Fourth round humdingers in store for club rugby

Above: Fala Tuala makes a run for it on his way to scoring a try against Wellington last Thursday. Tuala and Oriental-Rongotai’s Hayden Whelan are two players set to play their 100th Premier games for their clubs tomorrow.

Round 4 of the Swindale and Harper Lock Shield happens tomorrow, with several teams at home for the first time this season. With Daylight Saving having ended autumn is now well upon us though its still forecast to be somewhat unseasonally warm, and here’s hoping the action on the field matches that.

Elsewhere the First Grade and Under 85s get into their seasons, and there’s a smattering of Colts, Women’s, and College preseason games on with the remaining senior grades sent to start next weekend.

Premier Swindale Shield

The Eastern Suburbs is the place to be tomorrow, with all four clubs based on that side of the Mt Victoria tunnel at home.

It’s out that way some of the biggest news in local club rugby for a while has broken, with Mason Lawrence and Roy Kinikinilau leaving Poneke after just three games in charge. That puts a very different spin on their encounter with Northern United at Kilbirnie Park, and comes on the back of their impressive 25-20 win over Tawa last weekend and it will be interesting how they respond. Their team news includes Pakai Turia starting at first-five with Charlie Russell-Vick at fullback, while Apirana McMillan-Parata starts in the #6 jersey vacated by Corey Lawrence who would appear to have left the club with his father.

Norths will look to be focused on the job at hand and have forward Fala Tuala lining up at lock for his 100th Premier game for the club. With both Du’Plessis Kirifi and Jackson Garden-Bachop amongst a host of Wellington-based on duty for the Hurricanes Development side in Napier tonight that means a first Premier start for Callum Watts-Pointer, and Esi Komaisavai starts at fullback with Luke Bowden moving in the #10 jersey.

The pair play for the Cyril Collett Memorial Shield, the only interclub trophy up for grabs tomorrow. Collett played for Porirua in the 1950’s, with his sons Paul and Bruce later turning out for Porirua and Poneke. It’s held by Norths after their 35-25 win in their sole meeting last year.

Just back up the road at Hataitai Park home side Wellington has the task of taking on the last unbeaten side, table toppers Hutt Old Boys Marist. The Eagles have flown out of the gate, and averaging 45 points per game so far have had little trouble keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

They will however be without two of their standouts of recent games, with James O’Reilly and Chase Tiatia also in Napier. Former Ram Jayden Treviranus slots in in place of Tiatia, with Ben Power moving back to hooker and Jordan Gillies returning to the loose trio. The Axemen are unaffected by Hurricanes commitments but have some changes nonetheless; skipper Alex Dalzell moves into lock with Ryan Duncan and Ranui Burchett on the flanks, and South African import Jeandre Small makes a first start at fullback.

Across at Evans Bay Marist St Pat’s host Paremata-Plimmerton. While pedigree suggests this should be a straightforward task for the home team and more so after putting Wainuiomata away last weekend, the visitors will be buoyed after turning in their best performance at this stage of the season in thrashing Johnsonville. MSP will be without Billy Proctor, but such is their depth that they can simply slot Isaia Petelo in his place. Petelo is joined in midfield by Jayden McCarthy making his first Premier start, as does Jay Hawkins on the openside. Pare-Plim hand debuts to the Melvin brothers, with former Tawa College standout and NZ U-18 League rep Dre starting at first-five and younger brother Broadus on the wing; with Blake Neve switching to fullback.

The fourth of the matches out east is through the cutting at the Polo Ground. Both Oriental-Rongotai and Avalon suffered losses last weekend and rebounding here might be a necessity for their top-seven chances, even at this early stage of the season. Hayden Whelan brings up 100 Premier matches for the Magpies, who are unchanged in the pack, bar Mounga Aukafolau starting at loosehead for Marcel Renata who is another in Napier tonight. In the backs Adam Deck is at halfback and Andrew Ellis is at centre with Ambrose Curtis at the back. The Wolves have likewise tweaked things with Damian Madsen starting at first-five and Daniel Sione-Leota at No.8 in a reshuffled loose trio in the absence of regular openside Logan Blake.

In the three matches elsewhere, Petone have their first outing for the year at the Rec, but it’s no gimme as they’ll take on a Tawa side that will be smarting after dropping last weekend’s home tilt with Poneke. They’ll be looking to rebound from that, but the Villagers will be fired up and are in good form having rattled up nearly 100 points in their wins over Pare-Plim and Upper Hutt.

