Off the Ball for 15 October

Above: Sevens scenes at Maoribank Park in the first of the American Ambassador's tournaments on Saturday.

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.

A final and a semi-final for local rugby supporters to look forward to this coming Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon the Wellington Pride host the Otago Spirit in their Farah Palmer Cup Women’s NPC Championship final. The match is at Jerry Collins Stadium. Kick-off is yet to be confirmed.

Later in the afternoon, the Wellington Lions meet Auckland in their Men’s NPC Premiership semi-final. Kick-off at Eden Park is 5.05pm.

This will be Wellington’s first top flight semi-final since beating Counties-Manukau 41-10 in 2013, and then going on to lose 13-29 to Canterbury in the last of several NPC final heartbreakers between 2003-2013.

Locally, the Wellington Samoa Rugby Union hosts its annual Village kings 10-a-side tournament on Saturday. This takes place on Porirua Park fields 3 and 4 (top fields) between 9.00am and 5.00pm. Look out for more details later in the week.

It’s a long weekend coming up, but not for Wellington’s rugby supporters. Next Monday is the annual Wellington and Wairarapa secondary schools Condor 7s qualifying tournament at Naenae College. Look out for more details at the end of the week.

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Several leading contenders that will feature at the Condor 7s played in Saturday’s fifth Annual Hurricanes Secondary Schools Sevens Tournament in Masterton.In tough wintry conditions, 10 boys teams and four girls teams contested the tournament, with Hawke’s Bay’s Nga Wahine Toa winning the girls and St Pat’s Silverstream claiming the boys division. Silverstream beat Napier Boys High School 24-21 in the final.

Wellington players that made the tournament teams included: Fritz Rayasi, Rocco Berry (both Silverstream), Oscar Schmidt-Uili (St Pat’s Town), Liam Collett (Wellington College), Naomi Sopoaga (Queen Margaret College) and Te Araroa Sopoaga (Queen Margaret College).

Read more here 

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Hailstones in October. The American Ambassador’s Sevens series opened in tough conditions at Maoribank Park on Saturday. Most clubs were represented in the men’s division and four in the women’s grade, the absence of Ories perhaps the most telling. Norths won the men’s tournament, beating Marist St Pat’s in the final. Norths also won the female division.

There were a few players playing for other clubs as well. For example Bruce Kauika-Petersen (Petone) playing for Northern United and Luca Rees (Ories) also playing for Norths and Randall Bishop (Tawa/Toa) playing for Paremata-Plimmerton.

The second leg of the American Ambassador’s series is scheduled for Onepoto Domain on 27 October, followed by the third at Mary Crowther Park on 3 November.

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A moment’s silence before the Wellington Pride match on Saturday against North Harbour for Garry Archer who passed away at the start of the week.

Archer was appointed at the start of this year to coach the Wellington U18 Schoolgirls side that competed in the inaugural Hurricanes U18 Girls tournament last week and beat Hawke’s Bay 24-0 in the final.

The Pride were held to 7-7 at halftime by North Harbour in their semi-final, the visitors scoring with the last act of the first half.

The start of the second half was delayed by approximately 25 minutes with Harbour first five-eighth Nikita Ngarongo-Porima going down injured. Following the delay, the Pride found an extra gear and went on to win 33-7. The Pride’s final opposition, Otago, beat Hawke’s Bay 34-10 in the other Championship semi-final.

In the two Women’s NPC Premiership semi-finals, Waikato led Counties Manukau 14-0 at halftime, but were run down in the second half by the Heat who won 24-14. They will meet Canterbury in a replay of last year’s final after Canterbury defeated Manawatu 31-12 in their playoff fixture.

Great to see Farah Palmer herself in the stand at Jerry Collins Stadium watching the competition that bears her name.

What has happened to Auckland in this year’s Women’s NPC – relegated to the Championship to be replaced by either Wellington or Otago?

Auckland lost 22-25 to Bay of Plenty in their promotion-relegation fixture on Saturday. Last year Auckland missed out on making the final for the first time since the competition began in 1999. They won 16 titles between 1999-2015 when they beat Wellington 39-9 in the final in Napier with at least a third of the same team they were fielding this year.

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In the match that followed on Porirua Park, visitors Auckland B made a hot start, but in a run of play similar to the recent U13 match between the two provinces, Wellington Development came back to lead 19-7 at halftime. A highlight was left wing Fereti Soloa bumping off his opposite to score from first phase. Playing into the wind in the second half, the Development took it home and won 33-28.

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A couple of Wellington players featuring prominently in the NPC for other teams this past weekend. For Bay of Plenty, lock forward Kane Leaupepe (Jonsonville/Ories) was prominent as the Steamers leapt to a 26-7 lead over Northland. Like a good Swindale Shield match, the Taniwha came roaring back to close to 35-38 by fulltime. For Otago, Joketani Koroi (Tawa) scored a bruising try out wide in the first half as Otago led Waikato 20-12 at the break and then went on to win 23-19 – and win the Ranfurly Shield.

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In the Heartland Championship, three Hurricanes region sides are in semi-finals this coming weekend. Top qualifier Wanganui host Thames Valley in one Meads Cup semi-final, while Horowhenua-Kapiti host Mid-Canterbury in one Division 3 Lochore Cup semi-final and Wairarapa Bush host North Otago in the other.

Buller won’t be attending the Heartland post-season rounds, but their player Luke Brownlee played his 200th game for the team on Saturday in their 41-27 win over Poverty Bay.

To mark the occasion, all his teammates (and wife and three kids) and opposition presented a moving guard of honour for him as he took the field.

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Starting their careers, two clubs have announced the acquisition of St Pat’s Silverstream players. Tawa will have St Pat’s Silverstream first five-eighth Sam Clarke in 2019, while the Upper Hutt Rams will have Josh Southall. Flanker Southall was injured all this season in his final year of secondary school after making the NZ Schools team in 2017.

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In European rugby news this past weekend, Sinoti Sinoti’s Newcastle side beat Julian Savea’s Toulon 26-25 in a Champions Cup fixture. Savea was sinbinned and his frustrating season continues. Alapati Leiua and Joe Latta helped the Bristol Bears to a 43-22 win over Zebre.

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Samoa or Tonga could be the next entrants to the National Rugby Championship as the Fijian Drua claimed a historic minor premiership just two years after entering the competition.

Rugby Australia high-performance boss Ben Whitaker confirmed they were in early talks with World Rugby about adding another Pacific Islands nation to the third tier competition after the Drua's success. Fiji Drua will host Canberra Vikings in Fiji in the first semi-final on Saturday after topping the regular season with a 33-28 win over the Western Force at the weekend.

In winning the ‘minor premiership’ Fiji Drua were presented with he Horan-Little Trophy. There is also the Andy Leslie Trophy for qualifying as top qualifier at the end of the Jubilee Cup round-robin. Perhaps the NZRU should introduce a similar trophy for the NPC.

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The All Blacks are being named at 1.00pm today. 

The Maori All Blacks and the Black Ferns are being named tomorrow.

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