Off the Ball for 7 May

Above: The Northern United Colts beat defending champions Petone on Saturday. This coming weekend, Petone turns to play undefeated Marist St Pat's. 

The dust has settled on another big weekend of rugby around Wellington, leaving many questions still to be answered over the final five weeks of the Swindale Shield.

The feature game of this coming weekend’s Swindale Shield 10th round is a replay of last year’s final between Old Boys University and the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles for the Wood Cup at Nairnville Park. This could prove to be a virtual first round decider.

There is a key mid-table match between Oriental-Rongotai and Wainuiomata at the Polo Ground. Both these teams are locked in an embrace on 23 points in ninth equal place – four points adrift of seventh equal Petone and Tawa on 27.

The other five matches this coming weekend are between teams currently ranked inside the top seven and teams outside of it – so if round 10 results go to form then the top 7 will pull further ahead, but if a couple of results go the other way it’s all on over the next few weeks.

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There are a couple of juicy Colts and Women’s clashes for supporters this coming weekend as well.

The Ories and Norths women meet in a feature Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy match at Jerry Collins Stadium. Ories are coming off their third consecutive big win, while Norths are also unbeaten and had their bye last week.

The Les Mills Colts Division 1 competition sees unbeaten Marist St Pat’s square off against defending champions Petone, who have lost their last two games to Tawa and Norths.

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Several players had blazers presented to them over the weekend, including Wellington Axemen fullback Henry Hocking, Norths Womens pair Eden Gibson and Jodeci Rere and Ories first five-eighth Amanda Rasch for 50 games. Hayden Whelan was presented with his Ories centurion cap, while Aimee "Axe" Sutorious was also presented for 150 Women’s games for Norths.

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It took 25 attempts, but Paremata-Plimmerton finally broke their Swindale Shield duck away from home with their 14-8 win over Wellington at Hataitai. Since entering the top flight in 2015 they've only tasted success three times away from Ngatitoa, all in the 2016 Hardham Cup where they beat OBU B, MSP B, and Johnsonville.

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Continuing the Wellington vs Pare-Plim matters, their Colts sides met on Saturday for the inaugural playing of the Daniel Baldwin Memorial Cup. Baldwin's passing following last season's match between the two rocked the game not just here, but across the country. Although the match was played at Te Whaea the presentation was made at the Axemen's headquarters at Hataitai Park, with Wellington President Keith Quinn and Colts captain Cameron Roseingrave doing the honours to Pare-Plim's Zac Lemana.

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In ground news, it is the 100th anniversary since Kilbirnie Park was first constructed, and it was first used for rugby in 1919. The ground was called and is still the Kilbirnie Recreation Ground so the Kilbirnie Rec is its proper name. The Poneke gymnasium on the site was opened 60 years ago in 1958.

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Marist St Pat’s extended their Premier rugby winning streak over the Upper Hutt Rams to 26 matches with their win on Saturday. ‘How You Remind Me’ by Nickelback was the number one song on the charts when they last won in May 2002.

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It’s the time of the year where the D word comes to the forefront in all Premier squads. Marist St Pat’s have good depth. They have used some 41 players in their Premier side this season, including 31 different starters.

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How difficult can it be for Premier teams to have players with numbers on their backs or in the right number according to position? Every week spectators, reporters and commentators are let confused by Mickey Mouse distribution of numbers.

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In Hawke’s Bay Premier rugby’s new first round Nash Cup semi-final series, there were two contrasting top four games.

Napier Old Boys Marist walloped 89-17 (just one try this week to Mike Buckley) and will meet Napier Technical in the final after the Texans defeated Hastings Rugby & Sports 26-23.

In the other three games, last year’s OBU fullback Jono Ihaka has seemingly moved from the Manawatu to Hawke’s Bay and he scored two tries for new side MAC in their 35-22 win over Napier Pirate. In the fourth match, Clive beat Tamatea 55-35 and the fifth was a default with Central pulling the pin for the second successive week.

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In an early season representative fixture, the Horowhenua Kapiti side beat Wairarapa Bush 32-6 at Westpac Stadium on Saturday. A Wellington XV takes on Horowhenua Kapiti in Levin on Queen’s Birthday Monday – that’s a month of Monday’s from today.

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Secondary schoolgirls rugby starts this coming Wednesday with the first of two midweek grading weeks before the competition starts. The competition will see 13 teams including three St Mary’s College teams line up in the two divisions.

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Two teams will book their return to the Wellington 1st XV Premiership this coming weekend with Rongotai College facing Wairarapa College, and Porirua College hosting Kapiti College. The winners of those matches will have next weekend off ahead of the competition start, while the losers will get a second chance to get to the top flight.

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Wellington College conceded 57 points on Saturday against Palmerston North Boys’ High School. They leaked 50 against Hastings BHS last year and 52 against Feilding three years ago.

The Tranzit 1st XV Festival rolls into Hastings this coming Saturday for leg two. The draw is: Gisborne BHS v Wellington College and Palmerston North HS v Scots College at 11.30am and Napier BHS v St Pat’s Town and Hastings BHS v St Pat’s Silverstream at 1pm.

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In 2010 there were approximately 150 boy' secondary school teams in the Wellington region, now there are about 90. The apparent decline in player numbers is seemingly rapid. The Dominion Post doesn’t cover local sport anymore, but the Otago Daily Times does and they published a story on Saturday about their decline in player numbers, which makes for sobering reading. Read more here: https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/grassroots-looking-mighty-thin

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A hat-trick for Ben Lam on Saturday for the Hurricanes against the Lions on Retro Night at Westpac Stadium – he must be on the radar for higher honours.

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The Lions have only beaten the Hurricanes twice in Super Rugby, in 2007 in Johannesburg [30-7] and then in 2017 in the semi-finals. The Cats also achieved victory over the Hurricanes in Bloemfontein on two occasions, 1999 and 2001.

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Recent news that Poneke and Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles Will miss the opening All Blacks tests of the year and play no part in the Hurricanes' Super Rugby campaign. Coles’ rehabilitation from the serious knee injury he suffered six months ago will continue through to August, when he is targeting a return at provincial level for the Wellington Lions, alongside Asafo Aumua at hooker. First-choice Test rake Coles hasn't played since falling awkwardly and damaging cruciate ligaments early in the All Blacks' test win over France in Paris on November 1. In a separate story, Coles has indicated he would like to join the fire service post playing career, alongside Northern United’s Chris Middleton and another new recruit in Poneke teammate Reggie Goodes.