Off the Ball for 17 September

Above: The Wellington Samoans threw their final pass for the year on Saturday, losing to the Hawke's Bay Development who are all but assured of retaining their Hurricanes Shield this coming weekend. Read more 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.

Another promising weekend for the Wellington men’s and women’s senior teams, the Lions and Pride both earning bonus point wins. The Lions beat Counties Manukau 53-12 and the Pride beat Otago 38-10. Both are in home semi-final position at the halfway points of their round-robin competitions.

This coming weekend two of Wellington’s top teams play Tasman opposition, including the Development team in action for the first time this season.

On Sunday at 4.35pm the Wellington Lions host Manawatu in a NPC men’s crossover game. The Trubos are in a flux, having lost their fourth straight game on Friday night by 30 points to Northland and they play Tasman this Wednesday before the Lions game.

On Sunday at 11.35am, the Wellington Pride play Tasman in round four of six of the Women’s NPC at Trafalgar Park, Nelson. Tasman beat Taranaki first up, but have since lost to Auckland and North Harbour by big margins.

The Wellington Development team is expected to be named early this week and is selected from players that contested the just completed Festival Cup series in the Centurions Development, Wellington Samoans and Wellington Maori sides. Their first match is against Tasman B kicks off at at Jerry Collins Stadium at midday on Saturday.

The Tasman B side will be sharpened opposition after playing Otago B and Canterbury B in the past two weekends in the South Island competition. The results of these two matches are unavailable, owing to the appalling online communication of all three unions beyond Instagram memes and Facebook graphics.

Following Tasman, the Wellington Development is scheduled to play their Hawke’s Bay (away), Canterbury (away) and Auckland (home) counterparts over the next three weeks.

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At the other end of the scale, the Wellington U13 reps had the biggest win of the day on Saturday, beating the Wanganui U14s 95-7. On Saturday they back-up with a match against Horowhenua-Kapiti U14 at Porirua 2 on 11am. This is all preparation for their big annual clash with the Auckland U13s next weekend at Petone.

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The U18s competition continues this coming weekend, with all three Wellington teams playing away and the U16s and U16s Development and U18s girls sides are also away.

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The sevens season gets underway on Saturday with the combined annual Hutt Cup/Wotton Sevens tournaments for secondary schools. More details of this forthcoming during the week

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She has scored 45 tries in 15 competitive outings this season, but Ayesha Leti L’iga pulled off a terrific try saving tackle on Saturday, holding up Otago hooker Tegan Hollows over the line in a textbook covering save.

The Pride’s best on Saturday included both locks, Jackie Patea-Fereti and Jonah Ngan-Woo and first five-eighth Accacia Te Iwimate. Special mention to Timena Tuma’ai who started the last two matches at fullback. She played 11 matches for the Pride, mostly on the wing, between 2014 and 2015 and has been re-selected this year and is taking her opportunities.

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There were nine of 53 Wellington players selected in this past weekend’s New Zealand Schools camp and unavaiable, but there was still some good rugby on show in Saturday’s Centurions U18 – Wellington Community U18s fixture. More than a couple of players in this game and playing in this competition should kick on to higher honours

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This Wednesday, the WRFU is holding its annual Community Awards – check WRFU channels for more.

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The Wellington Lions retained the Jonah Lomu Memorial Trophy in beating Counties Manukau on Saturday.

Club Rugby Best and Fairest points were awarded to Asafo Aumua (3), James Blackwell (2) and Jackson Garden-Bachop (1). Points after five rounds (six matches): Wes Goosen 8, James Blackwell 7, Jackson Garden-Bachop 4, Du Plessis-Kirifi 3, Asafo Aumua 3, Greg Foe 3, James O’Reilly 2, six players on 1 point.

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A fourth placed finish for the Wellington U19s in Taupo. This tournament is extremely competitive and five different winners have won the first five of these.

Wellington won the inaugural tournament in 2014. Here is Wellington’s squad that won the first Graham Mourie Cup:

Leni Apisai, Teariki Ben -Nicholas, James Blackwell, James Bowen, George Boyhan, Luke Campbell (captain), Sam Dawson, Liam Doherty, Liam Hallam-Eames, Te Ara Henderson, Jordan Glen Bradbrook, Wesley Goosen, Tane Iakopo, Jordan Leuluai, Tao-Roi Lupo, Conor Maddix-Wikaira, Andrew Mamea, Anthony Mamea, Jarod Martinovich, Troy Mohr, Aleks Noble-Campbell, Faraimo Nofoaiga, Peter Pili, Morgan Poi, Jack Ross, Josh Robertson -Weepu, Salio Sia, Fereti Soloa, Henry Stowers, Francis Tanuvasa, Luke Taualupe, Chase Tiatia, Willie Tufui, Pakai Turia, Sam Wasley.

