Jubilee and Hardham Cup rugby to remain tight in third round

Source: Sam Worthington, The Dominion Post, Friday 26 June:

Tawa have been shunted to the bottom of the Jubilee Cup ladder after Wellington Rugby Union found they had fielded an ineligible player in their upset first-round victory over Northern United.

Centre Jeff Makapelu starred in the shock 24-15 win over the co-defending champions on June 13, but a Norths complaint that he had not received international clearance from his Romanian club was upheld by a WRFU dispute committee.

Tawa were stripped yesterday of their four points but Norths are also upset after not being awarded the points and having their alternative request for a rematch turned down.

Tawa chairman Dave Banks said the club had not decided whether to appeal against the decision.

Their defence was a glitch in the New Zealand Rugby Union's website, where clubs register players, and Banks said Makapelu had been assured of the clearance by his Romanian club, Bucuresti.

"When we went on to the NZRU site and registered him it allowed us to so we assumed that the transfer had obviously gone through," Banks said.

"It's the players that I feel sorry for because they did the business on the field and won the game."

Norths coach Frank Rees said the drama had caused an uproar between the rival northern suburbs clubs and felt the Wellington union should have been more pro-active in sorting out the situation.

"I get a bit irritated by it because it's a WRFU rule and they leave it for the clubs to protest against," Rees said.

"It should actually be something that's being pushed by the WRFU.

"It gets made out that it's an issue between the two clubs when in fact it isn't.

"I get really irritated because as you can imagine over here in Porirua everyone's calling us sour grapes but it's got nothing to do with the result. We freely admit that they beat us, well and truly, but that's irrelevant."

Rees claimed that it wasn't the first time Tawa had knowingly broken the rules and said he was disappointed that to get the points Norths had to prove Makapelu had a profound influence on the game.

A player's performance should be irrelevant, Rees said, "but when I watched the video he certainly had an influence over two of their tries. He played very, very well".

To try to clear the air between the neighbouring clubs, Rees had asked his manager to write an article for a Porirua newspaper and on Wednesday sat down for a 15-minute chat with Makapelu, a former Norths player

For an updated points table visit Games & Results across the top of this page

Wellington rugby fans can expect another hard-fought round of Jubilee and Hardham Cup clashes this weekend. Little separates the eight teams in the Premier Jubilee Cup after a tough opening fortnight of second round play, each with a win and a loss after two games. In the Premier 2 Hardham Cup, three of the four existing Swindale Shield sides have so far met defeat to at least one of the four Senior One contenders, which include Johnsonville and Rimutaka who are fighting with them for inclusion in next year's Swindale Shield.

The start of this year's Jubilee Cup has been one of the closest in several seasons, with a series of determined performances across the board providing the ingredients for a? pressure-cooker final few weeks of regular season play.

In games this week, Poneke host MSP at Kilbirnie Park, Tawa host Oriental-Rongotai at Lyndhurst Park, Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist meet at the Petone Recreation Ground and Upper Hutt and Northern United do battle at Maidstone Park.

For Poneke, their match against MSP is their third consecutive home game following a first-up win over Petone (13-10) and a loss to Norths (8-18). In beating MSP 18-8 earlier in the year in their Swindale Shield encounter, Poneke broke MSP's 16-match winning streak at Evans Bay Park and won the Bill Brien Challenge Cup off them, which they have subsequently lost to Oriental-Rongotai.

MSP come into this match with a win over Ories (30-13) and a loss to Petone (9-13) behind them, and will also be trying for their fourth consecutive Jubilee Cup win over Poneke after beating them 6-0 in 2007 (Fa'atonu Fili two penalties) and 15-8 and 19-5 (semi-final) in 2008.

Plus it's also been at least 12 years since MSP lost to Poneke in both? round-robin Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup matches in the same season

Upper Hutt were first round winners over Hutt Old Boys Marist (14-11), but met defeat to Ories in round two (27-41) and will be hoping to bounce back against Norths who lost to Tawa (15-24) and then beat Poneke. Norths overcame Upper Hutt 56-0 several weeks ago in their Swindale Shield meeting, and their fans who make the trip for this will be eager for a similar result this time around to see them break free from the pack.

