Defeated Gala Day sides looking for first wins tomorrow

Above: The HOBM Eagles will be gunning for from two, but the Upper Hutt Rams and six other contenders will want to notch their opening wins tomorrow.

After last weekend’s opening Gala Day in Upper Hutt normal service resumes tomorrow with club grounds playing host to Premier rugby. Seven sides will be looking to continue their winning starts to the season, while the seven others will be after their first wins of the campaign.

Premier Swindale Shield

This week’s Premier preview starts in the northern suburbs at leafy Lyndhurst Park where Tawa hosts Oriental-Rongotai. Both sides enjoyed wins at Awakairangi last Saturday with Tawa surviving a late MSP onslaught to prevail 35-29, while Ories had a more comfortable afternoon in beating Pare-Plim 48-3. With both sides looking to cement their standing as serious contenders this should be a hard-fought encounter.

Taniela Koroi starts up front for the home side alongside the Coburn brothers with the 22 also including all three Preston’s – Adam, Ryan, and Kyle. The Magpies give a first start to former Poneke player Jarrod Burnett and a completely reshuffled backline with Declan Hay and Trent Renata forming the halves pairing, and Malo Tuitama at centre. Ories won the Swindale clash between the two last year 32-24 on home turf at the Polo Ground, but Tawa won the return match 29-27 at this venue in the Jubilee Cup.

Just up the line Northern United take on old foes Hutt Old Boys Marist at Jerry Collins Stadium where both sides will be looking to make it two from two after their opening wins last weekend. Those came in contrasting fashion however with Norths scoring at the death to beat Petone, while the Eagles were able to cruise past the Upper Hutt Rams. As usual the home side have a few changes with last weekend’s Man of the Match Peter Pili absent and a starting debut for former Scots prop Werdna Maligi; HOBM will be bolstered by the inclusion of both James O’Reilly and Chase Tiatia, the latter returning to Eagles colours for the first time in three years.

HOBM won this meeting last year between the two by 36-31, which came in the last round with both teams already qualified and featured Norths coming back from 0-33 down at halftime; while the Jubilee match saw Norths get up by 48-29.

Across on the north side of Porirua Harbour Paremata-Plimmerton welcome Petone to Ngati Toa Domain. Unlike the four sides above these two both tasted defeat last weekend and will be eager to get on the board. The Villagers will be warm favourites and include Topou Sopoaga at No8 for his debut for the club, with James Corcoran returning to lead the locals. These two also contest an interclub trophy; the Ken Gray Cup inaugurated in 2015 and won by Petone each year including last year’s 38-12 result. Gray’s name is somewhat synonymous with Petone, Wellington, and New Zealand rugby, but his first club after leaving school was Paremata where he made Wellington B from in 1958.

The sole game back in the city is at Evans Bay where Marist St Pat’s take on Wellington. The home side will be looking to rebound from their loss to Tawa, while the Axemen make the short trip from Hataitai will be after making it back-to-back wins after beating Johnsonville, though it’s unlikely they’ll face only 14 opponents for 50 minutes as they did last weekend. The visitors have just one change with Liam Privett coming in on the openside, with MSP making a few more including first appearances this season for James Proctor, Vince Sakaria, and Willie Schutz. This should be closer than the only meeting between the pair last year, where the Scarlets thrashed a depleted Axemen side by 50-3.

The remaining three matches are out in the Hutt, starting with Old Boys-University making the trip from the Cambridge out to Wainuiomata and a match with the local side. The Goats sent out a big message in putting Poneke to the sword, while Wainuiomata will have to rebound after their one-point loss to Avalon. The home team includes Samoan sevens legend Uale Mai, while Wes Goosen makes his return from injury at centre for the visitors.

Also at stake is the Peter Dunford Cup, played for by the two sides. Dunford was a Wellington College old boy who moved to the valley in the 1950’s and became heavily involved with the fledgeling club. Wainuiomata hold this after their upset 16-11 win at Kelburn Park last year.

Over at Fraser Park Avalon welcome Johnsonville onto the artificial turf. The Wolves will be buoyed after their first-up win over Wainuiomata though coach Scott Waldrom won’t have let his charges get too far ahead of themselves. The Hawks will want to rebound from their defeat to Wellington where the only real solace was that they had the run of the match until the 30th minute sending-off of centre Kalolo Kalolo. Johnsonville – who won all three matches between the two last year though no margin was more than nine points – make a number of changes including shifting Levi Grace into the #10 jersey. Avalon’s only change is at the back with Rubin MacCormack coming in, while veteran lock Akuila Alatini is on their bench.

The final game of this preview is back near where we started last weekend with Poneke making the trip out to Upper Hutt for the second week in succession, this time though it’s to Maidstone to take on the Upper Hutt Rams. Both sides would be disappointed with their first-up result and will be looking to make amends tomorrow and claim the Alby Makeham Shield the two clubs play for. Makeham was a Wellington representative halfback who played in the provinces successful 1956 Ranfurly Shield challenge, fronted for both clubs - Poneke from 1951 to 1959 and Upper Hutt from 1960-62 - and earned himself the nickname “Kick it again” for the regularity he put boot to ball. Poneke hold this after their 52-14 win at Kilbirnie last year, though the Rams won both Hardham Cup clashes by 35-16 and 71-14.

Both sides have made a hatful of changes from last week’s lineups with the Rams including Sio Luamanu at No8, while Poneke could have five Premier debutants tomorrow, including Corey Lawrence who plays for his fourth different club, while there are returns for Ivan Vaisagote and try-scoring machine Nick Robertson.

All Premier matches revert to the usual kickoff time of 2.45pm this week.

Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield

The feature clash of the Harper Lock Shield tomorrow is out at Maidstone Park where the Upper Hutt Rams host Poneke with both sides coming off big Opening Day wins, while there’s one other match between first-up winners with MSP hosting Wellington at Evans Bay. Other sides victorious last weekend were Norths who host Petone, Avalon who welcome Johnsonville to Fraser Park, and Ories who venture out to Tawa. The remaining two matches are between sides looking for their first wins with Pare-Plim hosting Petone and OBU making the trip to Wainuiomata.

All Premier Reserve matches kickoff at the usual time of 1pm.