Jubilee Cup wide open says Ories captain Whetu Henry

Then there were four.

Fourteen teams started the Wellington club rugby season at a dusty Trentham Memorial Park back in March. Now, just Old Boys University, Oriental-Rongotai, Tawa and Marist St Pat’s remain in the race for the Jubilee Cup final at the JCS on 1 August.

With the four semi-finalists decided, who’s confident of picking a winner?

Ories, Tawa and Marist St Pat’s have won three of the last four Jubilee Cups between them, so have been there, done that. OBU are unbeaten, but last reached the final in 2002.

Oriental-Rongotai captain Whetu Henry has been in more scrapes than most over the past few seasons.

You’ve played in one championship winning team and two that were beaten finalists, is this the most wide open Jubilee Cup of the lot?

“It’s really competitive this year. All of the teams in the Jubilee Cup are really tough to play.

“I remember when I first started playing it was a bit lopsided. It used to be Northern United winning all the time, then there were at least two teams from the outset expected to win each week and make the semi-finals.

“But not anymore. Look at last year’s finalists Hutt Old Boys Marist and Wainuiomata, even though they are down the bottom, they’re only missing out by narrow margins and it could be them in the playoffs instead of others.

“Any of the four teams now confirmed in the semi-finals could win this year’s Jubilee Cup so it will just depend on who turns up on the day.”

This coming weekend, Ories, Tawa and MSP will be playing to earn home ground advantage for the second semi-final, after OBU cemented top spot last weekend.

As part of a mouth-watering final round this weekend, OBU host Ories at the Basin Reserve and MSP play Tawa at Evans Bay Park.

How important is home ground advantage for the semi-finals?

“Getting a home semi-final is really important – when you play at home you always grow an extra leg.

“We’ve only lost twice at the Polo Ground this year and we prefer to play at home, we have supporters who come every week and when we fill that place up its special to play there.

“Last year when we made the semi-finals we played out on the Hutt Rec and we got rolled, so hopefully if we do well this week and the other game between MSP and Tawa goes our way we’ll have a home semi-final to look forward to.”

What about the fans - is Bobby Gates your number one supporter?

“Bobby has been around for a long time and he is at all our games and always in the crowd at the Polo Ground. He’s awesome, at the club he’ll always come and find me and ask me what’s going on, even if he has to come looking for me.

“It’s people like Bobby that make our club special and they give us a tremendous lift when we know they are there supporting us.”

In 2011 Ories won the Wellington club championship for the first time in over 100 years.

In 2012 they lost 8-14 to MSP in the final. In 2013 they defeated HOBM 30-27 in the most exciting semi-final ever in Wellington club rugby, before losing to Tawa 21-26 in the final. Last year they lost 26-43 to HOBM in their semi-final, after trailing 0-31 at halftime.

Henry says the value of experienced players who have previously played in the knockout rounds is important.

“It’s important that our experienced guys are playing well – we’ve got quite a lot of young players in our squad and in our forwards we’ve got three or four guys who haven’t been involved in semi-finals before.

“We have some experienced guys in our backs, like [halfback ] Peme Leiataua, [first five-eighth] James Proctor and [centre] Paulo Aukuso, who has recently returned from overseas, while [wing] Afa Fa’atau has had a couple of injuries lately but should be right.”

Plus All Black Sevens player Ambrose Curtis at fullback. “Having Ambrose is really key for our backs. He’s really quiet, but when he talks others listen. He’s one of those players that’s been around a while and knows a lot.”

Ories have several Super Rugby players and All Blacks, but few if any will be involved at the business end of the club season.

“Mark Reddish came to watch last week’s game, but I think he was carrying a minor injury from the Highlanders’ winning Super Rugby campaign that he needed to get right. Matt Proctor is with the NZ Maori team at present and Motu Matu’u is with Samoa, it would be nice to get Ardie back wouldn’t it?”

Proctor and Reddish (NZ Barbarians) will meet each other this Saturday in their clash at Eden Park.

Two new players that have impressed this year are Hunter Prescott and blindside flanker Saimon Lomaloma.

“Hunter’s an Old Scots College boy, when he was still at school his father [and manager] Tim used to bring him to our trainings and he’d train with us. When he finished school he went to Australia and then he came back and has been working hard this year, coming to training before everyone else gets there and trying hard to make the Lions team.”

“I used to play against Saimon at school; he’s an old St Pat’s Town boy. He’s also got a good attitude, and man he’s hard to tackle!”

Henry, who has started and captained every match at tighthead prop this season for Ories, also praised the coaches, two of whom are former front rowers. “Having Phil Proctor coaching us again this year and also having former captain Donal McNamara back has been great.”

Rongotai College Mission Impossible fundraiser

This year RC 1st XV is supporting CanTeen as their charity of choice. They are very proud to be associated with this group and we are holding a fundraiser on WEDNESDAY August 5th at the Roxy Theatre, Miramar. Tickets are limited so be in quick.

All proceeds will go to CanTeen.

To purchase tickets deposit money into bank account number 020560-0260062-67 with your name entered in the reference field and then email Peter West at peterwest156gmail.com

For more phone Peter on 027 266 2023