Off the Ball for 6 August

The Marist St Pat's Premier Reserves after their extra time final win over Oriental-Rongotai on Saturday. More details below.

Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max, Lovelocks Sports Bar,  Motor Doctors and Sarah Kilner Real Estate 

Looking at some of the news in briefs, milestones, happenings, statistics and observations from the weekend of rugby just gone and what’s coming up this week.

Bumper crowds ringing the four fields, traffic jams on the Wellington-Petone motorway, kind weather and plenty of hard-fought rugby and the eight cups and trophies split between six clubs. The WRFU’s Finals Day was a success.

Finals Day Results at a glance:

• Jubilee Cup: Old Boys University 37 – Northern United 31
• Hardham Cup:  Petone 27 – Wainuiomata 26
• Women’s Tia Paasi Memorial Cup: Northern United 20 – Oriental-Rongotai 15
• Women’s Izzy Ford Cup: Old Boys University 71 – Hutt Old Boys Marist 22
• Les Mills Colts John E Kelly Cup: Old Boys University 55 – Hutt Old Boys Marist 0
• Les Mills Vic Calcinai Cup: Oriental-Rongotai 32 – Poneke 22
• Premier Reserve Ed Chaney Cup: Marist St Pat’s 35 – Oriental-Rongotai 32 (25-25 after 80 minutes)
• Premier Reserve HD Morgan Memorial Cup: Johnsonville 22 – Petone 19

There was also a ninth final on Saturday at Helston Park, where the Johnsonville Cripples beat the Poneke Ruffnuts 32-22 to win the Reserve Grade Division 1 Paul Donoghue Memorial Cup title.

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Saturday was the fifth and final round of the U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield and the Division 2 Tony O'Brien Shield competitions, ahead of the four U85kg semi-finals this coming weekend.

Results from the weekend and match-ups for the semi-finals are to be confirmed, pending results from Saturday, but the Avalon Wolves are top qualifier in the Paul Potiki Shield, ahead of the Upper Hutt Rams after the Wolves beat the Rams 18-17.

This coming weekend is the semi-finals of the First Grade Johnsonville Centennium Cup, which were deferred a week. Top qualifiers and unbeaten the HOBM Barbarians host fourth-placed Old Boys University and second-placed Stokes Valley Chiefs and third-placed Petone meet in the other.

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This weekend’s college First XV semi-finals in the Premiership division see top qualifier St Pat’s Silverstream take on Wellington College and Scots College host St Pat’s Town. Interestingly, Scots lost their final regular season match 22-28 to Wairarapa College on Saturday and St Pat’s Town slayed Porirua College 119-0. In Premier 2, top qualifier Tawa College and the Silverstream second XV meet in one semi-final and Hutt Valley High School and Aotea College play the other.

The Wellington secondary schoolgirls Premier 1 final is next Wednesday at Porirua College between already confirmed finalists St Mary’s College and Porirua College. In games this Wednesday at Te Whaea, St Mary’s College are scheduled to play Sacred Heart College at 5.25pm and Wellington East and Aotea meet at 4.15pm. Porirua has the bye.

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The Wellington Lions wider squad plays its second National Provincial Championship pre-season fixture this week in Blenheim. Their NPC season opener is next Sunday against Otago.

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The Wellington U19 squad had a warm-up match on Sunday morning against Tasman at the Hutt Recreation Ground. They play their first Hurricanes region competition match next Sunday morning at Westpac Stadium against Hawke’s Bay.

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In the Jubilee Cup, 1 v 2 has played each other nine times in the final since 2005. Two has now won seven times.

Old Boys University scored 113 tries this season in winning the Jubilee Cup. Runners-up Norths scored 122 tries.

Saturday’s final was the second highest scoring final ever in terms of points scored (68), after the 1998 decider in which Western Suburbs defeated Tawa 53-21 (74). In 2011 Ories beat Norths 40-18 (58).

The winning margin of six points in the Jubilee Cup followed a pattern of tight final results. In 18 finals since 2000, 13 of them have been decided inside 7 points.

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As reported on WRFU channels last week, Poneke’s Greg Foe won the 2018 Best and Fairest competiton. Points will have been awarded in both the Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup finals – so we await the final table.

