Club Rugby Hat-tricks Part 2: The tight five Hat-trick club

Above: Poneke hooker Andrew Castle scores a try as part of his club rugby hat-trick and [inset] Henry Smith scores one of his three tries in a match. Both of these were in 2012.

Of the 98 Premier Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup individual try-scoring hat-tricks and the 27 Premier 2 Hardham Cup try hat-tricks in Wellington club rugby in the decade between 2006-15, many were scored by forwards.

There were 27 hat-tricks scored by forwards in the past decade of Wellington club rugby.
Of these, 11 were run in by tight forwards. Five by locks, five by hookers and one by a loosehead prop.

He now plays for Tawa, but Telea Seumanutafa has the distinction of being the only player on this list to have scored two hat-tricks playing as a tight forward. He did so four years apart, scoring three tries in a 95-0 win over the Wests Roosters in 2008 (his brother and wing Francis also scoring two tries in this game) and then scoring four tries for Norths in a 31-12 Jubilee Cup win over Hutt Old Boys Marist.

HOBM players feature twice on the tight forwards hat-trick list.

Lock Polonga Pedro only needed 60 minutes to score his hat-trick in a 2008 Swindale Shield match against neighbours Avalon, before being subbed off for a job well done. Loosehead prop Simon Malaeulu burrowed over for a hat-trick in a 66-26 win over Johnsonville two years later.

Dan Mellon (Old Boys University) and Shahn Eru (Wainuiomata) were the other two locks to score club rugby hat-tricks between 2006-15. Of the five locks on this list, Mellon is the only player to have made all his starts (36) at lock. The others have also played plenty of matches at blindside flanker.

Two of the five hookers to have scored three tries in a match in this period were Marist St Pat’s players – Mau Simeona in 2006 and Liu Taituave in 2013.

Norths captain Henry Smith scored his hat-trick against Taituave and MSP in 2012. He scored two tries in the first half and another after the break as part of a 31-10 win.

The other two hookers to have scored hat-tricks in the past 10 years have been Oriental-Rongotai’s Lui Aukuso in 2007 and Poneke’s Andrew Castle in 2012.

Hat-tricks by tight forwards in Wellington Swindale Shield, Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup rugby over the past 10 years have been:

2006 Swindale Shield
Round 11: MSP 43 – Upper Hutt 28
Mau Simeona (hooker) 3 tries

2007 Hardham Cup
Round 8: Oriental-Rongotai 32 – Avalon 17
Lui Aukuso (hooker) 3 tries

2008 Swindale Shield
Round 5: HOBM 85 – Avalon 0
Polonga Pedro (lock) 3 tries

2008 Swindale Shield
Round 6: Northern United 95 – Wests Roosters 0
Telea Seumanutafa (lock) 3 tries

2010 Swindale Shield
Round 7: HOBM 66 – Johnsonville 26
Simon Malaeulu (loosehead prop) 3 tries

2012 Jubilee Cup
Round 2: Northern United 31 – Marist St Pat’s 10
Henry Smith (hooker) 3 tries

2012 Jubilee Cup
Round 4: Northern United 31 – HOBM 18
Telea Seumanutafa (lock) 4 tries

2012 Hardham Cup
Round 7: Poneke 56 – Rimutaka 7
Andrew Castle (hooker) 3 tries

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 2: Marist St Pat’s 37 v Upper Hutt 16
Liu Taituave (hooker) 3 tries

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 2: Old Boys University 85 – Rimutaka 3
Dan Mellon (lock) 3 tries

2014 Swindale Shield
Round 4: Wainuiomata 30 – Marist St Pat’s 30
Shahn Eru (lock) 3 tries

Also, Hat-tricks by loose forwards:

2006 Swindale Shield
Round 10: Upper Hutt 34 – Petone 20
James Mei (No.8) 3 tries

2006 Hardham Cup
Round 3: Johnsonville 40 - Northern United B 21
Chris Masoe (No. 8) 3 tries

2008 Swindale Shield
Round 11: Northern United 92 – Avalon 3
Anare Koliavu (blindside flanker) 4 tries

2009 Swindale Shield
Round 9: Poneke 66 – Avalon 5
Daniel Ramsay (blindside flanker) 3 tries

2009 Swindale Shield
Round 11: Upper Hutt 28 – Old Boys University 30
Mathew Luamanu (No. 8) 3 tries

2009 Hardham Cup
Round 6: Rimutaka 41 – Poneke B 5
Martin Asiata (No. 8) 3 tries

2009 Hardham Cup
Round 7: Old Boys University 67 – Poneke B 0
Ian Kennedy (blindside flanker) 3 tries

2011 Swindale Shield
Round 7: Petone 46 – Marist St Pat’s 14
Piers Gordon (No. 8) 3 tries

2011 Swindale Shield
Round 10: Upper Hutt Rams 49 – Avalon 25
Campbell Beckett (No. 8) 3 tries

2012 Hardham Cup
Round 4: Poneke 43 – Wests Roosters 0
Galu Taufale (openside flanker) 3 tries

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 11: Northern United 85 – Rimutaka 0
Dean Brunsdon (openside flanker) 5 tries

2013 Hardham Cup
Round 7: Wests Roosters 70 – Rimutaka 17
Pita Semeane (No. 8) 3 tries

2015 Swindale Shield
Round 4: Wellington 47 – Paremata-Plimmerton 8
Vaea Fifita (blindside flanker) 3 tries

2015 Swindale Shield
Round 11: Johnsonville 62 – Paremata-Plimmerton 6
Sean Bridge (No. 8) 3 tries

2015 Hardham Cup
Round 2: Johnsonville 62 – Northern United 33
Sean Bridge (No. 8) 3 tries

2015 Hardham Cup
Round 5: Poneke 74 – Petone B 5
Galu Taufale (No. 8) 3 tries