Looking at the week ahead (finals week)

Above: HOBM centre Tomasi Alosio going to ground in his side's 43-6 win over Paremata-Plimmerton on Saturday. HOBM will meet Petone in this week's Hardham Cup final. Photo credit: Hugh Pretorius.

It’s the calm before the storm of the biggest weekend for rugby in Wellington this year thus far.

Not only are the Hurricanes hosting their second successive Super Rugby final, but it’s also the finals of the Wellington club rugby Premier bucqi Jubilee Cup and Premier 2 Hardham Cup competitions.

The Hardham Cup final between Hutt Old Boys Marist and Petone is at the Hutt Recreation Ground on Friday night at 7.00pm and the bucqi Jubilee Cup final between Marist St Pat’s and Tawa is at Jerry Collins Stadium at Porirua Park on Saturday afternoon at 2.00pm.

On Wednesday afternoon, a Wellington XV tackles the Tasman Makos in a National Provincial Championship pre-season fixture. The time and venue for this match is to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, it’s also semi-finals time in the WelTec Premiership, as well as semi-finals and finals in Wellington lower grade rugby, while the Wellington Pride open their 2016 Women’s NPC campaign in Auckland against the defending champions in a replay of last year’s final.

Marist St Pat’s and Tawa are both riding five-game winning streaks heading into the climax of the 2016 club rugby season.

This stage isn’t unfamiliar to either side. MSP were here last year where they went down to Old Boys-University but not before fighting back from a 6-25 deficit with 20 minutes to play, and seek to go one better this time and claim their 15th title since their formation following the 1970 season. They last lifted the Cup in 2012, defeating then-defending champions Oriental-Rongotai 14-8. Tawa succeeded them the following year, lifting their first championship when they too beat Ories 26-21.

The Hardham Cup finale is between close rivals Hutt Old Boys Marist and Petone who have met twice this year for a win each. In their first round McBain Shield fixture Petone won 27-23 and in their second round round-robin match HOBM won 43-31. HOBM have won nine in a row heading into this clash. Both sides will be eager to win this and launch a springboard to top flight success in 2017.

Both are coming off differing semi-finals, top qualifier HOBM powering past Paremata-Plimmerton 43-6, after leading 12-6 at halftime, and Petone beating Northern United 39-30 in an extra time thriller. Scores were locked up at 25-25 at halftime and Norths led 30-25 at the end of the first spell extra time but Lester Maulolo was the hero for Petone, scoring a 70 metre runaway try.

In another final this Saturday, the OBU Righteous Brothers and the OBU Pink Ginners will clash for the Allan Seerup Cup Reserve Grade Division 2 title.

The John E Kelly Cup Colts Division semi-finals are also expected to be super-tight this Saturday. Top qualifier OBU Green will host Poneke, who qualified from a three way tie for fourth, and Tawa and Marist St Pat’s will meet in the other in a replay of their match just played where MSP came back to win 19-17.

The First Grade semi-finals will see top qualifiers the Petone Brotherhood play the HOBM Barbarians and OBU and Norths meet in the other.

Top qualifiers the Tawa Titans will play Eastbourne and Wellington will meet Johnsonville in the semi-finals of the U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield semi-finals.

Frontrunners the Wests Roosters will play MSP Red and Stokes Valley will go at the HOBM Howlers in the U85kg Division 2 playoffs.

The Premier Reserve competition for the Ed Chaney and HD Morgan Memorial Cups enters its final weekend of round-robin matches this Saturday.

The WelTec Premiership semi-finals are both in town, with top qualifier Wellington College welcoming Wairarapa College and second placed St Pat’s Town playing eastern suburbs rivals Rongotai College in the other.

Wairarapa College and Rongotai College will both lay claim to underdog status, after the former upset Scots College 7-3 in Saturday’s quarter-final and the latter defeated St Pat’s Silverstream for the second time this year, 20-13.

It will be straight into the fire for the Wellington Pride, who head to Auckland this coming Saturday to meet the Auckland Storm first-up in their first match of the renamed Women’s NPC Farah Palmer Cup competition. Auckland beat the Pride 39-9 in last year’s final and they’ve named a strong squad to defend their title.