College at Club Round as Tawa and Wairarapa Colleges join the competition

This coming weekend sees the start of competition proper in the top two Premier grades, with several matches being played at club grounds as part of the ‘College at Club’ round which is intended to showcase and smooth the way for school leavers into the senior club game.

The renamed WelTec 1stXV Premiership competition features two new sides in 2015 in last year’s Premier 2 finalists, winners Tawa College and runners-up Wairarapa College. Tawa won through their grading pool, beating Newlands and Aotea Colleges in their first two games, with promotion assured when 2013 and 2014 top-flight school Naenae College defaulted to them last Saturday. Wairarapa was eligible for Premiership status for the first time this year, and saw off Paraparaumu College first up, then narrow wins over Bishop Viard College and 2014 Premier 1 side St Bernard’s College secured their place.

Those two join Rongotai College and Hutt International Boys’ School, who return via the grading pools. Rongotai were untroubled in the first two matches against Taita College and Hutt Valley HS before Kapiti defaulted to them last Saturday, while HIBS followed up a win over neighbours Upper Hutt College with narrow ones over Wainuiomata HS and Porirua College.

These four teams join the four semi-finalists from last year who return by right; winners and joint-national champions Scots College, St Pat’s Silverstream, St Pat’s Town, and Wellington College. These latter four were due to play last weekend in the last round of the 1st XV Festival at the Petone Rec, but Thursday’s deluge put the ability of the teams from outside Wellington to travel in doubt and it was cancelled.

Scots College deserve to be considered favourites heading into the season; while they have lost TJ Va’a, Malo Tuitama, and Michael Findlay they do return the Umaga-Jensen twins Peter and Thomas, hulking prop Alex Fidow, hooker Nu’u Haueia, and locks Henry Mexted and Jarimar Schuster, while backs Connor Garden-Bachop and Malo Manuao will be expected to take on influential roles this year. They will also have the benefit of their Sanix game time behind them and probably wouldn’t have minded the break last week’s cancellation afforded them. They also have new coaches in Filo Tiatia and Sam Rasch who take over from Earl Va’a.

St Pat’s Silverstream have lost a sizeable chunk of last year’s squad, but return two significant pieces in NZ Schools back Losi Filipo and physical hooker Asafo Aumua who was probably unlucky to miss selection, while Year 12 openside Jarrod Harawira looks a prospect. They’ve had a patchy start to the year, losing to Auckland‘s St Kentigern’s College before a festival loss to Hastings Boys' and win over Gisborne. They also headed to Palmerston North to play Napier Boys' after the Festival cancellation, drawing 22-all. Today they played and lost 33-20 to New Plymouth Boys’ High School in their annual match in New Plymouth.

St Pat’s Town were considered in some circles as a possible contender at national level, with the bulk of their squad coming from two very good U15 teams in 2012 and 13. However they lost halfback Zac Donaldson in their win over St Bede’s and then suffered two dispiriting losses to Gisborne and Napier Boys in the two Festival games that were played. Forwards Hannon Brighouse, Gus Stone, and Kevin Fautea will be key components in their efforts and give good ball for backs Paul Bickle, Connor Fitzsimmons, and Siosaia Paese to operate with. They were also in action today in their annual match against Hastings’ St John’s College, winning 76-3.

Wellington College seem a long way from the dominant side that they were for most of the past decade, and like Town lost both of their Festival matches to Napier Boys and Palmerston North Boys. Lock/No8 Josh Michaels follows in the footsteps of Nelson Asofa-Solomona and his partnership with blindside Utusa’itoa Ah Kuoi will be a large part of their efforts, but they also have a lot of Year 12 and even Year 11 talent that will see the field this year.

Rongotai will look to powerhouse centre Denny To’o, livewire hooker Karl Brownlie, and new halfback Esi Komaisavai to lead their challenge, while HIBS will lean heavily on No.8 Ben Power and playing to a disciplined structure. Tawa will be spearheaded by a pair of hard runners in physical No. 8 Folau Vea and outside back Liam Taufale, with Wairarapa offering a fair degree of the unknown beyond those players returning from last year.

Three of the first round of matches are at club venues and are curtainraisers for the Swindale Shield matches to follow. Rongotai and Wairarapa meet on Kilbirnie Park; Silverstream put the Williment Cup on the line against Tawa at Maidstone Park, while Wellington College will be looking for revenge for last year’s shock loss to HIBS when they meet on the Basin Reserve, with all three matches kicking off at 12.45pm.

The fourth match is at Scots College when the hosts put the Moascar Cup, won off Auckland Grammar in the national semi-final and retained against Hamilton Boys in the final, up for grabs against St Pat’s Town, with the match also being televised on the Rugby Channel.

The Premier 2 grade also has some turnover this year. Bishop Viard and the St Pats Town 2nd XV have been elevated from Premier 3, with St Bernard’s dropping from Premier 1.Silverstream’s 2nd XV were slated to drop to Premier 3 along with Paraparaumu following grading, but gained a reprieve after Naenae withdrew from the Premier grades altogether.?

Hutt Valley HS’ match against the St Pats Town 2nds on the main ground Petone Rec precedes the Petone vs Johnsonville Swindale contest, while St Bernard’s and Porirua meet on the adjacent #4 field. Two more matches are also at club venues; Aotea take on the Wellington College 2nds at Ngatitoa Domain and Upper Hutt play Bishop Viard at Delaney Park in Stokes Valley. All four matches kickoff at 12.45pm. The final match is Silverstream’s 2nds hosting Kapiti College at 1pm.

Elsewhere it’s the conclusion of the grading games that were postponed from last week across all grades, with the Premier 3, 4 and 5 fields set after this weekend and the divisions in the weight and Under 15 grades sorted.