hard-fought rugby, followed by a pair of high-pressure playoff contests, and some of the best club rugby action you’ll find anywhere.

Elsewhere the Hardham Cup and second-round Premier Reserve and Colts matches also get underway, while the First Grade and Under 85s are also rapidly nearing the end of their first-round competitions.

Premier Jubilee Cup

One of the usual rules of the Jubilee Cup is that a good start is imperative in making the semi-finals and that likely still holds true, even if Tawa made a mockery of that by going on to win their second championship last year despite losing their first three games.

Doing the Swindale/Jubilee double is no easy task either, but after being somewhat controversially denied that chance last year Old Boys-University will be aiming to leave nothing open to interpretation this time. They will be looking for a better start than last when they were upset by the Upper Hutt Rams in the opener, but face a tricky test once again when they head to Jerry Collins Stadium to face Northern United. The home side are back in the competition they dominated for nearly a decade for the first time since 2012 and will be looking to keep their unbeaten home record intact. With Porirua Park off-limits for three weeks after this owing to the Lions Tour they’ll be wanting a winning start and to reverse the earlier 30-7 result to the Goats in the Swindale Shield.

Norths are able to bring back two of their influential forwards in veteran Chris Middleton and Antony Fox who lines up against his old club. Leon Ellison starts at first five-eighth and Perry Hayman returns in midfield. The Goats restore everyone that got a breather last weekend against Avalon including Finnbarr Kerr-Newell, Teariki Ben Nicholas, Dale Sabbagh, and Matt Goosen; and Morgan Poi returns from rep duty for East Coast.

Down at the Polo Ground, second and third from the Swindale face off as Oriental-Rongotai host Hutt Old Boys Marist in what has become one of the feature clashes of Wellington club rugby in recent years. Ories took a while to subdue Johnsonville last week, and will be wary that HOBM made a flying start against Norths, even if the Eagles had to hang on at the end.

Unsurprisingly the Magpies have restored some of the players that were rested in full or part last Saturday, with captain Whetu Henry, Connor Lemon, and Malo Tuitama restored and Luca Rees, scorer of three tries off the bench in their last two games, given a start at No.8. HOBM are without Ben Power, but have a more than useful replacement in James O’Reilly, Brandyn Laursen moves into second-five, and Samoan Sevens rep Tomasi Alosio makes his first appearance for the year on the right wing.

When the pair met in the Swindale Shield the Eagles won the battle of the birds 42-13 over an undermanned Magpies side that day, ending Ories’ unbeaten start to the season.

Up at the Petone Rec, Petone welcome Marist St Pat’s. The Villagers made hard work of their must-win clash with the Rams last weekend to return to the Jubilee Cup, but now they’re here they’ll be looking to make an impression. Mateaki Kafatolu and Eugene Smith are old heads at this and will provide guidance to the young charges around them including Lester Maulolo who leads all backs in the Best & Fairest standings.

MSP will know that 6th in the Swindale isn’t in keeping with their usual high standards, but also that the real prize – which has eluded them the last two years – is at the end of this competition. They also rested a number of players last weekend against Wellington and bring most of them back; Isaac O’Connor comes in for Matt Peni in the only change in the forwards, while in the backs only James Proctor and Mike Buckley wear the same jerseys as last weekend, with Ryan Saunders back on to the wing giving them real speed out wide.

The pair last met back in the second week of the competition, where Petone won 24-20 at Evans Bay and took the Bill Brien Challenge Trophy with them back up the road.

Speaking of the Bill Brien that will be at stake for the first time in three weeks when holders Wainuiomata put it on the line at William Jones against Tawa. The pair met only last weekend at Lyndhurst where Tawa won 24-12, but with both sides having already secured their Jubilee Cup place it was something of a dead rubber. That won’t be the case tomorrow and as you’d expect both are at as full strength as circumstances allow.

