Club Rugby 2006-15: Most points by an individual in a Premier Match

Of the 981 club rugby Premier Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup club rugby matches played in Wellington over the past decade there were 118 instances of an individual player scoring 20 or more points in a match.

Of these 118, 11 were of a player scoring 30 or more points in a match, including two individual 50-point hauls – the highest of these by Brandyn Laursen in 2013 is believed to be the all-time record for most points in a match in Wellington club rugby by one player. These are listed below.

Similarly there were also 16 instances over the past decade of an individual player scoring between 25-29 points in a match. These are listed below.

At a glance, the leading five individual points hauls in Wellington Premier rugby between 2006-15 were: Brandyn Laursen 52 points (HOBM v Rimutaka 2013), Sosi Tuimavavae 50 points (Poneke v Rimutaka 2013), James So’oialo 35 points (Tawa v Paremata-Plimmerton 2015), Trevor Marama 33 points (Ories v Avalon 2011) and Jason Woodward 32 points (Upper Hutt v Petone 2012).

What is the all-time record for most points in a Premier Wellington club rugby match? What are the records in other provincial Premier/Senior A competitions? Please email editor@clubrugby.co.nz

The players who have scored 20 points in a match the most often in Wellington Premier club rugby over the past decade have been James So’oialo (Norths/Tawa) 20 points or more in a match 12 times; Fa’atonu Fili (MSP/Ories 10; Brandyn Laursen (HOBM) 5; James Proctor (Ories) 5; Greg Mullany (OBU/Poneke) 4; Jackson Garden-Bachop (Norths) 4; Jason Woodward (Upper Hutt Rams (4); five players have done it 3 times each.

Eight of these 118 20+ scoring hauls came in losing causes and one was in a drawn game. The two most recent examples of this were in last year’s Swindale Shield, with Adam Deck scoring 21 points for the Wellington Axemen in their 36-37 first round loss to HOBM and Jared Kahu scoring 20 points for Petone in their fifth round 25-32 McBain Shield defeat to HOBM.

There have been four instances in the past decade of two players in the same team scoring 20 or more points in the same match. Mike Kingsbeer scored six tries (30 points) and Fa’atonu Fili scored 23 points in MSP’s 2009 88-3 Swindale Shield win over Wainuiomata. Buxton Popoalii scored four tries (20 points) and James So’oialo scored 24 points in Northern United’s 2010 59-10 win over Johnsonville. James Kusel dotted down for four tries (20 points) and Brandyn Laursen amassed 20 points in HOBM’s 2013 50-22 win over Petone and Dean Brunsdon crossed for five tries (25 points) and Jackson Garden-Bachop scored 30 points for Norths in their 2013 85-10 win over Rimutaka.

There have been three instances since the start of 2006 of an individual scoring more than 20 points in a match and scoring all the points for their team on the day. James So’oialo scored all the points for Norths in their 23-17 2009 Jubilee Cup win over HOBM, Chris Slade kicked all seven penalties in MSP’s 21-16 2009 Jubilee Cup final win over Norths and Fa’atonu Fili scored 24 points for MSP in their 24-19 2010 Jubilee Cup victory over Petone.

In this 10-year period, the season that saw the most 20 plus point individual hauls was 2013 with 23. This included eight against Rimutaka, which also featured the two individual half centuries that were posted (see below). The next most prolific season for hot individual points scoring was 2009 with 17, followed by 2015 with 16.

The fifth round of the 2008 Swindale Shield saw Daniel Kirkpatrick score 21 points for Petone in a 51-20 win over Poneke, Fa’atonu Fili score 20 points for MSP in a 60-15 win over Ories, Damian Madsen accumulate 20 points for Tawa in a 25-27 defeat to OBU and James Kusel rack up 30 points in HOBM’s 85-0 win over Avalon.

As well as Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup rugby, there has also been a run of hot scoring in Hardham Cup Premier 2 rugby over the past decade. For example, last year Johnsonville’s Tiwi Davies struck form scoring 82 points including two 30-point hauls in three matches.

Wellington Premier club rugby 2006-15: 25-29 points in a match:

25 points:

2007 Swindale Shield
Round 9 Norths 65 – Ories 14
Peato Lafaele (25 2T, 6C,1P)

2009 Swindale Shield
Round 3 MSP 55 – Tawa 3
Brendan Watt 25 (5 tries)

2010 Swindale Shield
Round 11 OBU 35 – Wainuiomata 18
Lima Sopoaga (2C,5P,2DG 25) 

2011 Swindale Shield
Round 1 Upper Hutt 40 – Wainuiomata 12
Jason Woodward (2T,3C,3P 25) 

2011 Jubilee Cup
Round 8 Norths 29 – Poneke 3
Ajay Va’alepu (5T, 25)

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 7 Norths 97 – Wests Roosters 48
Jackson Garden-Bachop (11C,1P 25) 

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 11 Norths 85 – Rimutaka 10
Dean Brunsdon (5T, 25)

2015 Swindale Shield
Round 4 OBU 72 - Johnsonville 13
Luke Campbell (1T,7C,2P 25) 

26 points:

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 4 Petone 91 – Rimutaka 0
Jared Kahu (2T, 8C 26) 

27 points:

2010 Swindale Shield
Round 2 Norths 82 –Upper Hutt 16
James So'oialo (27 1T, 8C, 2P)

28 points:

2010 Swindale Shield
Round 7 Norths 58 – Tawa 29
James So’oialo (2T, 6C, 2P 28) 

29 points:

2009 Swindale Shield
Round 4 Norths 106 – Avalon 0
James So’oialo (1T,12C 29) 

2011 Swindale Shield
Round 11 Upepr Hutt 69 – Wests Roosters 9
Jason Woodward (1T,9C,2P 29) 

2012 Swindale Shield
Round 4 Upper Hutt 77 – Rimutaka 0
Ben Aoina (3T,4C,2P 29) 

2012 Swindale Shield
Round 6 Petone 88 – Rimutaka 3
Daniel Kirkpatrick (29 2T,8C,1P)

2015 Swindale Shield
Round 1 Wainuiomata 34 – Norths 34
Tyler Tane (2T,2C,5P 29) 

Wellington Premier club rugby 2006-15: 30 or more points in a match:

30 points:

2006 Swindale Shield
Round 11 HOBM 45 – Ories 9
Jonathan Bentley (30 3T,6C,1P)

2008 Swindale Shield
Round 5 HOBM 85 – Avalon 0
James Kusel (30 2T,10C)

2009 Swindale Shield
Round 5 MSP 88 – wOa 3
Mike Kingsbeer (6T 30)

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 11 Norths 85 – Rimutaka 10
Jackson Garden-Bachop (302T,10C)

31 Points:

2012 Swindale Shield
Round 3 HOBM 61 – Wests 7
Glen Walters (31 2T,6C,2P,1DG)

2014 Jubilee Cup
Round 4 HOBM 36 - MSP 26
Glen Walters ((2T,3C,5P 31)

32 Points:

2012 Jubilee Cup
Round 7 Upper Hutt 47 – Petone 27
Jason Woodward (2T,5C,4P 32)

33 points:

2011 Swindale Shield
Round 1 Ories 63 – Avalon 6
Trevor Marama (2T,7C,3P 33)

35 points:

2015 Swindale Shield
Round 1 Tawa 70 – PP 15
James So’oialo (3T,7C,2P 35)

50+ points:

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 3 Poneke 102 – Rimutaka 0
Tauasosi Tuimavave (6T,10C 50)

2013 Swindale Shield
Round 7 HOBM 127 – Rimutaka 0
Brandyn Laursen (3T,17C,1P 52)