Upper Hutt's faithful can point to that whopping win as a blip in an otherwise close series of contests between these two sides going back to 2005 when they won the Swindale Shield. For inspiration, Upper Hutt can look back to their 24-18 victory over Norths in this corresponding game last year, the men in maroon storming back from an 18-0 halftime deficit and Hurricanes halfback Alby Mathewson scoring the match winning try only minutes from fulltime.

Norths and Upper Hutt didn't meet in the second round of the 2006 or 2007 Jubilee Cups on account of Upper Hutt being in the Hardham Cup, but their three 2005 encounters, including the semi-final, were all memorable. Upper Hutt's 10-5 win over Norths at Maidstone Park in that year's Swindale Shield was a defining victory in their first round triumph, while Norths reversed that result 10-8 in the Jubilee Cup and again 26-21 in a come-from-behind playoff win. For the trainspotter, it was this same match at Maidstone Park in late June 2002 that drew a full house of 4,000 spectators to see a Christian Cullen and Pita Alatini inspired Norths prevail 23-7 over the home side.

Petone and HOBM resume their keen rivalry at the Hut Recreation Ground, Petone beating HOBM 15-0 in their McBain Shield encounter earlier in the season. Ories and Tawa will both be desperate to beat each other and push their claims for rare semi-finals appearances - ?Ories holding out Tawa 20-17 when they met in the first round just four weeks ago.

The Hardham Cup this weekend is just as absorbing, with three potentially huge matches for the fair-weather spectator to follow, each with potential ramifications for both the playoff and promotion-relegation battles.

The Wests Roosters and Old Boys-University encounter at Ian Galloway Park is a key one for both teams. For OBU, who have won their opening two games against MSP B (17-5) and Rimutaka (13-5), a win would propel them towards the semi-finals and will almost certainly be enough for them to avoid the relegation zone. But for Wests, who lost to Johnsonville (5-17) and then beat Wainuiomata (20-13), they won't want to be on one win from three heading into their match against Avalon next week. These two sides drew 10-10 when they met in the Swindale Shield round back in early April.

At William Jones Park, Wainuiomata host Avalon and both will be anxious for victory. A fourth successive finals appearance for the 2006 and 2007 Hardham Cup champions Wainuiomata could be a long way off if they fail to win, having lost both their opening two games including a 0-3 defeat to Rimutaka two weeks ago. Avalon haven't had an altogether happy time of it in their first two games against the B sides, scraping past Poneke at the death to win 22-15 and then losing to MSP 9-8. Earlier in the season Wainuiomata beat Avalon 31-0 at Fraser Park in round three of the Swindale Shield.

Waiting at the ready for promotion to the Swindale Shield are both Johnsonville and Rimutaka who meet at Helston Park. A third consecutive win for Johnsonville would really put them in the box seat to challenge for promotion over the following month after wins over Wests and Poneke, capturing a 20-16 win with the last play of game against Poneke. A well-struck penalty to first five-eighth Ray McDonald gave Rimutaka their 3-0 win over Wainuiomata in the first round, while they lost to OBU last week after both sides scored one try apiece. Rimutaka beat Johnsonville 20-6 when they previously met earlier this year in the Harper Lock Shield.

At Evans Bay Park, MSP and Poneke lock horns in the battle of the B teams, both sharpening their swords in preparation of playing spoiler roles for the six other protagonists over the remainder of the Hardham Cup. MSP won their encounter 32-5 earlier in the season in the Harper Lock Shield.

All Jubilee and Hardham Cup games this Saturday are at the normal time of 3pm, except for the MSP B versus Poneke B fixture which kicks off at 1pm.

In other grades, unbeaten Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist meet at the Petone Recreation Ground at 1.15pm in round three of the Senior One Ed Chaney Cup. Fellow unbeaten teams Ories travel to Lyndhurst Park to play Tawa at 1.15pm and Stokes Valley to Porirua to meet Norths at 1pm.

Early leaders Wainuiomata play Avalon at home at William Jones Park at 1.15pm in the third round of the HD Morgan Memorial Trophy, while joint unbeaten side after two weeks Paremata-Plimmerton vie with Johnsonville at Helston Park at 1pm.

First round women's grade winners and runners-up Norths and Johnsonville meet at Porirua Park in the Victoria Tavern? Premier competition, while leaders Old Boys-University Green meet Old Boys-University White in the U19 Eric Connolly Cup at Prince of Wales Park at 3pm. OBU Green are unbeaten at the halfway stage of the double round-robin, while the White side will be out for bragging rights at the bar.