The home side restores the quartet of Justin Va’a, Henry Smith, Bevan Clark and Ben Tupuola to their pack and Tau Mamea and Nash Fiso-Vaelai to their backline. Tawa brings back Lotu Nuku and Jono Boyd, with Lorenzo Lolesio returning from injury in midfield. Their bench looks impressive with Matt Treeby and Folau Vea named there along with Tolu Fahamokoia – back from Provincial Barbarians duty against the Lions – and Ben Lam who has been released from Hurricanes duty. The clash between Best & Fairest leaders Hemi Fermanis and Tupuola will be well worth watching.

All four matches kickoff at 2.45pm

Premier 2 Hardham Cup

The Hardham Cup has a much-changed format this year. Firstly it comprises just the six Premier sides that missed making the Jubilee Cup with no promotion from the Premier Reserve grade; secondly it’s a 10-game double round-robin without playoffs and the winner is the side that amasses the most competition points.

The two sides that would seem to be the favourites – the Upper Hutt Rams and Poneke – meet at Maidstone. The first talking point will be how quickly each puts the disappointment of missing out on the Jubilee Cup behind them and gets into their work.

The Rams make a handful of changes; Jayden Treviranus’ return to midfield shuffles the outside backs with Ape Heemi back in the front row. Poneke make considerably more with several players unavailable - chiefly Galu Taufale on international duty, Greg Foe out suspended, and both Cole Stewart and Ivan Vaisagote amongst those away for personal reasons – so much will depend on Pakai Turia to guide them around the park and make use of their outside back trio of Michael Sage, Nick Robertson, and Ben Huntley.

When the two met in the Swindale at Kilbirnie Park Poneke ran away with things to win 52-14, something that the Rams would like to return tomorrow.

Across in the Western Bays, Paremata-Plimmerton welcome Johnsonville to Ngati Toa Domain. The home side are still looking for their first win of the season with the string of losses broken only by the draw with Avalon. They have named largely the same side that lost to Poneke last Saturday, save for Kalib Martin starting at halfback and Sam Filipo returning on the wing.

The Hawks surprised a few with their abrasive performance against Ories and perhaps ultimately only had their ill-discipline to blame for not being able to push on and grab an upset win. It’s another shuffled team this week, with Kane Thompson back at No.8 and Levi Kemp at first-five allowing Tiwi Davies to move back to fullback. These two met early in the season where the result was in doubt until Johnsonville sealed it with a late try, winning 25-19.

The third game is in the city at Hataitai where Wellington host Avalon. Both suffered through trying Swindale campaigns with the Axemen slumping from third last year to 11th this and the Wolves going winless, so how they pick themselves and reset will be of interest to their supporters.

Wellington bring back veteran lock Simon Shearer and Liam Privett to the pack – which will be without long-serving prop Adam Stewart for the rest of year after his move south to Methven to take a crack at making Mid-Canterbury’s Heartland side. Olly Sapsford and Jonnie TeRuki-Chambers return to the backline. Avalon welcome back a number of players who have missed time; prop Hale Nun Yan and lock Akuila Alatini start alongside all three Ah Wongs, while Ben Peni will return via the bench. Also there is Scott Waldrom, who will bring up 100 games for the Wolves if he comes on and ‘only’ 18 years after making his debut as a young tearaway out of St Pat’s Silverstream. The pair met just three weeks ago, where Wellington edged matters 32-31 at Fraser Park

All three matches also kickoff at 2.45pm.

Premier Reserve Ed Chaney Cup & HD Morgan Memorial

The Premier Reserve grade also has a new second-round format, teams have been placed into either the Ed Chaney Cup (Division 1) or HD Morgan Memorial (Division 2) based on where their Premiers finished rather than their own efforts – which means Ories (who finished 10th in the Harper Lock Shield) play in the top division and the Upper Hutt Rams, who finished 5th, are in the lower tier. The changes also mean that they will be at the same venue as their senior side each week however, and the end of the difficult-to-follow crossover games.

