Must Win For Defending Champions In Jubilee Cup

Hutt Old Boys Marist and Petone will resume their neighbourly rivalry in this week's fifth round set of Jubilee Cup matches when they meet at the Hutt Recreation Ground. The two have played some truly epic matches over the years, most notably for the McBain Shield played for in the first round and which Petone retained this year in winning 16-13 in the closing round of the Swindale Shield at the start of June.

The McBain Shield won't be on the line this weekend, but with the 2008 semi-finals only a fortnight away after this weekend, this match promises to be no less intense. Victory for Petone will likely secure them a place in the playoffs, while Hutt Old Boys Marist will be desperate to win to remain in the hunt for the top four and for a chance to defend their Jubilee Cup crown. The Eagles enjoyed a timely return to form in last week's fourth round match against Upper Hutt, earning an emphatic bonus point 43-16 victory over the team that had beaten Northern United the week before.

This will be the tenth meeting between Petone and HOBM since Hutt's return to the Premier grade at the start of 2003, with several of the previous nine clashes having gone to the wire. Overall, Petone has won five of these and HOBM four, but the widest winning margin from all of these games has only been 11 points when Petone won 27-16 last year. Other close games have included Petone's 18-17 and 25-23 wins in 2004 and 2005 respectively and HOBM's 22-20 victory in 2003 and their 21-15 win in the Jubilee Cup round this time last year.

It's also crunch time in round five for Old Boys-University and Oriental-Rongotai, who like HOBM, will likely drop out of contention if they lose this weekend. OBU, who slumped to a loss against Ories last week after collecting their first win the previous week against HOBM, have the toughest run of all with Norths, Marist St. Pat's and Petone still on their calendar. This week they play Norths at Porirua after beating them 37-26 at home in the Swindale Shield, and will need to win against a Norths team smarting after rare back-to-back losses.

Ories travel to Kilbirnie Park to meet Poneke, who suffered their second defeat of the Jubilee Cup round when they lost narrowly to Petone in round four, while in the other game across the road at Evans Bay Park Upper Hutt meet Marist St. Pat's who will be lining up a home semi-final if they prevail in this encounter.

Meanwhile the Hardham Cup heats up this week, with the semi-final credentials of several of the chasing teams set to become a lot clearer after round five. In these games this week, unbeaten Tawa hosts Avalon at Lyndhurst Park, Wainuiomata meet Northern United B at William Jones Park, the Wests Roosters play MSP B at Ian Galloway Park and winless Johnsonville and Rimutaka square off at Helston Park.