Wellington?s champion club teams: Part 4

Above: Onslow players drinking from the Jubilee Cup in 1955

From the beginning of competitions to right up to the present day, we’ve chosen 25 of the most noteworthy or memorable Wellington club rugby Senior/Premier championship winning teams, Here’s the stories of five club teams that stood out between 1952 and 1975, some of the most memorable seasons in club sport.

?

University 1952

Played 15. Won 13. Lost 2. Points for 240. Points against 90

In a golden age for club rugby, the University side of the 1950’s was one of the all-time great sides in New Zealand, let alone Wellington. Starting in 1952, University won outright or shared the Jubilee Cup four times throughout the 1950s, including being the first team since Petone in 1922-24 to win a three-peat of titles when they were top dog in 1952-54.

The 1952 University side featured four current or soon-to-be All Blacks; Ron Jarden, Bill Clark, Jim Fitzgerald and Brian Fitzpatrick. In the days of often turgid 10-man rugby, University’s exciting and positive style of play in this era wouldn’t be out of place today. This team lit up Athletic Park, where they played most of their games, and the crowds came to watch them in their thousands.

With mobile forwards and slashing backs, University made the opposition sit up and take notice when they demolished defending champions Poneke 37-0 in their season opener. There were a couple of setbacks in the following weeks before they took out the Jubilee Cup championship with two rounds to spare.

The team’s record was 50 tries scored and 15 tries conceded. Superstar left wing Jarden was the competition’s leading points scorer with 14 tries and 96 points. The head coach was Ian Uttley, a former New Zealand Universities and Otago first five-eighth. Nine players went on to play for Wellington in 1952: Jarden, Fitzgerald, Fitzpatrick, Clark, Larry Savage, Jack Smith, Barry Hutchinson, Ivan Stuart and Peter Osborne.

Onslow 1955

Played 16. Won 14. Lost 1.Drew 1.Points for 256. Points against 113

1955 was a fairytale season for Onslow, taking on the big guns and capturing the first of two Jubilee Cups (shared with Marist in 1962).Onslow won the Jubilee Cup for the first time with a hard-working pack, hooker Stan Judd in the vanguard of a powerful scrum and lineout.

They also won with a new first five-eighth on board in long-serving Wellington representative Jackie Dougan, who had sensationally transferred to Nairnville Park from Petone in April after being dropped from the 18-player Petone squad for the Villagers’ first game of the season.Dougan’s dropping and subsequent transfer to Onslow was big news at the time, and Dominion columnist ‘Corinthian’ devoted his opinion piece to the matter on the morning of the opening round of the season.

Dougan made his Onslow debut three games into the season, ironically against Petone which the Villagers won 6-3. It was Onslow’s emphatic fifth round 29-6 win over three-time defending champions University that set them on their way. Dougan and Judd were the stars in front of 7,000 fans at Athletic Park and Onslow and Petone were set on a collision course for title honours.Onslow fell three points behind Petone when they drew with Oriental, but Onslow turned around a 0-14 halftime deficit to beat Petone 15-14 and then beat University 9-6. On the same day Petone fell to Oriental 12-13, which put Onslow ahead and only needing to beat Athletic to win the Jubilee Cup.

An anxious three weeks followed while club rugby was put on hold owing to representative rugby, but Onslow returned from the break to account for Athletic and win the title.

Marist Brothers Old Boys 1963

Played 16.Won 11.Drew 1.Lost 4.Points for 236. Points against 184

1963 was a rollercoaster club rugby season in Wellington, not least for defending co-champions Marist Brothers Old Boys who emerged from the congested pack on the last afternoon of the season to win the Jubilee Cup outright, for the second time since 1960.

Heading into the final round at Athletic Park, three teams were still in with a chance. Marist and Onslow were neck and neck on 21 competition points and Athletic were on 20 (two points awarded for a win). Onslow were playing Wellington in the curtain-raiser and Marist and Athletic were clashing in the main game. Wellington stunned Onslow 9-3, suddenly meaning that the winner between Marist and Athletic would take the title. As it transpired Marist won easily, with wings Mick Dennehy and Pat Myers scoring tries to establish an 11-0 lead en route to a 28-13 win for the Mick Horan-captained side.

