Off the Ball for 25 June

Above: Two Northern United players reached milestone games for their club four days apart recently. Fullback Daley Harper has recently returned from Australia and reached the milestone of 100 games last Wednesday for the Premiers, while Patsy Schwalger played her 150th for the Women's team on Saturday.

Deepest darkest winter is behind us and its downhill to the summer months. The next month of rugby should shine brightly as we head towards the business end of the 2018 club rugby season.

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Today is a day off locally, but there is plenty of college rugby on this week, in Wellington and further afield.

Wellington College is at Wanganui Collegiate this week for the annual Quadrangular tournament. This is with the host school and Nelson and Christ’s Colleges.

Wellington College plays Christ’s College at 12.30pm and Wanganui Collegiate plays Nelson College at 2.15pm today and the second set of matches is on Wednesday.

UPDATE: Christ's College have beaten Wellington College 49-19 in their tournament opener.

This is the 92nd Quad tournament and it dates back 129 years. Nelson College the defending champions, having beaten Christ’s 29-5 in last year’s final. Wellington College beat Wanganui 27-5 in the third placed match.

Wellington College is coming off a 10-53 defeat to Scots College, while Christ’s sit second and Nelson eighth in the Crusaders First XV competition and Wanganui are inside the top four of the Central North Island competition.

On Wednesday, St Pat’s Silverstream are on the road to play Palmerston North Boys’ High School in their annual traditional fixture. Silverstream won this match 71-0 at home last year, but this contest could be much closer with PNBHS out of revenge at home and buoyed by their most recent win at the Gully at New Plymouth Boys’ High School that saw them win 31-28.

Back home, there are two school matches on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The first on Tuesday sees St Mary’s College playing Feilding High School in an inter-school secondary schoolgirl's inter-provincial fixture at Te Whaea at 2.00pm. St Mary’s local supremacy is unchecked but Feilding have developed a Manawatu rivalry with Manukura.

The second on Wednesday is a Co-ed Cup semi-final fixture at Porirua College between the home school and Wainuiomata High School at 3.30pm. The second Co-ed semi is on Saturday between Aotea and Onslow which is being played as their previously scheduled Premier 2 encounter

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In losing 10-44 to Poneke on Saturday in their Jubilee Cup fixture, Tawa suffered their biggest loss since their 22-50 semi-final setback to OBU last year.

The last four games between Poneke and Tawa had been split 2-2, with the biggest spread of 9 points.

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After 15 matches (13 in the Swindale Shield and 2 in the Hardham Cup); the Petone Premiers have scored 473 points (average 31 points per match) and conceded 256 points (average 17 points per outing); and that was their score in beating Wellington 31-17 on Saturday.

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Another week of players bringing up milestone matches. As mentioned in Friday’s preview, Oriental-Rongotai outside back Andrew Ellis became the Magpies newest (and youngest) centurion but was on the losing side as they went down 37-42 to HOBM, while Norths Women’s stalwart Patsy Schwalger was on the winning side as she brought up 150 games against Petone.

A belated mention as well to Wainuiomata’s Corey Draper, recently returned to the club from Australia where he has been living, who also notched up his 150th Premier match last weekend in his side’s draw with Upper Hutt Rams.

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Farewell and good luck to one of the greats of Wellington women’s rugby as Aimee Suturious played her last game (for now) in the capital alongside Schwalger in Norths win over Petone. Known to almost everyone as ‘Ax’ the former Black Fern, Wellington Pride and Sevens stalwart, and also a member of the Norths 150 club is relocating to Christchurch this week. Us here at Club Rugby wish her the best for her new endeavours.

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Nick Hogan refereed his 75th Premier match in Saturday’s clash at the Hutt Rec between HOBM and Ories, which also doubled as his 25th Jubilee Cup outing. Colleague Vincent Ringrose also reached that same mark of 25 Jubilee Cup matches with the Poneke vs Tawa match at Kilbirnie Park.

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In Hawke’s Bay club rugby, HOBM duo Lui Luamanu and Joe Joe ‘Apikotoa helped their side Taradale to an Old Timers’ Day win over Napier Old Boys Marist. Taradale won 37-31 after trailing 0-14 early, handing NOBM their second loss of the season. Former MSP wing Mike Buckley scored a try for NOBM, his 29th of the season.

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The comings and goings to the sin-bin at Helston Park on Saturday were at times farcical with six yellow cards handed out in 25 minutes in the second half. At one stage a Johnsonville player was sent to the sin-bin and he crossed paths with another recalled to the field at the same time. Another yellow-coated moment saw Johnsonville duo Api Naikatini and Jeff Malapelu jog 50 metres back on the field only to be told by referee Fairmaid their time wasn’t up yet so they trotted back down together under the posts.

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Does Arden get a point in the Best and Fairest for calling her baby Neve?

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Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has laid into his national rugby team, saying they have "no guts". Speaking in Parliament as ministers looked to pass the 2018-19 budget, Tuilaepa, who is also the chairman of Samoan Rugby, revealed he was frustrated with the national team's form. Manu Samoa have not won an international rugby match since November 2016, when they edged Canada 25-23 in France. Since then they've lost nine consecutive matches, leading into a Rugby World Cup qualifier against Germany in Apia on July 14. Read more here 

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Club Rugby ticked off its latest venue on Saturday with a debut at Newlands Park. Club Rugby gave the venue a five out of 10 on the spectator scale, which included a point knocked off for lack of parking. Delaney Park is believed to be the only venue in Wellington we have never covered a game at so hopefully that can change soon.

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Former player and now Sport Waikato Chief Executive Matthew Cooper has spoken out about the health and safety legislation's effects on club sport and sports clubs. "We believe health and safety is important and certainly for an organisation like Sport Waikato,” he said. "But for a small sports club in the city or rural Waikato, I don't think they they should be having the same level of legislation applied to them." Former All Black and Sport Waikato chief executive Matthew Cooper started a petition to support the Health and Safety at Work (Volunteer Associations) Amendment Bill. The Bill aimed to allow volunteer associations that employed a person or people, for not greater than 100 hours per week, to be excluded from the definition of a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). Read more here