Another point to note from this year’s U19 team, 18 of 22 players that started the 3 v 4 match on Saturday against North Harbour (losing 10-21) were home grown players. A couple of other unions are already putting out largely invitational sides now at this level.

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A jammy finish by Canterbury against Auckland on Sunday. Trailing 22-34 with the 80th minute having already ticked over Canterbury were set to take no competition points. But a try in the 83rd gave them 2 bonus points for the match. What is the bet that one or both of those points will be the difference between the Lions hosting a home semi-final in a few weeks or travelling to Christchurch for one!

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A similar thing occurred in the Harlequins – Bath English Premiership game over the weekend, with Harlequins scoring a 79th try to seal a 32-27 loss and two bonus points for them. There were no Wellington players involved in this match.

Elsewhere, OBU first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga kicked four penalties and three conversions for Wasps in their 41-35 win over Leicester. Petone’s Brad Shields is injured with a broken cheekbone so was sidelined for Wasps. Ories’ Ambrose Curtis wasn’t listed to play either. Unbeaten Saracens beat Chris Boyd’s Northampton 37-28 and Norths wing Sinoti Sinoti scored a clutch try in Newcastle’s 23-20 win over the Worcester Warriors.

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Wanganui and King Country share the Heartland Championship lead after four rounds. 

HOBM’s Glen Walters scored a try and kicked eight conversions for 21 points and Wainuiomata’s Michael Lealava’a scored a try in Wairarapa-Bush’s 61-29 win over Buller.

Tawa trio Kalim Kelemete (try), Timoci Serewalu (try) and James So’oialo (3 con, 2 pen) scored the lion’s share of Horowhenua-Kapiti’s points in their 27-24 win over North Otago.

Poneke prop Andrew Petelo scored a try in Poverty Bay’s 30-31 loss to West Coast.

South Canterbury raised the ton, beating East Coast 100-7. Two players scored hat-tricks in the 15 tries to one win.

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Rassie Erasmus played for the Springboks in a 13-3 win in Wellington in 1998 and coached the 36-34 win on Saturday.

The curtain-raiser to that 1998 Test match saw St Pat’s Town’s Jerry Collins captain the New Zealand Secondary School to a big win over Australia.

Not counting to the British and Irish Lions last year, Saturday’s defeat was the All Blacks first loss in Wellington since England 2003 and third overall.

The 36 points is the highest number of points South Africa have scored scored in New Zealand against the All Blacks. The previous most points in NZ by the Springboks was their 35-55 loss in Auckland in 1997. The 36 points is the most conceded by the All Blacks since losing 29-40 to Ireland in November 2016. In fact, 36 points most ever conceded in a home test. 46 is the most the All Blacks have ever leaked in a test and that was a 46-40 loss to South Africa in 2000.

The All Blacks have won 231 of 277 home tests, but had a draw and two defeats in last 12 after a 47 games win streak.

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New Zealand Rugby’s Mitre 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup Provincial Unions will mark the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand with a Wahine Round this week. The Wahine Round will celebrate the roles, involvement and contribution of wahine (women) in rugby, including players, coaches, referees, fans and volunteers.

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Is the government about to ‘put the boot into fast food’ sponsorship and advertising as Saturday’s Stuff article inferred?

“The Government's looking to ask "Big Food" companies to stop sponsoring sport. It's a move to tackle soaring obesity rates, alongside calorie counts on restaurant menus. The proposals were contained in a "wish list" released to Stuff under the Official Information Act. Fast food giants Burger King, McDonald's, and KFC sponsor rugby, basketball, football, and cricket. Sanitarium runs the Weetbix Tryathlon, and Nestlé is a sponsor of junior rugby through its Milo drink. Netball is sponsored by mall chain Muffin Break.”

If this happened, then the on-site catering would need to go as well for consistency. Hot dogs, fries and fizzy drinks to be replaced by a salad bar at Porirua Park. This is turn would create an opportunity for the Mungavin and Waitangirua bakeries to offer a delivery service to the ground so a silver lining for those businesses.

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Support Johnsonville’s Eamonn Carr in his battle with stage 4 Lymphoma. Carr made seven starts at lock this year for the Johnsonville Premiers, most recently the third round of the Hardham Cup. Read more here: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/jrfc-supporting-a-brother-in-need-raising-funds