Off the Ball for 1 October

The Centurions U18s - 2018 Trustbank Central Secondary School Shield winners. Read more below. Photo: HYRC 

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.

The rugby rolls on this week, with international schools rugby at Porirua Park today and Friday, the Wellington Lions hosting Auckland on Thursday and the Hurricanes U16 tournament all this week in Masterton.

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Several Wellington players are involved in the New Zealand Barbarians Schools team that plays the Fijian Schools at 2.00pm today at Porirua Park. The Barbarians will be hoping for a less stilted performance than in their 20-21 loss to the NZ Maori U18s last Thursday. The Fijians are coming off a 33-20 win over the Wellington Samoans U18s on Thursday night.

The New Zealand Schools side is playing the Australian Barbarians Schools in Brisbane today at 5pm (NZT). On Friday, the Maori U18s take on the Fijians at the JCS.

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The Wellington Lions escaped with what could prove a vital bonus point in their less than stellar 22-28 loss to the Tasman Mako on Saturday night. They are now in fourth There are two rounds to play.

The NPC Premiership points table is: Tasman 33, Canterbury 32, Auckland 31, Wellington 28, North Harbour 24, Counties Manukau 15, Taranaki 13.

Auckland have a game in hand, so it won’t just be Wellington supporters hoping that the Lions tip them over this Thursday night at Westpac Stadium.

Even another bonus point this Thursday could be important as fifth placed North Harbour play Counties Manukau and would be favoured to win that.

In next weekend’s last round Wellington plays flatlining Taranaki away and North Harbour meets Auckland in the annual ‘Battle of the Bridge’.

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The Lions and Auckland will be playing for the Fred Lucas Cup. Fred Lucas was a1920s Auckland All Black and was a post-war All Black selector.

Owing to the vagaries of the draw and the fact Wellington wasn’t in the top tier for a couple of seasons, the Lions and Auckland haven’t play each other since 2014 when Auckland won 31-30 at Eden Park.
 
Wellington and Auckland’s overall head-to-head record in 134 years of inter-provincial rivalry stands at 76 wins to Wellington, 95 to Auckland and three draws. In 44 competition matches played between the sides in the modern NPC era (since 1976), Wellington has won 15 and Auckland 29.
 
Wellington has scored 888 points against Auckland in all NPC matches against Auckland, including exactly 100 tries, while Auckland has scored 1086 points against Wellington, including 127 tries.

Follow the Men's NPC competition here

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The Wellington U16A and U16 Development teams are in Masterton this week from Monday to Thursday for the Hurricanes U16 tournament.

The U16A team are defending the Don Broughton Shield. They play Poverty Bay on Monday and Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday. The U16 Development team will be defending the Saracens Cup. They play Hawke’s Bay Development on Monday and Wairarapa Bush on Tuesday. Wednesday is a rest day and finals day is Thursday.

Last year, the Wellington U16A team beat Hawke’s Bay 31-19 in the final and the Wellington U16 Development side defeated their Hawke’s Bay equivalents 27-17 in their final.

Aotea College’s Ropati So’oialo, who is in the NZ Barbarians squad at present (see above) was Player of the 2017 U16 Tournament. Malo Manuao (2016) and Naitoa Ah Kuoi (2015) were the previous two tournament MVPS, while Leni Apisai and Henry Stowers have both won this accolade in recent years.

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The Wellington Pride secured their home semi-final on Saturday with this coming weekend’s final round to spare.The Pride beat North Harbour 50-10, whom they could well end up playing again in that home semi-final.

A feature statistic from that match was left wing Ayesha Leti L’iga scoring two more tries to take her season tally to 50 tries in 17 games played. After dotting down for 41 tries for Ories, she has now scored nine in four games for the Pride.

Has there been an instance of a player scoring 50 tries in a season before in Wellington rugby?

She should get some chances to increase her tally over the next two-three weeks, but this coming Saturday Pride management could also make several changes and give all squad members a run  at Porirua Park against minnows Taranaki.

Follow the Women's NPC competition here 

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The first of the summer’s sevens tournaments takes place this coming Saturday at Lyndhurst Park with the Tawa Invitational 7s tournament. This is a warm-up tournament before the three-leg WRFU American Ambassador’s series starting at Maoribank Park the following weekend. More details about the Tawa 7s over the next few days.