Three games earlier, it seemed Marist’s charge was on the ropes following an 11-20 loss to Athletic on top of a 16-16 draw with Wellington. But in one of the closest title races in years, other teams were also losing crucial games. Marist’s campaign had started in April with a series of tight matches and it wasn’t until round six that they broke the shackles when beating Poneke 33-6. Dennehy, the competition’s leading scorer with 13 tries, and Myers, second with 12, both scored hat-tricks against Poneke. They were upset 11-16 by Taita and Oriental 6-15, but had close wins over University and Onslow to keep them at the top.

Petone 1973

Played 18.Won 18. Points for: 620. Points against 106.

The Petone team from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s is regarded as the greatest club side in Wellington’s history, and as one of the most dominant ever in New Zealand. This team won five consecutive Jubilee Cups from 1967-71 and again in 1973, 1974 and 1976, a total of eight wins in 10 years.

These Ian Upston-coached and Ken Gray/Andy Leslie-captained teams also had a mortgage on the Swindale Shield in this period, from its resurrection in 1969.After relinquishing their grip on the Jubilee Cup to Athletic and Wellington sharing the title in 1972, Petone came back to win the Shield-Cup double in 1973 with an unbeaten season - scoring over 600 points with an average winning score of 35-8 in an era of 4-point tries.
Dominating the first round, they scored 463 points and conceded 90 points in 13 games.

Wing Vern Winiata was a try scoring machine, scoring 11 tries in the first nine games alone. They enjoyed comfortable wins over rivals Poneke (43-10) and MSP (35-0), while their closest wins were over Naenae Old Boys (18-15), and Hutt Old Boys for the McBain Shield (23-7). In five second round games, Petone scored 157 points and conceded just 16, with notable victories over MSP again (20-7) and runners-up Wellington (22-0).

Four Petone players were in the Wellington team that defeated England 25-16 later in the season. First five-eighth John Dougan (first selected in 1972 and nephew of 1950’s Jubilee Cup winner Jackie Dougan), No. 8 Andy Leslie (1974, as captain) and halfback Ian Stevens (1972) were all Petone All Blacks in the early 1970s. Coach Upston went on to mentor the Wellington side that won the NPC for the first time in 1978 and won the Ranfurly Shield - NPC double in 1981.

Poneke 1975

Petone 19.Won 13.Lost 3.Drew 3.Points for 228.Points against 163

In 1975 Poneke set the blueprint for the underdog. Petone were supposed to win the Jubilee Cup in a canter. Not that Poneke weren’t worthy champions, they were a fine team led by such players as captain Don Cederwall and 200-game prop Fred Baker. It was just that Petone, the dominant club for the past decade, were raging hot favourites. They had even changed the format of the second half of the season to maintain interest right through, splitting the top 12 teams into two pools called the ‘Gold’ and ‘Black’ sections with the winners of each clashing in the final.

Just after Poneke had beaten University six tries to one, 26-3, in the fifth and final match of their section the Dominion proclaimed that Poneke “should be a good test at least for Petone.” At the same time Petone had thrashed Athletic 46-3 to top their pool, so the Evening Post dismissed Poneke’s form and settled on the outcome of the final being a “formality.”

Poneke brought tremendous passion to the final and rocked Petone to win 11-9.The big moment came in the 55th minute when Poneke wing Peter Peilua scored a key try, following up his two tries the previous week against University. It was humble pie for the pundits and good reward for the Red and Blacks, who only five years previously had met to decide on a possible amalgamation with Oriental-Rongotai.

Earlier in the season, Poneke ended the 13-round Swindale Shield in fourth place, having drawn three of its matches and only lost 6-12 to comfortable first round winners Petone. Poneke’s 89 points conceded was 31 points fewer than the next most miserly Hutt Valley Marist (120 points against).

References
Photo credit: Presentation of the Jubilee Cup to the Onslow Rugby Football Club. Negatives of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1955/1860-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23047146
The Evening Post and Dominion newspapers 1952-1975
1977.Donoghue, Tim. Athletic Park : a lost football ground.? Tim Donoghue Publications in association with the Wellington Rugby Football Union, 1999.
Anderson, John. Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club : the story of the green and golds, 1902-1987. Wellington. The Club, 1988.
Griffin, Don and Gallagher, Peter. True blue: the first 100 years of the Petone Rugby Football Club Incorporated, 1885-1985 Petone. The Club, 1985

?