Wellington club rugby season review Part 1

Avalon's Shannon Bradbrook scores in the corner to help give his side a 20-9 win over rivals Paremata-Plimmerton to push Avalon in to the Hardham Cup semi-finals with a week to spare and guarantee their place in the Premier ranks for 2015 regardless of mooted changes to the competition. ?

On Saturday, the curtain came down on the 2014 Wellington club rugby season with the finals of the U85 kg grades. Scott MacLean has prepared a comprehensive season review. Part 1 of 3 below below featuring Paremata-Plimmerton, Johnsonville, Avalon and Wellington.

Paremata-Plimmerton

Record: Harper Lock Shield - 4^th W7 L4 / Hardham Cup - 7^th W1 L6

What happened: It's hard to look at Paremata-Plimmerton's season as anything short of a success and one for the underdog. After two successive runner-up finishes in the Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup the club reached the Hardham Cup for the first time since 1987.

The season started well, with successive wins over a reeling Western Suburbs and HOBM, before narrowly dropping their next two against MSP and OBU. Three successive wins over Tawa, Petone and Wainuiomata had them handily placed inside the top four; but a heavy 7-57 home loss against frontrunners Avalon was followed by another to the Upper Hutt Rams and they found themselves on outside looking in. However their 35-7 win the following weekend over Norths plus results elsewhere meant that a bonus-point win over Oriental-Rongotai in the last round would see them through, which was achieved by a 41-10 margin.

The Hardham Cup proved to be a considerable step up, but the Ngatitoa side was far from outclassed against Wellington and Poneke in their opening outings and were desperately unlucky not to claim Johnsonville's scalp, beaten 19-20 in the dying moments. A high-scoring loss to MSP followed before 35-19 victory over OBU at the Basin Reserve. The last round clash at home with Norths senior side was the first meeting of senior teams from Porirua's clubs since 1988, with the visitors racing to a handy lead before prevailing by 43-14. That result should not take anything from the year's achievements.

Who stood out: The team's heart and soul is captain and loose forward Tane McMillan-Parata, who stood up every week and led from the front. Along with brothers Taiaroa (midfield), Kewa (wing), and Apirana (hooker), the family often provided a quarter of the starting lineup. Fullback Ryan McLean touched down five times in the Hardham Cup and showed superb positional sense both on attack and defence. Halfback Scott Vardey and first-five Blake Neve controlled play and often pinned opponents deep inside their own halves with tactical kicks, while lock Michael Cromie was busy in the engine room.

The rest of the club: With work ongoing to re-raise a second senior side, the club fronted a Colts side after a couple of years without one. They won three games in division 3 and then two more in an expanded division 2 competition. The clubs Under 85kg team won five of 15 games also playing in its grade's division two, claiming the scalp of eventual division runners-up MSP Red along the way. The Reserve grade Punters were also in Division 2, but dipped out at the semi-finals stage

Johnsonville

Record: Swindale Shield - 11^th W1 L10 / Hardham Cup - 5^th W3 L4

What happened: It was something of a tough return to the Premier grade for Johnsonville, and that was before the season started. Ill-will directed at them for the manner of their elevation to the top flight in place of Western Suburbs was accompanied by difficulty in recruiting players to Helston Park, leading to many to pick them for the wooden spoon by quite some margin.

For the first half of the Swindale Shield however they confounded those predictions. With a game plan based by coach Mason Lawrence around stubborn gritty defence they were perhaps unlucky to lose to both Poneke and especially Norths to open the season, maybe overplayed their hand in going down to Wellington, and then took their fourth successive loss-bonus the next week against HOBM. The following week they stunned Oriental-Rongotai 16-13 at the Polo Ground to record their first Swindale win since 2007, and then nearly pulled off a greater upset the following week when Tawa only beat them at the death 11-13 at Lyndhurst.

That unfortunately represented the high-point of the season for the Hawks as they didn't take a single point from their remaining Swindale matches, with injuries and unavailability taking their toll. Their Hardham Cup campaign started with a 16-34 loss to Avalon, with their only wins coming against promoted sides OBU B, MSP B, and a narrow one over Paremata-Plimmerton.

In previous seasons they would be relegated back to the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield for 2015, but will look to keep their place in Premier through the planned reform of the senior competitions

Who stood out: Jack Taulapapa was the pick of the clubs' stocks, standing out at halfback and earning a place in Club Rugby's season team based on the Best & Fairest standings, consistently making the most of ball his forwards were able to present and always a threat to snipe. Captain Louis Karl and fellow loose-forward (and sometime hooker) Corey Lawrence were both hard-working grafters, while prop Ha'mea Ahio was an ever-present and difficult to stop with ball-in-hand. Hurricanes squad member Hadleigh Parkes showed his class when available, while Ryan Selkirk toiled away in midfield.

The rest of the club: The second side sat in Senior 2, finishing mid-table in both competitions but winning more games than they lost. The Colts also had an overall winning record, although they didn't repeat last year's effort of promotion to division 1; their season ended with a loss to the Upper Hutt Rams in the Eric Connolly Cup final. The Under 85kg side also played in division 2 in both rounds with mid-table finishes in each, narrowly missing out on the semi-finals.

