Curtain comes down on competitive and close first round

Above: The competition's leading try-scorer Chase Tiatia makes a break on Saturday for HOBM against Wellington.

This past weekend's set of matches aside, if you've been biting your nails a bit lately or have found yourself sitting a bit more upright than usual then the super competitive nature of the just completed Swindale Shield competition could be the reason why.

A cumulative total of 3,196 points was scored in the 66 games of this year's Swindale Shield, compared to 3,958 last year and 3,627 in 2010, which was the year that winners Norths scored over 500 points on their own.

A total of 30 (45 percent) of Swindale Shield matches this season were decided by 7 points or fewer, including two draws. The outcomes of several of these matches were determined in the final play of the game.

How does this compare to the last 10 years of the Swindale Shield in terms of close results? The table here shows that overall it was the second closest first round of the past decade:

Hutt Old Boys Marist's 61 points (61-14) against the Wellington Axemen two days ago was the highest score in all the 66 first round matches played this year. Just three Premier games so far in 2014 have seen the scoreboard operators go higher than 50 points; HOBM against Wellington in round 11, Tawa versus HOBM in round 1 (50-14) and Ories versus Wellington in round 2 (55-7) when Ories trucked out their Super Rugby players.

How does this compare to the Swindale Shield over the past decade? The number of big scores - just 11 instances? of a team scoring 40 or more points in a match - is the lowest of all Swindale Shields between 2005-2014.

With this year resulting in the fewest 40 plus scores of any Swindale Shield of the past 10 years, 2010 was the hottest year for scoring with a total of 27 scores of 40 plus being posted in 66 games played.

This is, of course, a reflection of the closeness of the competition and the inclusion of minnows such as Rimutaka who twice conceded 100 plus points in a match last year. But not exclusively.?

A glance at the past decade shows that many of the top ranking and mid-table sides were often scoring plenty more points against each other shows a general tightening of the competition from sides ranked one to 12.

There was a three-four year period recently when you could just about pick the ‘top eight' before the season got underway. Not so anymore. There are no easybeats.

The highest scoring game in the Swindale Shield in the last decade was HOBM's 127-0 win over Rimutaka in round 7 in 2013 and the lowest was Norths' 7-0 win over Avalon in round 1 in 2006.

Competition winners Marist St Pat's scored 40 tries and 336 points. In comparison the rampant Norths side of 2010 scored 73 tries and 506 points.

MSP's win in this year's Swindale Shield is this the first time since Upper Hutt in 2005 (320 points for) that the team with the best for and against record didn't win the first round title.

In individual try scoring, HOBM's Chase Tiatia, who was moved from his customary first five-eighth position, where he played first XV and age-grade representative rugby last season to the wing, emerged as the leading try-scorer in this year's Swindale Shield with nine tries.

The leading try-scorers from each of the first rounds over the past 10 Swindale Shields have been:

In individual points scoring, MSP first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili found his range more than anyone else, scoring 136 points. The leading points scorers from each of the past 10 Swindale Shields have been:

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Roll on the Jubilee and Hardham Cups.