Women’s and lower grade club rugby and college rugby preview

We’ve split this week’s preview with today’s focus on the other club grades and the college action that’s happening, starting with the handful of games tonight. While there’s plenty of focus on the goings-on at Premier level – which we’ll look at in a separate preview– there are a number of significant games taking place elsewhere.

All times and venues are correct as of time of writing.

Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy

With the halfway mark having been passed the Women’s first round competition is starting to take shape. Paremata-Plimmerton have the competition lead, but are also yet to have the bye or play the either of the heavyweights; they get one of those on Saturday when Oriental-Rongotai visit Ngati Toa Domain having lost their unbeaten streak last weekend against Norths. That result left Norths as the sole undefeated team and they should have little problem maintaining that against strugglers Poneke up on the top fields at Porirua Park.

The four sides all battling to be on the right side of the split for the second round are all in action amongst themselves. Old Boys-University need to rebound from last week’s loss to Petone when they host Avalon at Nairnville Park, while Petone make the short trip across the river to the Hutt Rec to take on Hutt Old Boys Marist. Marist St Pat’s have the bye this week.

All matches are at the usual 11.30am kickoff time.

Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield

There’s been a change at the top of the ladder with MSP leapfrogging Norths after last weekend. MSP maintained their unbeaten record with their romp over Avalon, while ugly scenes at Maidstone brought Norths’ match with the Upper Hutt Rams to an early conclusion while the home side held a 15-12 lead. Club Rugby understands that that scoreline stands and any sanctions are being applied off-field.

The upshot is the MSP (48 points) now lead, while Norths (46 points) have slid to second. MSP face the first real test of their credentials for a few weeks when they wander over Evans Bay Parade to take on third-placed Poneke (43) with the Kilbirnie side that only one outside of the top-two with a realistic chance of the title.  Norths are themselves only a short distance away as well, over at Polo to face mid-table Ories in the early game there.

In the remaining games current holders OBU head to Ngati Toa and a clash with bottom side Pare-Plim, Petone are at home against Wellington on the Petone Rec, Johnsonville host the Rams at Helston, Tawa head to William Jones to face Wainuiomata, and neighbours HOBM and Avalon clash at the Hutt Rec.

All seven matches are at the usual 1pm kickoff time.

Les Mills Colts

Once again there’s a combination of Friday night and Saturday games in the age-grade competitions.

In the Division 1 Paris Memorial the round starts with Ories and Norths meeting tonight at 7.30pm at Te Whaea. The Magpies finally got off the mark against Tawa and will look to put distance between them and relegation while Norths (16 points with a game in hand) will look to shake off rust quickly after their game last weekend was postponed at the 11th hour. On Saturday leaders MSP (23) remain unbeaten and head to Lyndhurst to face a Tawa side (at 12.30pm) in a similar situation to Ories, while OBU Green (21) are the closest challengers and take on Petone at Te Whaea. The fourth match is at the Hutt Rec where HOBM and the Upper Hutt Rams – hopefully recovered from an illness that swept through the side – meet.

The Division 2 JRD Cup also gets underway tonight with a pair of 7.30pm kickoffs. Johnsonville (17) and Poneke (15) will look to get back to winning ways when they meet at Alex Moore Park, while Avalon and Wainuiomata clash at Fraser Park. Saturday sees unbeaten leaders Paremata-Plimmerton (25 points) host OBU Black (20) in a top-of-the-table clash at Ngati Toa, and OBU White and Wellington take to Prince of Wales Park.

Unless stated, all matches on Saturday are at 1pm.

Under 85kg Restricted

It’s a congested looking table in the early going in the lightweight grade and Saturday’s stack of games is highlighted by the clash up the coast of two of the four joint-leaders when unbeaten Avalon head north to take on Paraparaumu at 1pm. The Upper Hutt Rams and Eastbourne are the other two, with the Rams hosting MSP on home turf at Maidstone (also at 1pm) while Eastbourne head to the cage at Ian Galloway Park to face the Wests Roosters at 2.45pm. The OBU Bunnies and Tawa meet at Te Whaea at the later time, while Wellington and winless HOBM are at Hataitai in the third 1pm kickoff.

College

The Tranzit Festival rolls into town starting with this evening’s stadium curtain=raiser between St Pat’s Silverstream and Gisborne Boys’ High Schol. Both sides won last weekend with Gisborne thrashing Wellington College and Silverstream becoming the first NZ school to beat Hastings since Mt Albert Grammar tipped them over in the 2016 National Final.

Surprisingly these Hurricanes regional schools have only met six times. The first fixture was the Hurricanes regional final in 2010 which Gisborne won 15-11 in Palmerston North. Jamison Gibson-Park (later a Maori All Black) scored a last play try to propel Gisborne into the National Top Four.

Overall it's 3-3, but Gisborne won the last meeting in Petone in 2016, 29-28 after rallying from a 28-12 deficit.

Saturday’s three matches are all at Porirua Park. First up on #1 at 11.30am Wellington College will look to get some confidence ahead of the local competition but face a Napier Boys’ High School side that put almost 70 points on St Pats Town. Following them at 1pm Town will likewise try to rebound from that toweling when they play Palmerston North Boys who are themselves looking for a clean sweep, while up on #2 Scots line up against Hastings Boys.

Elsewhere there’s four crunch matches to find the remaining sides in this year’s Premiership. As well as the four Tranzit sides, two others have already booked their returns after Porirua beat Kapiti and Wairarapa progressed from their draw with Rongotai by virtue of scoring the first try in the match. Both Rongotai and Kapiti get a second chance on Saturday when they host Aotea and Upper Hutt respectively, with Upper Hutt looking to emulate Hutt Valley High last year in jumping from Premier 3 to the big time. The remaining matches see the other two sides from last year’s field also trying to make it back with Tawa hosting Hutt International and HVHS making the short trip to St Bernard’s. All matches are at 2.30pm bar the Kapiti vs Aotea match which is at 1pm.

The losers of those four matches will be placed into Premier 2, alongside the Silverstream and Wellington College 2nd XV’s and the winners of the second tier of qualifiers. Those four matches have Wainuiomata hosting Onslow, the local derby between Naenae and Taita, Paraparaumu at home against Bishop Viard, and Mana likewise for the visit of the St Pats Town 2nd XV. Three of those matches are 1pm starts, with the Naenae and Taita clash the only one at 2.30pm.