Petone are shorn of four players who could otherwise be running out onto the Rec, with Murray Douglas, Carlos Price, and Pasi Uluilkepa all on Development duty; their places are taken by Jack Ross, Jared Kahu, and Marcus Roil respectively, while Losi Filipo was also named in that side but is injured with Willie Tufui taking his place in the Village midfield. Tawa are also affected with captain Kemara Hauiti-Parapara involved in that game though he has been named on their bench. That means last year’s Tawa College 1st XV captain Kyle Preston starts at halfback and prop James Coburn takes the captaincy, with a host of other changes up and down their lineup with four players making their starting debuts and four others appearing for the first time all year.

Old Boys-University are also back at their home paddock, and it’s likely they’ll have a sizeable crowd of Goat faithful on the terraces at Nairnville Park. They’ll also have the Bill Brien Challenge Trophy at stake, but will be confident of retaining it against a struggling Upper Hutt Rams side that suffered another heavy defeat last Saturday, and find themselves looking up at everyone else on the table. The home side has made a few changes for the battle of clubs with cloven-hooved quadrupeds for spirit animals with first Premier starts for hooker Wirangi Parata and lock Taine Plumtree, and a rare one for Matt Fowler at halfback in place of Tomasi Palu. The visitors start veteran Nua Fono-Hunt and debutant Greg Te Kura in the halves and Devon MacDonald-Healy returns to the front row.

The seventh and final game of this preview is at Helston Park where Johnsonville welcome Wainuiomata. The home side will be looking to get their season underway after three losses, but with each of those having come to teams they headed off in last year’s Hardham Cup they’ll need to turn things around quickly, while conversely it’s been a roller-coaster so far for Wainuiomata with losses to Avalon and MSP bracketing a win over OBU.

The Hawks have rattled off a bunch of changes with Kane Thompson moving into lock with Api Naikatini in the Blue Card protocol, and the hard-running Simi Navoka coming into No.8 amongst them. After his brief return last weekend Peter Umaga-Jensen is away again so Justin Wilson reverts to fullback for Wainuiomata, who also get Ben Tupuola back with Michael Lealava’a and sevens rep Nash Fiso-Vaelai making their first appearances for the year.

All seven matches are at the normal 2.45pm kickoff time. Gordon Noble-Campbell and Adam Julian will have the call of the Poneke vs Norths clash on 1161AM

Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield

The feature clash of the round is the early game at Kilbirnie Park where two of the three unbeaten sides, Poneke and leaders Norths clash. Meanwhile just across the road the third unbeaten - Marist St Pat’s - should have fewer problems facing winless Pare-Plim, while also out that way mid-table pair Ories and Avalon clash at Polo, and Wellington host HOBM – the Eagles winless in complete contrast to their senior side – at Hataitai.

Defending champions OBU will be looking to stay in touch when they host the Upper Hutt Rams at Nairnville, early season surprise Johnsonville to do the same when taking on winless Wainuiomata at Helston, and there’s a crunch clash in the only game in the Hutt Valley when Petone face Tawa at the Petone Rec.

All seven matches get underway at 1pm.

Other grades

Two more grades get their seasons underway this weekend. It’s straight into action for the 10 teams making up this year’s First Grade competition with the Thompson Memorial Trophy the prize for the first round. Title holders HOBM start their defence at Trafalgar Park against the Stokes Valley Rhinos, while championship winners Petone are also at home against Avalon. In the other three matches Norths host MSP at Porirua Park, Tawa face OBU at Lyndhurst, and the Stokes Valley Chiefs take on Poneke at Delaney Park. All five matches are 2.45pm kickoffs.

The second grade is the always popular Under 85kg restricted which starts with a knockout tournament format that will also double as grading for the two divisions. 14 teams line up this year with Stokes Valley and Petone seemingly absent from last year’s field, and the return of Wainuiomata. The latter side hosts defending double winners Wellington at Mary Crowther, while runners-up Avalon host the OBU Bunnies at Fraser Park. In the other matches perennial contenders Tawa take on the Wests Roosters in the Ian Galloway cage, Johnsonville face Kapiti at Newlands Park, Eastbourne host the MSP Reds at HW Shortt, and the MSP Greens and HOBM clash on the St Pats College artificial. These matches also kickoff at 2.45pm. The Upper Hutt Rams were drawn against Poneke at Maidstone but the latter have defaulted and seemingly been withdrawn from the grade entirely.