Club Rugby Awards of the Year

The curtain has come down on the 2018 club rugby season, with the Upper Hutt Rams J8s beating the MSP Internationals 15-12 to win the Reserve Grade title on Saturday.

Club Rugby correspondents have reflected on the season and come up with the following awards (in no particular order):

Coach Killer of the Year: Petone. Act One - Round one against Northern United. In a seesaw season opener Petone thought they had done enough when Jarrod Adams scored to put them ahead 20-15, only for Norths to pour down field and Leon Ellison to tie the match and then win it 22-20 when he kicked the conversion. Act Two - Round five against Hutt Old Boys Marist (McBain Shield). Down 23-27, HOBM fullback Anthony Utanga outflanked the Petone defence with the last play of the game after Petone had piled on 17 unanswered points. HOBM won 30-27. Act three - Round eight against Wainuiomata. Visiting No. 8 Ben Tupuola scored a try under the posts off a 5-metre scrum with the final play of the game to set up a 26-26 draw for the Darren Larsen Cup. Petone missed qualifying for the Jubilee Cup by a single point, but ended up with silverware by lifting the Hardham Cup at season’s end.

Interclub Trophy Match Win of the Year: Poneke’s win over Oriental-Rongotai in the annual Jimmy Grbich Memorial Shield match on Derby Day in round eight. Their 28-25 win was their first in the contest since 2010, ending a run of seven consecutive Ories wins. The last four Swindale Shield meetings between the eastern suburbs pair have been extremely close, these being: 28-27 to Ories in 2015, 20-19 to Ories in 2016, a 30-30 draw in 2017 and a 28-25 win to Poneke in 2018.

Emphatic Win of the Year: Northern United inflicted a few on other teams this year, but what about Hutt Old Boys Marist’s 47-19 win over Norths in round 3 of the Swindale Shield? HOBM lead by 40 points with 10 minutes to play, before a late flurry of scoring. In terms of both points conceded and losing margin this was the worst of the 28 defeats Norths have suffered on their home ground since our records began in 2005.

Individual Performance of the Year: Greg Foe in Poneke’s round 3 Swindale Shield 25-20 win over Tawa at Lyndhurst Park. The openside flanker showed the form that would win him this year’s Best & Fairest competition with a huge match for Poneke who were underdogs going into the game having lost their first match to OBU 10-55 and struggling with injuries.

Comeback win of the year. Norths beating HOBM 35-34 in the fourth round of the Jubilee Cup (in contrast to the entry for the emphatic win of the year, above). It seemed that the earlier result would be repeated as HOBM led 20-6 at halftime and later 34-11 and were well in control heading the pointy end of the match. But Norths suddenly fired up. Faifili Levave scored to make it 34-18 and then again to make it 34-25 before captain Parekura Lalaga crossed after a sweeping build-up to close the gap to 34-30. The drums were beating and Norths marched downtown again and eventually scored the winner through wing Junior Time-Taotua.

Family Performance of the Year: All three Taumoli sisters started for the Oriental-Rongotai women’s side in the front row on against Poneke in their match at the end of April. Fuamai was at loosehead prop, Barbra at hooker and Janet at tighthead prop. Ories won the game by over 100 points.

The ‘always take the points’ Award: To Tawa in round nine of the Swindale against HOBM. Tawa were trailing 28-30 and were awarded a penalty on fulltime, but opted to turn down the penalty shot under the posts which would have won the game. Instead they chose an attacking scrum (which admittedly had just monstered the Eagles moments earlier) in search of getting both the victory and a bonus point try but came up short.

The ‘winning streak’ Award: Marist St Pat’s, for extending their Premier rugby winning streak over the Upper Hutt Rams to 26 matches with their 45-23 round nine win. The Maidstone club last beat MSP in May 2002.

Five Games of the Year: One of the last club games of the year and played out by blokes well away from the Premier spotlight, but for sheer drama you couldn't beat the Under 85kg Final between the Avalon Wolves and the Upper Hutt Rams on a boggy Fraser Park #3. The Wolves led 10-3 with time almost up only for the Rams to send it to extra-time with a 80th minute converted try, and then repeat that in the 99th to win it and deny Avalon an unbeaten season.

Ories beating Norths 35-33 in the last round of the Jubilee Cup. Midfielder Alex Ropeti scored to propel Ories into their seventh Jubilee Cup semi-final in the past eight years, and end Norths’ winning streak at 13. Down 33-30, and deep into referee’s time, Ropeti charged at opposite Kienan Higgins from a scrum. Higgins appeared to have restrained the Ories second-five, but a second surge of momentum powered Ropeti over. Earlier Norths burst out to a 26-8 lead on the back of two tries for Higgins. Ories rallied and a Ropeti intercept nudged the visitors ahead 27-26.

Norths and OBU in the penultimate round of the Swindale Shield. Norths won 50-45 with the match featuring 13 tries, many of them length of the field finishes. Esi Komaisavai had a dream first-half scoring three tries.  

The Women’s final for the Inaugural Tia Paasi Memorial Trophy (named after the former Wellington Pride and Black Ferns prop) was as brutal a game as seen anywhere with two evenly matched sides. Norths (first round winners) and Ories (defending champions) went hammer and tongs at each other throughout. The final 15 minutes saw Norths protecting a 20-15 lead and Ories sending all sorts of traffic at their defence that held to the end. A standout was seeing Helen Collins eyeing up tryscoring machine Ayesha Leti-L’iga every time the ball even looked like coming her way.

At college level the 133rd meeting between Wellington College and St Pat’s Town saw visitors Town win spectacularly at the end. Down 19-0, and reduced to 14 players after 20 minutes after a red card for stomping, Town remarkably rallied to win 31-26. No.8 Keelan Whitman had a second half blinder as Town closed to 24-26. With a couple of minutes left, reserve forward Liam McAree busted through the hosts defence at halfway and scored the winner.

