Click here to find out more about advertising with ClubRugby

Wellington College the team to beat

Wellington Premiership | 23 May 2012 | Steven White

Update: Wellington College won 56-17.

For a match report click here

Wellington College will be the team to beat when they line up against cross-tunnel rivals St Pat's Town in the Wellington Premier 1 First XV competition opener at Wellington College today at 1.00pm.

Today's first round Premier 1 match, which also doubles as a Traditional fixture between the two schools, sees defending champions and recent pre-season Williment Trophy winners Wellington College meet a St Pat's Town side that finished fourth overall last season and won one from three in the Williment Trophy. Wellington College will also be playing for their sixth consecutive Traditional win over St Pat's Town, having won 29-10 in this corresponding match last year.

Wellington College defeated St Pat's Silverstream 20-18 in last August's final, which will again feature on Sky Television's Rugby Channel and as the curtain-raiser to the men's Premier club Jubilee Cup final.

In their three recent Williment Trophy matches, Wellington College beat St Pat's Silverstream 29-3 at home, St Pat's Town 39-15 at Evans Bay Park and Rongotai College 52-8 at Rongotai. With a well-drilled tight five as their core strength, they will hope to represent Wellington in the Hurricanes region finals for the chance to compete in the National Top Four finals. Last year they were beaten by Gisborne Boys' High School at the next stage.

Williment Trophy schools Wellington College, St. Pat's Town, St Pat's Silverstream and Rongotai are joined in the eight-team Premier 1 Trophy competition by the winners from the four qualifying pools. These are Scots College, Hutt International Boys' School (HIBS), St Bernard's College (SBC) and Aotea College.

Scots, HIBS and SBC are returning from last season, while Aotea College replaces Wainuiomata College after beating Wainuiomata 52-7, Kapiti College 32-0 and Taita College 10-7 in their Pool D qualifying series.

The eight teams play a seven-match round series, that includes as part of it three midweek Traditionals. As well as today's fixture, two other midweek Traditional matches see Silverstream host Wellington College on 6 June for the Ken Gray Memorial Trophy and Silversteam host Rongotai on 20 June for the Old Boys Cup.

The first six rounds are played on consecutive weeks between now and the end of June. There's then a school holiday break of three weeks ahead of the seventh round, followed by semi-finals weekend and then the final.