The Jim Brown Plate for the Player of the Final

Above: Last year's Player of the Jubilee Cup final, Hutt Old Boys Marist lock Steven Bradshaw, with past winners TJ Perenara (2010) and Steven So'oialo (2013) inset.

The article below was first published two years ago – we’ve gone through and updated it.

The Jim Brown Plate is awarded to the Player of the Jubilee Cup final.

Jim Brown was a stalwart of the great Petone teams of the 1960s and 1970, playing over 200 matches for the club and many for Wellington. He was a contemporary of former Petone and All Black captain Andy Leslie, who described the former centre as “one of the best players I played with, and a player with a great rugby brain.”

Leslie added that Brown went within a whisker of being selected for the All Blacks and was measured up for an All Blacks suit the day before the team was named. He just missed selection and then subsequently broke his leg and never made the national side.Brown died of cancer in 2004 and his family donated the Jim Brown Plate that year.

The previous 10 winners of the Jim Brown Plate have been:

2014: Steven Bradshaw  - Hutt Old Boys Marist

The 2014 Jubilee Cup final was the Battle of the Hutt Valley, where two proud and well supported clubs collided at the Hutt Recreation Ground. Indeed, the Hutt Old Boys Marist – Wainuiomata final lived up to its billing, with both sets of forwards locked in a titanic struggle throughout the contest. It could have gone either way, but a solitary penalty kick was all that separated the sides and HOBM won 14-11. At the heart of HOBM’s effort was lock Steven Bradshaw who was on fire. Playing alongside his All Black locking partner Jeremy Thrush, Bradshaw was a lineout thief and got through a tonne of breakdown work. Bradshaw was a decisive figure in several of the game’s key moments.

2013: Steven So'oialo - Tawa

In 1998, Steven So’oialo helped Wests destroy Tawa, 53-21 in the Jubilee Cup final. Fifteen years later the veteran of 38 tests for Manu Samoa returned as a player/coach for Tawa in their second Jubilee Cup final against Oriental Rongotai. The halfback had a profound influence! Besides his sharp passing, astute tactical kicking and abrasive defence around the ruck, So'oialo scored a crucial try when his side was down 13-7 just before halftime. Toby Robson reported in the Dominion Post. “Steve So'oialo scored the try of the match…minutes before halftime after a sweeping 80 metre movement. It started when wing Alfred Pelenise took a mark from a (Fa'atonu) Fili cross kick. (Randall) Bishop made inroads from the quick tap before James So'oialo fended his way into the open and found Pelenise on his outside. The wing then turned the final pass into his halfback for the try and a 14-13 halftime lead, which Tawa would not relinquish.”

2012: Jeffery Toomaga-Allen – Marist St Pat's

The 2012 Jubilee Cup final was played on a rain-soaked Hutt Recreation ground. It featured no less than five capped internationals and an array of grizzly club veterans. The game itself was a desperate struggle, won 11-8 by Marist St Pats after Oriental Rongotai had two players sin-binned for fighting on the hour mark, when the score was 6-3 to MSP.? In such a tense and tough environment, experience usually prevails, but it was outstanding youth that was the talking point after this final. Ories 19 year old openside Ardie Savea was outstanding in a lost cause, but the Jim Brown Plate was awarded to prop Jeffery Toomaga-Allen. Always strong in the scrum, the 21 year old Allen had his renowned running game suppressed by the conditions. However his work in tight was tireless as he helped MSP win the arm wrestle for territory.

2011: Iani Pahulu - Oriental-Rongotai

Simply dynamic. That was the verdict by all present who witnessed Oriental-Rongotai stun Northern United 40-18 and their No. 8 Iani Pahulu had a blinder. He was the everywhere man as Ories came back from 6-13 behind to scored five tries to blitz two-time defending champions Norths. They scored four of these tries in succession and led 33-13 after 50 minutes. All four of these tries had the huge crowd on its feet - after the weather had turned windy, wet and cold from the south just before halftime after bright sunshine all day up to that point. Pahulu played a leading support and linking role and also scored one of these tries himself after a break by right wing Ambrose Curtis. Ories set about protecting their big lead in the final 25 minutes of the final as Pahulu and his teammates turned his focus to a big defensive effort. A well-deserved maiden Jubilee Cup final win for Ories. 

2010: TJ Perenara - Northern United

The 2010 Northern United side was one of the most dominant and exciting teams to win the Jubilee Cup. In 20 games they achieved a 17-win, one lost and two-drawn record, scoring 819 points and 123 tries.New Zealand Sevens representative Buxton Popoalii ended the year with a season record 23 tries and Samoan International James So'oialo finished the season with a then record 281 points.In the Jubilee Cup final Norths thrashed Poneke by 24-5, scoring four tries to one and achieving the biggest win in a final since Wests beat Tawa 53-21 in 1998. Popoalii scored two tries, but the Jim Brown winner was a schoolboy sensation. TJ Perenara, out of Mana College, was a regular starter for Norths in 2010, never playing in a losing team. The qualities that have defined his play more recently for the Hurricanes like snappy passing, abrasive defence and an incisive running close to the ruck were all on display in this game as North’s overpowered a brave, but limited Poneke. Later in 2010 Perenara would score 15 points in helping the New Zealand Schools beat the Australian Schools, 30-21.