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What about the Otago Premier final! Harbour and University will share the Premier title after an epic final which saw the teams locked 30-30 after 100 minutes of rugby at Forsyth Barr Stadium this afternoon. Harbour was left rueing missed opportunities to make the shield its own. First five-eighth Logan Allen had two dropped goal attempts deep in extra time and had two conversion attempts hit the post during regulation time. University were favoured to win and led 16-10 at halftime. But the students needed a late try to force extra time. Neither side was able to add to the score in 20 minutes of extra time. The tiebreaker was the most tries in the game but with four apiece the title has to be shared. It is Harbour's first premier title, while University has now has 50.

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Back in Wellington, this year’s Premier Reserve Division 1 Ed Chaney Cup final was also a thriller, with Marist St Pat’s beating Oriental-Rongotai 35-32 in extra time.

The last time Marist St Pat’s won the Ed Chaney Cup was in 1989 (their Premier Reserves often played Hardham Cup) and that team was coached by Tony Meachen. 29 years later MSP won the cup again with his son Edwin as the coach!

200+ Premier player Fa'atonu Fili has spent most of the season playing Premier Reserves, his big game experience came through in the Ed Chaney Cup Final kicking a perfect 9 from 9 from the boot for 25 points

There was plenty of experience playing in the Premier Reserve grade final with a number of players having previously played in Jubilee Cup Finals including, Fa'atonu Fili, Nick Harrison, Aasa Sanerivi, Jacob Taituave, (all MSP), Paulo Aukuso, Paula Kinikinilau and Ahtun Masun (all Ories). Plus another group of players who have played in the top team this year.

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In Saturday’s Division 1 Women’s final both Norths and Ories kicked penalties. They were only the second and third penalties kicked in the grade all season. The other was by Petone’s Acacia Te Iwimate in their first round clash with HOBM.

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Lest we forget. This Wednesday (8 August) is the anniversary of the start of the battle of Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli in World War 1, a conflict that claimed the lives of many of Wellington’s finest young men and rugby players. Club rugby continued throughout the war, but only an abbreviated ‘junior’ competition. The competition resumed in full in 1919, with Poneke winning that year.

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On Saturday, the Parliament Rugby Team started their season with a match against a New Zealand Rugby XV with the inaugural Tony Steel Memorial Trophy being contested. Tony Steel was a former National MP, All Black and NZ Parliamentary Rugby representative. NZ Rugby won 26-17. This match and charity auction that followed was also to raise awareness for RUCK CANCER NZ

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Former Samoan international Dan Leo is calling for a change to world rugby's eligibility law that "hinders poorer nations". Leo, a member of the Pacific Rugby Players Welfare board, says the one-nation-for-life rule that World Rugby currently operates by "is behind the times" and a change would "almost certainly have an immediate impact, both on the quality and growth of our sport." His plan would allow the likes of former All Black Charles Piutau to play for Tonga. Piutau played for Tonga at under-20 level before playing 14 tests for New Zealand between 2013-2015.  Read more here 

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The All Blacks squad for the Rugby Championship has been named, featuring Wellington players Dane Coles (Poneke), Ardie Savea (Oriental-Rongotai), TJ Perenara (Northern United), Recent regular Hurricanes Jeff Toomaga-Allen (MSP) and Vaea Fifita (Wellington) are not included and not listed as injured. 

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The Wellington Samoans Wider Training Squad has been selected. They start their campaign with the first of their annual fixtures with other Samoan unions - Hawke's Bay Samoans - on Saturday, August 18 (Wellington, venue TBC). At the completion of this match an official 30-man squad will be named, to contest the 2018 Hurricanes Shield & Festival Cup Competition. View the squad on their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/WellingtonSamoaRugbyUnion/

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Last, good luck to Oriental-Rongotai wing Julian Savea on his way as we type this to Toulon in France. The Bus scored 46 tries in 54 matches for the All Blacks between 2012-17. This places him second equal on the list behind Doug Howlett (49 tries) and alongside Christian Cullen (46) and Joe Rokokoko (46) – a player whose fortunes followed a similar path to Savea’s.