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Congratulations to the Centurions U18s for beating the Wairarapa Bush U18s 50-10 on Saturday and winning the Hurricanes U18 competition for the first time in 28 years.

It is has been a successful season for the three Centurions teams this year, with their senior side winning the Festival Cup tri-series and the U85kg team beating the Waikato U85kgs 32-3 in their one-off match for the Gallon Cup on Saturday.

All three Wellington U18s teams have been exciting to watch over the past few weeks, with a number of players who have impressed away from their own First XV environments. In particular, there are some promising props and locks coming through which bodes well for club rugby next year and into the future.

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The future of Wellington rugby appears to be safe hands after the Wellington U13s smoked Auckland 43-24 on Saturday. Both U13s sides included several year 9 college players and some of the players on both sides were rather big for 'U13s'. You can't coach passion though and both teams had plenty of that. There was a large band of Auckland supporters, all with Auckland rugby flags, which are obviously distributed en masse to fans and travelling supporters. This is something the WRFU should do if they had the wherewithal. 

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Congratulations to TJ Perenara for playing his 50th Test on Saturday.

The Northern United halfback made his debut against England in Auckland in 2014 and has been a mainstay of All Blacks squads since.

The All Blacks’ bonus-point 35-17 win over Argentina on Sunday afternoon (NZ time) clinched the Rugby Championship title with a week to spare.

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Hooking in with some questions and observations.

What is up with Asafo Aumua? Time is on his side, but he needs a form injection.

Good to see HOBM hooker Ben Power score two tries for Hawke’s Bay in their 55-41 win over Northland last Wednesday. Unfortunately, the Magpies and assistant coach Josh Syms were touched up 24-49 by Canterbury on Sunday.

Similarly, MSP hooker Valentine Meachen played his second game off the bench for Bay of Plenty last Thursday, in their 15-17 loss to Manawatu.

Where is Leni Apisai?

Is Dane Coles making his return soon?

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Great to watch some recent and former Wellington club rugby players doing their thing for their NPC sides. Three such players are BoP lock Kane Leaupepe (Johnsonville), Manawatu lock Liam Hallam-Eames (Ories) and Otago flanker Joketani ‘Chucky’ Korori (Tawa). Koroi’s brother and former Tawa Jubilee Cup winning captain Taniela is with Auckland this season but unfortunately his year is over with injury.

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The Heartland Championship is six weeks in to the eight-week round-robin season before it splits into the Division 1 Meads Cup and Division 2 Lochore Cup semi-finals. Wanganui are the only unbeaten side after six rounds after defeating winless Buller 45-14 on Saturday.

The next four teams are separated by one point, with a gap and then the next four teams after that are also separated by a solitary point.

Horowhenua-Kapiti and South Canterbury are two of the teams chasing Wanganui in the leading group and Wairarapa-Bush head the chasing pack.

On Saturday, Horowhenua Kapiti beat King Country 36-30, while HOBM first five-eighth Glen Walters kicked two sideline conversions to see Wairarapa Bush beat South Canterbury 27-24.

Follow the Heartland Championship here

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In South Africa, the Western Province U21s defeated the Eastern Province U21s 173-0. Western Province scored 27 tries and led 85-0 at halftime. Two players scored five tries each.

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In Italy, 10-test prop Sami Panico has been arrested for alleged drug trafficking, according to Italian press reports. He had1.5kg of marijuana and 330g of hashish seized from his home, news agency Ansa reported. He was arrested on a drug-dealing charge and is now under house arrest while awaiting trial.

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In England, OBU first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga kicked a 45 metre penalty to propel Wasps to a 23-22 win over Newcastle. The Chris Boyd-coached Northampton Saints beat Bristol featuring Alapati Leiua 45-40. Elsewhere, competition frontrunners Saracens beat Bath 50-27.

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In Johnsonville, the local rugby club had a quiz night and fund raiser on Sunday night for lock Eamon Carr who is battling cancer. Some $17,000 has been raised so far. To add to the appeal online visit https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/jrfc-supporting-a-brother-in-need-raising-funds

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Test rugby's major shake-up looks set to go with the 12-team inter-hemisphere plan and could be introduced as early as 2020.

While the game's bosses left a Sydney meeting late last week without revealing their intentions, The Sunday Times reports that the controversial plan first aired by World Rugby Agustin Pichot is the favoured option.

It would take place in the July and November international windows and involve a 12-team competition.

Read more here 

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