The formats are the same as the corresponding Premier grade.

The end of promotion (for now) to the Hardham Cup means that the double of winning both major trophies in this grade is achievable, and that will be what Harper Lock Shield winners Old Boys-University will be gunning for. However they start the Ed Chaney Cup with an away clash against the side that finished runner-up to them in the first-round – Norths - at Porirua Park. In the other Division 1 matches Petone host MSP at the Rec, HOBM are away to Ories at Polo, and Wainuiomata take on Tawa at William Jones.

In the three HD Morgan matches Upper Hutt welcome Poneke to Maidstone, Paremata-Plimmerton host Johnsonville at Ngati Toa, and Wellington once again goes looking for their first win of the season when they welcome Avalon to Hataitai.

All seven matches kickoff at 1pm.

Women’s

After having last weekend off, action resumes in the Women’s competition tomorrow. In the two Victoria Tavern Trophy matches there’s an Eastern Suburbs derby when Marist St Pat’s and leaders Oriental-Rongotai clash on Kilbirnie Park, with the other game at Mary Crowther Park with Wainuiomata hosting Norths.

In the two Division 2 matches Poneke and Hutt Old Boys Marist take to Kilbirnie #1, with Tawa welcoming Paremata-Plimmerton to Lyndhurst.

All four matches kickoff at 11.35am. OBU and Petone have the respective byes this weekend.

Les Mills Colts Division 1 John E Kelly Memorial

Like the Premier grades the age-grade competitions move into their second round. First round Paris Memorial winners Petone will look to keep their unbeaten season intact when they host MSP at the Rec. The other match between first-round sides is on the back fields at Porirua Park with Norths taking on Old Boys-University. The remaining two matches feature the two sides promoted from Division 2 for the balance of the season; JRD Cup winners Paremata-Plimmerton face Tawa at Ngati Toa, and runners-up HOBM are at Polo to take on Oriental-Rongotai.

All four matches kickoff at 1pm.

First Grade Division 1 Thompson Memorial

The third-tier competition still has two weekends to go in the first round but this weekend’s penultimate set of matches could prove pivotal. Joint-leaders the Petone Brotherhood and HOBM Barbarians clash at the Petone Rec, while the third-placed OBU Wolfpack face the fourth-placed Norths Uso’s at Porirua Park. Elsewhere Poneke host the Norths Reds at Kilbirnie (all three matches at 2.45pm), with winless MSP hosting the Stokes Valley Chiefs on the St Patricks artificial at the slightly later time of 3.15pm.

There’s also a top-of-the-table match in the Division 2 JDR Cup, with the Stokes Valley Rhinos and Johnsonville Cripples squaring off at Delaney Park.

Under 85kg Division 1 JC Bowl

Like the First-Graders the lightweights still have two weeks to go. Unbeaten pair Tawa and Wellington top the table and barring an upset loss tomorrow should meet next week to decide first-round trophy honours. Wellington have an early game against Johnsonville at 1pm at Kilbirnie Park, while Tawa are away against Avalon at Fraser Park at 2.45pm. Also at that later time are the other two matches with Eastbourne hosting HOBM at HW Shortt on their Old Timers’ Day, and winless pair the OBU Bunnies and Wests Roosters meet at Nairnville.

College WelTec Premiership

All 10 teams are in action tomorrow. After their win in Wednesday’s Traditional Silverstream have joined Scots at the head of the table, with Rongotai a point behind.

The round has an early start with Kapiti and Rongotai clashing up the coast at 12pm then the balance of the matches at 2.30pm. Silverstream are at home against Porirua College, Scots make the journey over the Rimutaka’s to face Wairarapa College in Masterton, St Pat’s Town host Hutt Valley High School – who are still looking for their first try of the competition – at Evans Bay, and Wellington College will aim to rebound when they visit Tawa College.