Off the Ball for 12 June

Above: Taurima Morris celebrates the try scored by Charlie Pahulu on Saturday for Petone against Marist St Pat’s. MSP won the game 19-17. More on Pahulu’s storming Premier debut below.

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.

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The calm before the storm. The two darkest weekends of the year are coming up, split by the shortest day of the year in the middle of these two Saturdays. Then the British and Irish Lions hit town at the end of the month for the biggest rugby week of the year in Wellington.

The opening round of championship club rugby this past weekend was as tight as expected, with a series of hard fought Jubilee Cup matches around the region.

Just Old Boys University were bonus point winners, beating Norths 36-10, while at the other end of the scale, the Tawa led Wainuiomata 3-0 almost before halftime before Wainuiomata crossed the chalk and went on to win 19-8.

Tawa threw recent historical patterns out the window last year by losing their first three games and going on to win the Jubilee Cup, but the adage that a winning start to the second round is imperative still holds true. First round defeated sides Tawa, Ories, Norths and Petone will be eager for their first wins this coming weekend.

The 10-week double round-robin Hardham Cup Premier 2 competition saw striking wins for the Upper Hutt Rams (36-10 over Poneke) and Johnsonville (48-15 over Paremata-Plimmerton).

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Both the first round First Grade and U85kg competition winners will be found this coming weekend. The HOBM Barbarians are on track to win the First Grade division one Thompson Memorial Shield, while the Johnsonville Cripples should clinch the division 2 JDR Cup. The Wellington Light Axemen (leaders on 29 points) and the Tawa Titans (28) will meet in a virtual final to decide the first round U85kg Division 1 JC Bowl. The Poneke Cavs (26) lead the division 2 U85kg Phillip Wiggins Trophy by a point to Kapiti (25).

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Newcomers Kapiti College beating Rongotai College 19-15 was the key result of the third round of WelTec Premiership matches, with a series of more one-sided wins between the traditional big guns and others. No midweek Premiership traditionals this coming week, with the feature match on Saturday being between Scots College and St Pat’s Town.

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Several well-known local players in the Manu Samoa squad for their upcoming internationals against the All Blacks (this coming weekend in Auckland), Wales, Tonga and Fiji. Recent Wellington club rugby players in their squad include Jack Lam (Ories), Faifili Levave (Norths), Alapati Leiua (Norths) and Reynold Le-Lo (MSP). Motu Matu’u (Ories), Manu Leiataua (Ories) and Anthony Perenise (Norths) weren’t selected because of injury, while Alama Ieremia (Wests Roosters) is the head coach.

Of note is that Poneke loose forward Galu Taufale is with the Samoan squad in Auckland, helping them prepare to face the All Blacks this weekend. If there are injuries, he may get named the following week for Samoa’s following matches as well.

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Marist St Pat’s outside back Kerrod Foaese became the third player in the Manu Samoa U20s team (captained by MSP prop Ivan Fepuleai) after been called in last week due to injuries. He played club rugby at Hataitai Park on the Saturday and was on the bench against Wales in Georgia on the Friday.

In tomorrow’s round of U20 World Cup matches, Samoa plays Ireland in the 9th place semi-final (9pm Tuesday NZT), while New Zealand meets France (4am Wednesday).

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Northern United marked the two-year anniversary of the passing of club legend Jerry Collins on Saturday with a moment’s silence before their Premier match against Old Boys University.

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Father and son pairings aren't uncommon amongst the refereeing stocks in Wellington, though having both in action at the same venue at the same time is. Saturday's two 2.45pm kickoffs at the Petone Rec saw Jamie Fairmaid in charge of the Jubilee Cup encounter between Petone and Marist St Pats, with his father Mark strapping on the boots for the top-of-the-table First Grade clash between Petone and HOBM.

In other WRRA news, there are two Japanese referees in town at the moment. Kohei Osawa and Fuminori Takahashi, here until the end of this week as part of our interchange programme. Jury Tenitenismeaton refereed his first Premier Reserve game this past weekend, between the Paremata-Plimmerton and Johnsonville teams in the HD Morgan Memorial. Jury is aged 16, so a great achievement.

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Charlie Graham, former Marist St Pat’s lock, played his 50th game for Auckland Marist on Saturday. This milestone means he now owns blazers for both clubs and will have played about 130 games of Premier rugby across the two clubs. He celebrated the achievement by kicking one of their conversions in their 40-24 win over Papatoetoe. 

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Petone lock Charlie Pahulu was awarded three points in the Best and Fairest competition on Saturday, in his first game for them. So a Player of the Match performance in his Premier debut in the middle of the season represents a good day out for him. Charlie is the younger brother of Petone’s Vaioleti whanau. The four brothers play for the club and Charlie has recently moved to Wellington from Tonga to continue his rugby development.

Big Ben “The beast “Tupuola had a powerful game on Saturday and has now passed Hemi ”The machine” Fermanis at the top of the best & fairest competition. Tupuola is now on 19 points and Fermanis 18, with Petone’s Lester Maulolo on 16.

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2013 Jubilee Cup winning captain Taniela Koroi (AKA Kava Kid) is back in town and likely to turn out for Tawa over the rest of the season.

Telea ”The Tormentor” Seumanutafa scored a spectacular try as a rare highlight in Tawa’s defeat to Wainuiomata on Saturday, (check this out on Tawa Rugby TV to view this).

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The Neonatal trust and Te Omanga Hospice are privileged to be the charities of choice for an event being run by The Petone Working Man's Club (next door to the Petone RFC) on 29 June. The night promises to be full of banter, laughs and great stories from some of New Zealand's most well-known rugby personalities - John McBeth MC's the night featuring Christian Cullen, Keith Quinn, and Grant Nisbett. It also includes a 3-course buffet dinner and two drinks. Proceeds will be split evenly between two charities, The Neonatal Trust and Te Omanga Hospice. Find out more here 

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Interesting that one match of the NSW Shute Shield (Premier club rugby competition) per week is televised live on free to air TV in Australia and also carried live on Sky TV’s Rugby Channel over here. TVNZ should start covering a live feature club and later in the season a  Non-NPC rep rugby match from somewhere in New Zealand every Saturday afternoon.

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The Hurricanes missed out to the Chiefs 14-17 on Friday night in Julian Savea’s 100th match. Where to now for the Hurricanes?

The Chiefs win leaves them only one point behind the Hurricanes on the New Zealand conference ladder and while the Hurricanes still have this slight advantage, the Hurricanes host the unbeaten Crusaders in the last round while the Chiefs host the Brumbies in Canberra. Both these matches a good month away (15 July for the Hurricanes-Crusaders) though.

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Can’t wait until Saturday for next rugby fix? There’s several school matches on Wednesday. Bishop Viard College host Porirua College in a Co-ed Cup and Beard Trophy challenge match at 2.30pm, Taita College host Aotea College at 3.30pm in a Co-ed Cup match and Hutt Valley High School welcome Wanganui City College at 11.30am. There’s also a full round of Girls Secondary School Premier matches on Wednesday evening.

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