Off the Ball for 16 April

Above: Kiri Mei caught in a tackle for Avalon against Poneke in the Women's Gala Day on Saturday at Ngatitoa Domain. Mei and Upper Hutt Rams Premier No. 8 Josh Houston Tupou were two players to score hat-tricks on Saturday. PHOTO: Andy McArthur.

The 2018 rugby season has now taken full flight

All club rugby grades were in action on Saturday, in one way or another.

It was a welcome relief to have a mostly fine afternoon around the region on Saturday after the previous two rounds were laced with wind and rain. Here’s hoping for some more fine weekends before winter takes hold.

We’re five rounds in with seven to play in the Premier Swindale Shield, but the field is starting to spread out now.

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Will the top seven-bottom seven mix change much between now and the end of the first round?

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Some alarming one-sided results spread throughout the lower grades. It could be a long season for some teams.

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Spare a thought for the Stokes Valley A First Grade side. They have been defaulted to twice so two rounds in they are on 10 competition points have yet to leave their clubrooms.

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The consensus is that the Women’s competition could be hotly contested this year. Northern United with a typically strong pack and Marist St Pat’s with swift backs both impressed, while defending champions Oriental-Rongotai were spectators of both these sides and they start their campaign this Saturday after having their bye.

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Every Marist St Pat’s team that took the field on Saturday had a win.

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The Billy Wallace Best & Fairest competition is cooking up nicely.

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Former Best & Fairest winner Huia Hutton passed away last week. Hutton played for Athletic (later merged with Kaori and Onslow to form Wests) in the 1960s and early 1970s. Hutton was the joint winner in 1970 with Petone midfielder Richard Cleland. Hutton was the first tight forward to win the competition. A former Wellington Colts and B player, his strong club form saw him selected for the Wellington A team that season.

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The annual McBain Shield match on Saturday between Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist was won by the latter 30-27 with a death-knock try.

In their last 25 games, Petone have lost nine times by less than a converted try. 

The McBain Shield head-to-head is Petone 60 wins, Hutt: 20 wins, with five draws. The last draw was 18-18 in 1987. In 1974 it was 0-0.

Ben Power won the McBain Shield for the first time yesterday. His father Doug was a winner of the McBain in 1991 the same year the Eagles won the Jubilee Cup for the first time and he got married to Sue.

Petone have lost seven out of eight games with Richard Gordon as referee. HOBM have won 9 out of 15. Gordon refereed his 100th Premier match on Saturday.

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The most wins in all matches since the start of 2014: Old Boys University 62, HOBM 56, Tawa 53, Oriental-Rongotai 47

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In this youthful current environment, it’s invaluable having the experience of former internationals playing club rugby. When he is on song, Tawa first five-eighth James So’oialo is definitely the ‘Lord of Lyndhurst’. He brought his A game to Saturday’s game against Avalon, kicking well in general play and directing his backs and often silencing the howls of the Wolves supporters on halfway. Tawa were scratchy early on but soon clicked and won 33-10.

In 129 combine Premier games, for Northern United, Wellington and Tawa, So’oialo has scored 1,582 points.

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After five rounds, So’oialo is the season’s top points scorer so far with 76 points, ahead of Glen Walters from Hutt Old Boys Marist on 73 and Justin Wilson from Wainuiomata on 58. Six players have scored five tries in as many rounds, these being: Adam Simpson (Petone), Luca Rees (Ories), Maile Koloto (OBU), Nick Robertson (Poneke), Perry Hayman (Norths) and Tai Neli (OBU).

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There was a presentation at the after-match of the Old Boys University – Oriental-Rongotai fixture for Teariki Ben Nicholas and Zeke Sopoaga, who had brought up 50 Premier games earlier this season.

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Radio Sport's Saturday Rugby Club in association with Burger King returns to full coverage this coming weekend (Round Six). Their feature game this week is Northern United versus Tawa for the Sammy Saili Trophy - with Gordon Noble-Campbell and John Mystery Morrison. It is live on 1503AM and 1377AM (Kapiti) and IheartRadio anywhere.

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In other interclub trophies this coming weekend, Avalon and Petone meet for the Morgan Family Trophy, Marist St Pat’s and Old Boys University for the Jack Lamason Memorial Cup, Ories and Wellington for the Alby Jack Memorial Cup and the Upper Hutt Rams and Wainuiomata for the Peter Jones/Dave Ritchie Cup.

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In this week’s Mike Buckley news for MSP supporters, Buckley scored two tries for Napier Old Boys Marist in their 76-0 win over Clive in Hawke’s Bay club rugby.

Napier Old Boys Marist have extended their Hawke’s Bay Premier club rugby Nash Cup and Maddison Trophy winning streak to 38. Their last loss was to Havelock North on 30 April 2016, and before that they had won eight in a row so they have won 45 of their past 46 encounters.

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Johnsonville is holding a 20-year reunion of their 1998 winning Swindale Shield side, on their Old Timers’ Day on the weekend of 2 June. The club is looking to get in touch with the following former players to invite them along: Lee Crafar, Lale Ieremia, Graeme Webster, Laki Vitale, Willie Remuera, Rob Turuwhenua, Steve Dickson, Robbie Ali and Chris Tutt.

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A shout out to Hutt Old Boys Marist’s talismanic loosehead prop Simon Malaeulu, who suffered a heart attack last weekend after HOBM’s win over Wellington. The good news is that he is expected to make a full recovery and hopefully be back to play a well-deserved 200th Premier match later this season.

Petone stalwart Eugene Smith will have to wait a little longer to get to his 200 Premier games. Currently on 198, he broke his foot playing for the Petone Premier Reserves last weekend. It is hoped he can come back and play later in the season.

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In school First XV rugby, Nelson College made it two from two in recent days, backing up their pre-season win on Thursday night against St Pat’s Town by beating Rongotai College 21-19.Former students Beauden Barrett and Ricky Riccitelli were Francis Douglas Memorial College waterboys in their loss to St Pat’s Silverstream over four quarters, while Auckland’s King’s College beat Scots College 59-0 on Saturday.

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The Highlanders took care of the Brumbies 43-17 in Dunedin on Saturday night, extending the winning streak by New Zealand teams over Australian teams to 34 games. This could be extended fairly swiftly, with three of the Crusaders' next four matches against Australian teams (Brumbies, Rebels and Waratahs).

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The Hurricanes have the bye this coming weekend. How many players will be available and keen for club rugby?

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Congratulations to the All Black Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens for winning gold at the Commonwealth Games over the weekend.

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Rugby broadcasting news this morning:

“Spark will have splashed out big time to secure the rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Sky Television says. Sky TV spokeswoman Melodie Robinson says Sky offered to pay "significantly more" for the rights to the 2019 World Cup than it did when it won the rights to the cup in 2015. "Therefore Spark paid a lot of money," she says. Sky Television investors had already written off the Rugby World Cup as lost when the pay-television giant announced last month that it was not the preferred bidder for the tournament in Japan.” Read more here 

One effect of this will be fewer people watching other rugby with less take-up of new Sky subscriptions and more people cancelling, thus reducing the profile of Super and NPC rugby. This in turn will affect the profile of other sports that Sky subscribers can ‘take or leave’ if they don’t have it