Exciting Hardham Cup In Store

The Hardham Cup promises to be an exciting competition this year, with the addition of two Senior One Clubs from the just completed Harper Lock Shield set to join the bottom four sides from the Swindale Shield in an expected close race for the title.

These two extra teams - Johnsonville and Rimutaka - join defending champions Wainuiomata, the Wests Roosters, Tawa and Avalon and will both be pushing hard to finish ahead of any of these four current Premier teams and take their place in next year's Swindale Shield.

These six teams are joined in the Hardham Cup by the second fifteen sides of Marist St. Pat's and Northern United, who finished second and third in the Harper Lock Shield, but can't be promoted to the Swindale Shield.

Indeed the spectre of relegation looms large for the four existing Swindale Shield teams, in a competition that reached knife-edge proportions in 2006 when Wainuiomata emerged from the Senior One grade to break into Premier rugby at the expense of Johnsonville. But such was the closeness of the Hardham Cup two years ago, that top qualifiers Upper Hutt, Wests and Ories were all in danger of finishing fifth right up to the final whistle at the end of the round-robin.

Johnsonville regrouped in 2007 and easily won the Harper Lock Shield, but they found the step up again too tough and they missed out on promotion, while the fairytale continued for Wainuiomata as they went on to beat Oriental-Rongotai in the final at Westpac Stadium.

Johnsonville are in a similar position this year too, having won the Harper Lock Shield again, and much interest will be about to see if they can finish ahead of a battered and bruised Avalon, Wests and Tawa who all struggled against the big guns in the Swindale Shield. They are joined by Rimutaka who last made the Hardham Cup in 2004 and beat Ories and narrowly lost to both Johnsonville and Wests on their way to a fifth placed finish.

Wainuiomata fans will fancy their teams' chances of reaching their third consecutive final after finishing ninth in the Swindale Shield, and will be especially tough to beat at home.

The two big first round clashes are between Avalon and the Wests Roosters at Fraser Park and Wainuiomata and Tawa at William Jones Park. In the Swindale Shield Wests beat Avalon 18-5 in round four and Wainui defeated Tawa 21-12 in round eight. Meanwhile in the other two matches, Johnsonville play MSP at Cobham Park and Norths and Rimutaka meet at Porirua Park. All teams will be striving for a positive start to their Hardham Cup seasons.

Meanwhile, the Jubilee Cup kicks off with two local derbies in town between newly crowned Swindale Shield champions Marist St.Pat's and Oriental-Rongotai at the Polo Ground and Poneke and Old Boys-University at Kilbirnie Park. In the other matches Northern United take on Hutt Old Boys Marist at Porirua Park and Petone hosts Upper Hutt at home.