Above: Josh Houston-Tupou playing for the Upper Hutt Rams Colts earlier this year. The Wellington U19s are the defending National U19 tournament champions. Last year they won the Graham Mourie Cup at the inaugural National Jock Hobbs Memorial event. Leading up to the 2015 tournament, Club Rugby will profile some of the young Lions who are likely to feature in the tournament and indeed the future of the game in the capital. Josh Houston-Tupou is used to being the standout player in his team. The old boy of Upper Hutt College was selected for the First XV in Year 11 as an injury replacement...More

Wellington representative teams piled on the points in today’s matches, with several teams making life hard for their opposition and winning by wide margins. The Wellington Pride, U18s, U19s and Development teams all won high scoring contests. The Pride made it two wins out of three to start their Women’s NPC campaign with a 43-18 victory over the Hawke’s Bay Tuis in Napier. No. 8 Jackie Patea and Georgia Daals each scored two tries, while prop Noeleen Nonu, wing Ruby Finau and flanker Aimee Sutorius scored the other tries in the bonus point win for the Pride...More

Wellington representative teams are playing across the North Island tomorrow, with away matches on Saturday in Wanganui, Ruatoria and the East Coast and games at home at the Petone Rec, Helston Park and Maoribank Park. It all starts this evening when the Wellington Lions host the Tasman Makos at Westpac Stadium at 7.35pm in a blockbuster fifth round of the ITM Cup match between two unbeaten teams. The curtain-raiser for this match, at Helston Park, is between the two Wellington U16 teams as they continue their preparations for the Hurricanes U16 tournament in Levin at the end of September...More

Above: Tomasi Alosio evading the tackle of Petone's Jared Kahu and scoring a try for Hutt Old Boys Marist when the two sides met in this year's Jubilee Cup in June. Tomasi Alosio has made a promising start to his ITM career, and tomorrow night he starts at centre against the Tasman Makos. Against North Harbour, he ran on to a chip kick by his Hutt Old Boys Marist teammate and Lions first five-eighth Jonny Bentley to score the match-sealing try. Against Southland last Saturday, he repeated the dose, reining in a grubber in to the in-goal and collecting his second ITM Cup try...More

Above: Bradd Forster (yellow head gear) in the thick of the action playing for Tawa earlier this season The Wellington U19s are the defending National U19 tournament champions. Last year they won the Graham Mourie Cup at the inaugural National Jock Hobbs Memorial event. Leading up to the 2015 tournament, Club Rugby will profile some of the young Lions who are likely to feature in the tournament and indeed the future of the game in the capital. Bradd Forster is a modest, relaxed and self-deprecating young man...More

The New Zealand Universities U23 team departs for England this week to compete in the Inaugural World Universities Rugby Cup, hosted by Oxford University. UPDATE: The confirmed draw for the tournament can be found here The New Zealand squad includes a mix of players affiliated to New Zealand university-based clubs, including several players that won club championship titles this year in Wellington for Old Boys University in Wellington and in in Christchurch for Lincoln University. The New Zealand U23 team will be up against teams from England (Oxford University), South Africa (University of Cape Town), Ireland (Trinity College Dublin), Japan (Waseda University), Canada (University of British Columbia), the USA (Stanford University) and Russia (Siberian Federal University)...More

 UPDATED: Rotorua Boys’ High School are the 2015 National Top 4 champions. A passionate 13-man Rotorua Boys’ High School held off Scots College to win today’s National Top 4 final for the New Zealand Barbarians Cup in a 10-try thriller. Rotorua held their nerve over the final several minutes to beat a fast-finishing Scots 36-27 in the final in front of an army of their home supporters, after losing their second five-eighth to a red card for a spear tackle and their halfback Te Ra Whata for punching on the ground in the dying minutes...More

Lock Jeremy Thrush scored a hat-trick in the Wellington Lions’ 53-3 fourth round ITM Cup victory over the Southland Stags on Saturday. Thrush became the first lock to score a hat-trick in a Division 1 NPC match (since 1976), scored only the fifth hat-trick by a tight forwards in Division 1 NPC rugby and the second for Wellington after prop Brian McGrattan scored three tries for the Lions against North Auckland in 1984. Recent Wellington players to score hat-tricks before Thrush have been Matt Proctor against Otago in 2012, Jason Woodward against Taranaki in 2011 (on debut) and Hosea Gear against Counties Manukau in 2009...More

UPDATE # 3: Wellington Pride miss out to Waikato Wellington U19s win well Wellington U16s come back to win, Wellington U16 Development prevail Wellington Development hold off Hawke's Bay Saracens Wellington Maori go down to Canterbury Maori   Wellington Pride 16 - Waikato 27 The Wellington Pride were desperately unlucky not to come away from Waikato Stadium with any competition points in their third round Women’s NPC fixture. In a game of two halves, Wellington led 13-0 at halftime, but Waikato came back in the second half to score five tries and win 27-16...More

UPDATED: Wellington’s Scots College and Rotorua Boys’ High School will meet on Sunday in the final of the National Secondary Schools Top 4 tournament in Rotorua. Both won tight and willing semi-finals on Friday, with Hurricanes region representatives Scots College narrowly overcoming South Island champions Otago Boys’ High School 35-27 and Chiefs champions Rotorua Boys’ High School tipping over Auckland’s St Kentigern College 7-5 in an absorbing battle. Scots and Rotorua will play for the New Zealand Barbarians Cup in Sunday afternoon’s final...More