Avalon

Record: Harper Lock Shield - 1^st W10 L1 / Hardham Cup - Semi-finalists W4 L3

What happened: With the carrot of a return to the Swindale Shield on offer Avalon assured themselves that they will be back in the top-flight even if the WRFU backtracks on its proposed restructure of the senior competitions. The Scott Waldrom-coached seniors made no real race of the first-round Harper Lock Shield, dropping only one match (to OBU) and wrapped up the title with a week to spare when they defeated nearest challengers MSP 27-11, eventually totalling 50 competition points out of a possible 55 and winning by 12 points.

In the Hardham Cup they started with a convincing 34-16 win over Johnsonville and headed the table after three rounds, before crashing to an 8-54 loss to Norths at home though they played more than 40 minutes with only 14 men. They also fell to both Wellington and Poneke, but were than competitive for the majority of both contests. In their semi-final against Norths they found themselves behind 3-24 inside the first quarter but clawed their way back into the game and an unlikely upset looked possible before Norths held on to win 34-20.

Who stood out: Fullback Jordan Aquila showed great work ethic at the back, combined with strong positional sense and a willingness to launch the counter attack. Veteran Cameron Cross kept a steady hand on the ship whether at halfback or at 10. The loose-forward trio of No. 8 Daniel Sione-Leota, blindside Jonam Segi and openside Logan Blake more than held their own against Premier opposition in the Hardham Cup, while the locking trio of tall timber Ata Langilangi and Finauga Segi and powerhouse Akuila Alatini offered options in the engine room.???

The rest of the club: The second side also challenged for promotion in the first-round Senior 2 competition before falling one place short, then fell to eventual winners HOBM in the second-round HD Morgan Cup semi-finals. The Colts played in Division 2 for the season and struggled for both numbers and results, with a handful of defaults and few wins. The Under 85's started the season in division 2 and after going undefeated were promoted to contest the division 1 Paul Potiki Shield where they finished 7th. The Women's side finished third in the first-round Fleurs Trophy before being somewhat controversially excluded from the Victoria Tavern semi-finals.

Wellington

Record: Swindale Shield - 12^th W1 L11 / Hardham Cup - semi-finalists W5 L2

What happened: The Axemen endured a somewhat frustrating season in their first campaign back in the top flight in over a decade. Much interest pre-season centred on the talent that Murray Mexted had been able to bring to Hataitai Park and how much of an unknown quantity they would be.

Early season optimism was tested with losses to Petone and Oriental-Rongotai to open with, the latter a rude 7-55 awakening to life at this level. They bounced-back to claim their first Swindale win since 2002 defeating Johnsonville 16-9, but what followed was a succession of losses where they competed for long periods of the match, but ultimately came up empty. The round 8 20-21 loss to Poneke was particularly galling as they let a 20-9 lead with 12 minutes remaining slip and extinguished their Jubilee Cup hopes. Heavy defeats to MSP (5-32) and HOBM (14-60) closed the Swindale Shield.

Their Hardham Cup started with a win over Paremata-Plimmerton before suffering the backlash of Norths shock loss to OBU B the following week, followed by another to Poneke. Four successive wins over OBU B, Avalon, MSP B and Johnsonville concluded the round-robin and set up a third match on the year with Poneke, but it was the same outcome with an 8-18 defeat.

Who stood out: It's almost impossible to consider the Axemen's season without the contribution of lock/blindside Vaea Fifita. A freakish athletic talent at both set piece and in open play the ITM Cup and provincial 7's representative notched Best & Fairest points in 8 of the 11 weeks of the Swindale Shield, including seven consecutively from rounds three to nine; and still finished fourth in those standings despite points not being allocated to Hardham Cup matches. Centre Paddy Hughes was the pick of the backs, outside back Tony Smith is a real flyer and first-five Hilton Mexted continues to develop in the pivot. Up front Dean Brunsdon, blindside Sam Gard'ner were solid contributors along with captain and hooker Tala Kitekei'aho, who led the side in every match and along with Fifita and Mexted was with the side that started 2012 in the Senior 2 grade.?

The rest of the club: One of best stories in Wellington club rugby is the Axemen's second side. Originally slated to play in Senior 3, it gained an 11^th hour entry to Senior 2 when Wainuiomata withdrew from that grade before the season. Once in they then won 9 of their 10 games, missing out on share of the National Mutual Cup with Poneke by a single competition point but gaining promotion. Life in the Senior 1 grade proved more difficult, but a 7^th place finish assured that they will be playing in the second-tier next year on merit. The Colts finished the first round as runners-up, but missed the second round semi-finals after losing a winner-takes-all match 3-8 to Petone. The 85s struggled in Division 1 but found their feet in Division 2 where after finishing the round-robin fourth they beat top qualifiers HOBM 6-3 in the semi and then MSP Red 16-15 in the final to become winners of The Moody Cup.

?