Oriental-Rongotai midfielder Matt Proctor will lead the Wellington Lions in the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup [National ProvincialChampionship]. The 25-year-old, who made his debut for Wellington in 2012, was named as the squad's new leader at today's season launch."Matt is incredibly well respected, not only in the Wellington region, but right across the country and we are all excited about what he will bring to the role," Wellington Lions head coach Chris Gibbes said.Proctor will lead a squad that contains just three new players from last season...More

Wellington Lions Head Coach Chris Gibbes chatted with Radio Sport’s Matt Buck on air on Saturday morning, ahead of the Lions squad naming this Tuesday and their National Provincial Championship season opener this coming Sunday. Gibbes said the squad is looking forward to getting stuck in to this year’s NPC. “As a group we are really keen to continue the momentum that we created last year and the boys have been working hard in our trainings and in club rugby, so now it is time for us to bring it all together,” Gibbes told Buck...More

UPDATED: The 2018 club rugby season is coming to a close, but the representative season is merely warming up. There is also plenty of secondary school post-season knockout rugby coming up soon, as school teams aim to qualify for the National Top 4 tournament in Palmerston North in early September and later the Condors Sevens tournament in Auckland in early December. A full programme of Hurricanes Youth Council U16, U18, and U19 rugby starts this coming weekend and runs through to the start of October...More

St Pat's Town celebrates centre Emin Kaya's match-winning try on fulltime against Scots College. Reports of the two semi-finals below.  Top qualifier St Pat’s Silverstream and third-ranked St Pat’s Town will meet in next Sunday afternoon’s Wellington Premiership First XV final at Jerry Collins Stadium after winning today’s two semi-finals. Silverstream accounted for Wellington College 34-12 in one semi-final, while St Pat’s Town pipped Scots College 33-26 in the other...More

Top qualifier the HOBM Barbarians host fourth-placed Old Boys University in one First Grade semi-final tomorrow. The Premier club rugby season might be over but there are still two final weeks left to go and a handful of trophies to be given out at club level, and college finals happening as well.       First Grade   After sitting idle last weekend, it’s the semi-finals in the Johnsonville Centennuim Cup, with both matches in the Hutt Valley. First-round winners the HOBM Barbarians again put their season-long unbeaten streak on the line and up against a familiar foe in the OBU Wolfpack...More

From losing Premier Reserve finalist to Jim Brown Memorial Medal winner - Alex Barendregt couldn’t even dream up that reality in Amsterdam coffee shop. On Saturday, the Billy Goats loosehead, affectionately known as “Dutchie”, became the only prop since All Black Jeff Toomaga-Allen in 2012 to win the player of the match in the Jubilee Cup final. Old Boys University beat Norths 37-31 at the Petone Rec. Barendregt was so overwhelmed by his personal triumph he only managed to exclaim a stunned expletive upon receiving the prize...More

Above: Johnsonville's Tietie Tuimauga is on the bench for this match to play Tasman. Four players involved in Saturday’s Jubilee Cup final, including Club Rugby’s Premier Player of the Year Du’Plessis Kirifi, have been named in a Wellington Lions XV to play Tasman in their second NPC pre-season fixture in Blenheim on Thursday. As well as Kirifi, Teariki Ben-Nicholas, Dale Sabbagh and Joel Hintz also make the trip to Renwick Park. Hurricanes squad members Peter Umaga-Jensen, TJ Va’a, Isaia Walker-Leawere, James Blackwell and James O’Reilly join Highlanders representative Thomas Umaga-Jensen in the starting XV...More

Above: Greg Foe in action in his side's recent 50-26 win over Jubilee Cup semi-finalist Hutt Old Boys Marist. “I couldn't sit back and drop lip about it. I had to stay occupied and keep a positive head,” Greg Foe answered when questioned about what he learnt breaking his arm before the NPC last year. Foe missed the entire NPC competition but has bounced back positively winning the 2018 Wellington club rugby Best & Fairest competition. Foe finished the season on 23 points in the Billy Wallace competition, which is named after the former Poneke and Wellington fullback of the early 1900s who was named in an all-time best Wellington XV at the turn of the millennium...More

Above: The dance of the mudlarks. Poneke holds on to beat Petone 13-10 in their 2010 Jubilee Cup semi-final, to book a place in the following week's final against Northern United. In association with Lovelocks Sports Bar on Bond Street in Wellington, some highlights from this week in Wellington club rugby history are below. 6 August 2016: Tawa have held on in a nail-biting Jubilee Cup final to edge Marist St Pat’s 24-20 at Porirua Park. However, Tawa’s defence holds strong to the end...More

The Marist St Pat's Premier Reserves after their extra time final win over Oriental-Rongotai on Saturday. More details below. Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max, Lovelocks Sports Bar,  Motor Doctors and Sarah Kilner Real Estate  Looking at some of the news in briefs, milestones, happenings, statistics and observations from the weekend of rugby just gone and what’s coming up this week. Bumper crowds ringing the four fields, traffic jams on the Wellington-Petone motorway, kind weather and plenty of hard-fought rugby and the eight cups and trophies split between six clubs...More