2009: Peter Sciascia - Marist St Pat’s

Following the previous year’s draw, MSP won the title outright, for the first time since 2002. Halfback Peter Sciascia was the conductor and centre Chris Slade kept the scoreboard ticking over off the kicking tee as MSP defeated Norths in this rematch. Slade's seven penalties carried his side to a decisive come-from-behind victory over Norths, who scored the game's only two tries but let themselves down through ill-discipline and a spate of handling errors. In general play, Sciascia was the standout performer in a superb team performance, laid down by the tight five and carried by the loose forwards and the well organised backs. Sciascia, who won the Billy Wallace Best & Fairest competition playing for Avalon in 2006, spent 2010 and 2011 playing in Ireland. But he returned to MSP in 2012 and helped guide them to another Jubilee Cup that season. 

2008: Chris Middleton - Northern United

This was the Jubilee Cup that was drawn 10-10 between Norths and MSP. Played in icy conditions, the Jubilee Cup itself went missing afterwards but was eventually found safe and well several days later and was shared for six months each between Norths and MSP as agreed. In a dramatic second half, Norths came storming back to draw level with just seven minutes on the clock, scoring two unconverted tries after MSP halfback Peter Sciascia had seemingly delivered a decisive blow to their chances with a converted try on halftime for a 10-0 lead. Norths had made much of the running in a rain soaked opening 40 minutes but came up short on several occasions, lock Chris Middleton prominent throughout. Middleton, a former NZ Secondary Schools and U19 player, subsequently moved to Hamilton and played ITM Cup rugby for Waikato.

2007: Nick Risdon - Hutt Old Boys Marist

The 2007 Jubilee Cup final between HOBM and MSP was a battle of attrition for the most part, with HOBM slowing wearing down their opposites to eventually break through and score two tries over the final quarter to win 18-10. HOBM’s director in the trenches was halfback Nick Risdon, who together with his forwards, maintained relentless pressure on MSP before the dam finally broke. Their forwards picked and drove and Risdon sniped and organised proceedings in conjunction with his first five-eighth Jonathan Bentley.Scores were locked up at 6-3 after 50 minutes, before tries to second five-eighth Malakai Kisinia and centre and future Tasman Mako Mike Pehi sealed victory for HOBM. Risdon played his 200th Premier match earlier in 2015 for the Eagles.

2006: Lua Vaoloaloa - Northern United

Northern United became the first team in several years to achieve the coveted Swindale Shield-Jubilee Cup double in the same season by beating Poneke 25-12 in the 2006 Jubilee Cup final. Fielding a team with several household names, including the late-great Jerry Collins at blindside flanker, Norths were all over Poneke like a rash from the get-go. They took control in the opening 50 minutes of play with pressure in the set-pieces, a strong defensive effort around the fringes and much more penetration than Poneke when they moved the ball. Halfback Lua Vaoloaloa was front and centre of their operations, directing much of their play and marshalling their troops. Norths led 20-0 at halftime. They had the Cup in the bag seven minutes into the second spell when Vaoloaloa fired a bullet pass from an attacking scrum across to wing Peato Lafaele who scored the game winning try. Vaoloaloa later played ITM Cup rugby for Tasman and internationals for Samoa, and played club rugby in Melbourne and Sydney. 

2005: Earl Va’a - Petone

The 28-test Samoan international and new Wellington Lions coach, Earl Va’a, was instrumental in Petone’s dramatic revival to beat Northern United, 21-20 at Westpac Stadium. Playing into a stiff southerly, Petone was down 6-20 early in the second-half. An error by Va’a was responsible for a Norths try. Leading 6-3 at the time, Petone were hot on attack inside Norths’ 22. Awarded a penalty, a kick for goal would have given them a 9-3 lead,but a spilt ball following a quick tap saw Norths counterattack and another Samoan international, prop Anthony Perenise, score a try. Va’a collected his composure after this setback and produced a masterful display of tactical rugby. Marshalling his forwards expertly and occasionally taking the ball to the line, Va’a helped Petone gradually gain the ascendency. A try to Wellington Saints basketballer and New Zealand Sevens representative, Tu Umaga-Marshall narrowed the gap. Then winger and Tongan Sevens representative Willie Moala ran down a Temanu Martin chip kick to make it 20-16. Va’a’s goal kicking would be the difference! He nailed the sideline conversion of Moala’s try in the 70th minute and then in the 75th minute, when Petone was pressing again, he kicked a 25 metre-angled penalty to edge Petone ahead and ultimately win the game.