Three Teams of the Year: In the top grades, it is hard to go past the Marist St Pat’s Premier Reserves for this one. MSP won the first round Premier Reserve competition by beating Norths 46-29 in a ‘virtual final’ to take out the Harper Lock Shield. MSP won all 13 matches and scored 720 points and conceded 181. In the second round they had a couple of speed wobbles before coming back strongly and winning their final against Ories in an extra time thriller, 35-32. This was their first Ed Chaney Cup win since 1989.

In the lower grades, the HOBM Barbarians. They won all nine first round matches in annexing the Thompson Memorial Cup and then completed an unbeaten season in beating the Stokes Valley Chiefs 60-24 on home turf at the Hutt Rec to win the championship Johnsonville Centennium Cup.

In the Women’s grade, Norths completed the first and second round double and won their 12th Wellington women’s title overall since its inception in 1993. Norths won the newly renamed first round Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy by winning all eight games and scoring 428 points and conceding 128. In the second round Tia Paasi Memorial Cup, they lost to Ories 35-42 in the round-robin but then beat them 20-15 to win the final.

Upset of the Year: There's a few contenders but it’s hard to split two that took place on the same day on May 12 in round 10 of the Swindale Shield. Out at Ngati Toa Domain an inspired Paremata-Plimmerton - coming off their first away Swindale win since 1985 the week before -  toppled contenders Poneke 25-11, but that was edged by the Avalon Wolves pitching up to Evans Bay and beating Marist St Pats 27-17 in result few saw coming. Avalon had lost their previous seven games, were injury-hit and only a week before conceded 78 points to Norths, yet produced the goods. Usual lock Laman Ah Wong played on the wing and scored a try as did club development officer Thomas Kiwara who started at first-five and notched 17 points himself. And while MSP rebounded to beat rivals Poneke, they lost seven straight matches themselves after that.  

Men’s Player of the Year: Du'Plessis Kirifi - The Norths openside was a model of consistency and his leadership, explosiveness on attack and strength over the ball suggests he’s bound for possible inclusion in Super Rugby soon.  

Women’s Player of the Year: Joanah Ngan-Woo. The Oriental-Rongotai women's blindside flanker was a standout in the competition all season, both ranging wide in attack in the mould of a Vaea Fifita, the go-to option for her side at lineout, and a tireless worker on defence in those rare moments that Ories didn't have the ball. She was their best performer in her side’s finals loss to Norths and kept her head while some of her teammates did not under pressure; and her performances at both club and provincial level saw her receive one of the Black Ferns contracts and a place in the squad. Her international debut cannot be far away.  

Rookie back of the Year: Norths wing Junior Time-Tautoa, out of Porirua College. Having quality outside backs isn't something the Swindale winners are short on, yet from the time Time-Tautoa made his starting debut in round 5 of the Swindale Shield he was a first-choice selection scoring 10 tries, had a blinder in the semi-final against HOBM, and started the biggest game of the club season the following week. A notable mention for Avalon's Chris Aumua, who notched 13 tries for the Wolves.  

Rookie Forward of the Year: After a late start to his season following offseason surgery Naitoa Ah Kuoi really stood out in a number of games for MSP. A starting lock of his standard at such a young age is a rare commodity, and the question is just how far can the former Wellington College captain go in the game.  

Team Story of the Year: Much has happened since, but this still remains the decision for Poneke and the tandem of Mason Lawrence and Roy Kinikinilau to part ways just three games into the year. It seemed remarkable at the time - and still does - that matters came to a head so quickly, and came after Poneke had rebounded from an Opening Day mauling by OBU to beat both the Upper Hutt Rams and Tawa away from home. The duo's departure thrust club legend Misipauluni Moananu in the main job and he not only navigated the side into the Jubilee Cup, but they were contenders there until stumbling in the penultimate week.

Individual Story of the Year: Alex Barendregt winning the Jim Brown Medal was a delight. Known to the Goat faithful as “Dutchy” the tough prop played the entire 80 minutes and his graft and industry was integral in the Billy Goats success’ something all the more remarkable given he had spent most of the previous two seasons badly injured. The way Matt Fowler stepped up following the sudden enforced retirement of Tomasi Palu was another key narrative in the students Jubilee Cup triumph.  

Tackle of the Year: Veteran prop Simon Malaeulu for HOBM v Tawa in the opening weekend of the Jubilee Cup. Malaeulu lined up Tawa’s James So’oialo in a perfectly timed tackle at a blindside ruck and jolted the ball free. Left wing Albert Polu collected the loose ball and dashed 40 metres to score a decisive try in both the Eagles’ 30-15 win and the Jubilee Cup fortunes of both teams.  

Turnover of the year: Norths’ women’s skipper Sanita Levave in the 81st minute of the Tia Paasi Final. With Ories making one last attack Levave showed great experience, timing, and technique to pluck the ball clean. Seconds later the ball was in touch and Norths were triumphant.  

Milestone of the Year: Jointly to Petone hooker Eugene Smith and HOBM prop Simon Malaeulu, with both joining the Premier rugby 200-game club on the same day in the final regular season weekend. Both veterans overcame health issues to reach the double-ton with Smith having broken a bone in his foot playing for the Premier Reserves earlier in the campaign, while Malaeulu had been rushed to hospital after suffering a cardiac event following his sides win over Wellington.  

Fastest try of the year from a kick-off: HOBM openside flanker Jordan Gillies winning the second half kick-off in his side’s last regular season match against Poneke, and bursting clear to score several seconds later. However his side still went down 26-50.