College Finals Day on Saturday

Above: Aotea College take on the St Pat's Silverstream 2nd XV for the Murray Jensen Cup tomorrow.

This weekend sees the end of the college XV’s season with their finals day. St Patrick’s College, Silverstream will again play host, with 10 finals and titles to be decided across the day. These follow the Girl’s finals that were played out on Wednesday night and ahead of the Premiership decider between Silverstream and St Pat’s Town on Sunday.

Eleven schools have at least one team in a final this year with Wellington College topping that with four teams and Silverstream with three.

Premier (open age & weight)

The major game of the day is the Premier 2 final with Aotea College taking on the Silverstream 2nd XV on the #1 ground for the Murray Jensen Cup.

The Premier 2 grade has been remarkably hard-fought this year and there’s little reason to expect that the final will be any different. Aotea won their first 6 games out of the gate but dropped their last three either side of winning the Coed Cup final (and with it the Porirua schools Beard Trophy) to wind up as the third qualifier. They won away at Hutt Valley HS 32-25 to progress to the final.

The Silverstream 2nds are looking for a three-peat having won this title the past two seasons. A surprise last-round loss to Taita dropped them into the fourth-qualifier place, but like their opponents, they rebounded to beat top-seed Tawa 38-33 away last Saturday. Three weeks ago they edged Aotea 15-12 in the round-robin clash between the pair, and that along with being at home gives them the slight favourites tag.

Two Hutt Valley sides will contest the Premier 3 Paul Cameron Cup title. Wainuiomata HS were perhaps unlucky not to qualify for Premier 2, but have made little race of this in racking up seven bonus point wins to easily top the table and accounted for the Tawa 2nd XV 24-7 in their semi-final two weeks ago. Their opposition is Naenae College who beat last year’s grade winners Mana 41-24 in an entertaining semi-final and whose only loss in the competition was to Wainuiomata 12-29 back in the very first round of matches.

The Onslow Cup is the prize for the Premier 4 title and will also be decided between the teams that finished 1-2 at the end of the round-robin in the Scots College 2nd XV and Heretaunga College’s 1st XV. Scots went unbeaten and beat the Wellington College 3rd XV 32-19 in their semi-final, while Heretaunga lost just one game and beat the Silverstream 3rds 37-30 in theirs. The previous meeting between the pair saw a 19-all draw.

There is no Premier 5 final this year.

Age Grade

Once again the premier age grade final – the Under 15 Division 1 for the Father Gus Hill Cup – will be played out between the two St Patrick’s College’s for the fourth consecutive year with the two having taken out the last seven titles between them. This year it’s St Pat’s Town who went through the round-robin unbeaten, including a 24-19 win over Silverstream in their earlier meeting, and easily saw off Wellington College 55-7 in their semi-final. It was also comfortable for Stream in their semi-final, beating St Bernard’s 43-7.

The Division 2 title will be played between Mana and Hutt International with the pair having finished the double round-robin with matching seven-win, three-loss records to end up one-point ahead of Upper Hutt. The pair have split their earlier meetings with HIBS winning the first 24-22, and Mana the second 31-10 with that latter match being played only last weekend.

In Division 3 it's Aotea who have been the dominant side winning all ten matches. They’ll face Newlands College who they’ve already beaten by 31-19 and 48-12 this season.

Weight-restricted Grades

Like the club-level 85’s, the college weight grades continues to provide entertaining games each week, and hopefully that bodes well for tomorrow’s quartet of finals.

The seven-team Under 80kg Arthur Reeve Cup competition will be decided between Silverstream and Wellington College Black. Like their Premier 2nd XV, the Streamers are looking for a three-peat and beat Wellington College Gold 60-26 in an open game last weekend. WC Black played their semi-final a week earlier and beat Town 22-17, and have the small advantage of beating Silverstream 22-21 in their last competition meeting.

The last two teams standing in the Under 65kg Division 1 Ina Hansen Cup are Onslow and last year’s winners Wellington College A. Onslow – which includes a handful of students from neighbouring Newlands – were top qualifiers and beat Silverstream 53-12 at the semi-final stage, with College beating Tawa 51-0. That was the fourth time they’ve passed 50 this season, though Onslow has only let one team – Taita – get beyond 15 against them, including a 19-12 win earlier in the competition.

In Division 2 Kapiti College finished top with nine wins from nine and beat St Bernard’s 51-5 to make this final. They’ll play Scots College who qualified third and then beat Upper Hutt away 37-17 last weekend. That was also the scoreline in the finalists’ earlier meeting, in favour of Kapiti.

Finally the real lightweights – the Under 55kg grade for the David Scott Cup – will again be an intra-school affair. Last year it was two Silverstream teams, this year Wellington College’s Black and Gold teams will vie for bragging rights but both only narrowly progressed from last weekend’s semi-finals. The Black squad edged Scots 25-19, while the top-qualifier Gold side drew 22-all with Silverstream White and only advanced through being the higher-ranked side. Gold won their round-robin match 20-5, but Black will be looking to have the final say.

Schedule for the day:

10.00 am
#5 - Under 55kg Division 1 – Wellington College Gold vs Wellington College Black
#4 - Under 65kg Division 1 – Onslow vs Wellington College A
#3 - Under 15 Division 2 – Mana vs Hutt International

10.30am
#1 - Under 15 Division 1 – St Pats Town A vs Silverstream A

11.30 am
#2 - Under 80kg – Silverstream vs Wellington College Black
#4 - Under 15 Division 3 – Aotea vs Newlands
#5 – Under 65kg Division 2 – Kapiti vs Scots

1.00 pm
#2 - Premier 3 – Wainuiomata 1st XV vs Naenae 1st XV
#3 - Premier 4 – Scots 2nd XV vs Heretaunga 1st XV

1.30 pm
#1 - Premier 2 – Aotea 1st XV vs Silverstream 2nd XV