Above: Wellington fullback Sam Doyle (centre) celebrating one of his two tries in this match against the Springboks. The Lions gave the South Africans an almighty scare, leading 16-5 with this try and 19-8 at halftime, before being run down in the second half. Match Details Result: South Africa 36 – Wellington 26 When: 28 June, 1994Weather: Fine and sunnyCrowd: 28,000 The Tour South Africa made their sixth visit to New Zealand in 1994 and their first in the post-Apartheid era. Their previous tour in 1981 had been soaked in political controversy and made waves off the field wherever it went...More

The Wellington Men’s Sevens team has defended its Auckland 7s tournament title at the fifth annual tournament this weekend played on the North Shore. Wellington won five of six matches and drew the other. They beat Counties Manukau in this afternoon’s Cup final and won 17-7. For Wellington, Jordan Simpson-Hefft and Murphy Taramai scored first half tries in the Cup final. Taramai soared high from a kick-off and sprinted away to give Wellington a 12-7 halftime lead. Piri Paraone scored the only try of the second half of the final...More

St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream have won the College Sport Wellington Under-15 Sevens title at Naenae College today pipping Scots College 17-14 in the final. Scots appeared to be the most impressive team in the field amassing more points than any other school in pool play. However they were rundown by Silverstream with the last play of the tournament. Trailing 14-10, Silverstream’s Albert Polu busted two tackles and dramatically dashed 65-metres to score under the posts. Polu along with Kienan Higgins had initially scored for Silverstream, but Scots were deserving leaders after two outstanding tries...More

Several provincial unions are using this weekend’s fifth annual Auckland 7s tournament at the Northcote/Birkenhead Rugby Football Club on the North Shore as part of their build-ups to the regional 7s qualifiers over the following three weeks. Provincial union teams from the Northern and Central regions are entered in both the Men’s and Women’s sections of this weekend’s Auckland 7s tournament. The three regional qualifiers for the National 7s in Rotorua are being played in Timaru (Southern) on 28 November, and Levin (Central) and Cambridge (Northern) a fortnight later on 12 December...More

Above: Jonah Lomu playing for Wainuiomata in Wellington club rugby in 1999. Photo by Photosport/Google Images Jonah Lomu transcended rugby. He was modern rugby’s first global superstar. In 2000 he played the first of two club matches for his adopted club Wainuiomata. Wainuiomata were in the second division of the Wellington club rugby competition at the time, but such was his star power that 4,000 ringed the field to watch him play and score two tries.  The following year the Hurricanes’ first Super Rugby match at the brand new Stadium was memorable...More

Above: Henry Roberts from Poneke RFC, New Zealand's first recognised professional player, circled. The article below was publshed in the recent St Patrick's College, Wellington, Rugby Football Club newsletter. Professionalism in Rugby Union has a long and interesting history, going back at least 130 years.. This article recounts the advent of professionalism in the nineteenth century and its impact on the burgeoning game in New Zealand. In 1885, 220 representatives of Association Football (Soccer) Clubs from all parts of England met to settle the question of whether or not professionalism should be legalised...More

Dane Coles (Poneke) and Ma’a Nonu (Oriental-Rongotai) are both nominated for the major Kelvin R Tremain Player of the Year award at the upcoming Steinlager New Zealand Rugby Awards on Friday 11 December in Auckland. The pair is nominated alongside Dan Carter and Ben Smith for the coveted award. Stand-in Wellington Lions captain Ardie Savea (Oriental-Rongotai, pictured above) is nominated for the ITM Cup Player of the Year award and Alex Fidow (Scots College) is in the mix to win the New Zealand Rugby Age Grade Player of the Year award...More

Match Details Result: Wellington 16 – Scotland 16When: 2 June 1990Weather: Fine and coolCrowd: 30,000 The Tour Scotland was reigning Five Nations Champions and one of the form teams in world rugby. There were high hopes back home that the Scots could come to New Zealand and knock the All Blacks off or at least deal with provincial opposition. This was the third tour by Scotland to New Zealand, following visits in 1975 and 1981. Their coach, Ian McGeechan had toured with the 1975 side, while Gavin Hastings, Iwan Tukalo, Finlay Calder, Iain Milne, Derek White and captain David Sole had played against the All Blacks in their RWC quarter-final in 1987...More

Above: The Moananu brothers, from left to right: Misapalauni, Fa'atoto and Misiluni, who have all given tremendous service to the Poneke club The below article was published on Club Rugby in 2012 - when Misiluni (Luni) Moananu became the third brother in his family to play 200 Premier club rugby matches for the Poneke FC.  Following a short battle with bowel cancer, Luni Moananu has passed away. As recently as four months ago he was playing Jubilee Cup rugby, where he packed down for the Wellington Axemen at tighthead prop against beaten finalists and long-time rivals Marist St Pat's...More

The small township of Eketahuna will be the convergence point for two of Super Rugby’s greatest foes next year – the Hurricanes and the Blues - when it hosts a pre-season game for the second year running. Following the outstanding success of this year’s sold out game between the Hurricanes and Crusaders, the Eketahuna Rugby Club will once again host the Hurricanes when they face the Blues on Saturday, 13th February 2016. The club’s President Dennis “Doc” Dougherty, says he’s grateful event organisers from Tui Brewery have placed faith in the township to hold the game again...More