Above: Tawa captain TJ Fermanis and his MSP counterpart Issac O’Connor remonstrating with the referee during their recent Jubilee Cup semi-final. Fermanis finished as the Best & Fairest joint winner, while O’Connor was a few points behind after another consistent season on the side of his team’s scrum. This year's third annual Wellington club rugby Billy Wallace Best & Fairest competition starting XV would give most teams a decent crack. Laced with power and passion up front, dynamic loose forwards, attacking flair in the backs and a dollop of experience - plus four players in the forwards who captained their sides this year - it’s a decent representation of the form players from the just completed 20-week Wellington Premier club rugby competition...More

Whilst the Premier, Premier 2 and Women’s grades reached their exciting conclusions for 2015 at Porirua Park on Saturday afternoon, there was plenty of other lower grade rugby being played to get fans horny. Semi-finals will be played next weekend in the Premier Reserve Ed Chaney Cup and HD Morgan Memorial Trophy and the Paris Memorial Trophy Colts competitions, with the First Grade Johnsonville Centennium Cup, and both U85kg Restricted and Reserve grades heading into the playoff zone over the following weeks...More

Defending champions Scots College will play St Pat’s Town in the 2015 WelTec Premiership First XV final next Sunday afternoon at Porirua Park, after each winning their semi-finals today in the wet. In contrasting semi-finals, St Pat’s Town came from behind to pip St Pat’s Silverstream 23-20 in a thriller, while Scots College blasted past Wellington College 41-13 to win the other. St Pat’s Town v St Pat’s Silverstream St. Pats Town 23 (Sefo Numia, Hannon Brighouse, Saia Paese, Willie Schutz) beat St...More

2015 is the Year of the Goat. The Old Boys University Goat, that is. The Old Boys University Goats fans and supporters were dancing in the Porirua Park stand earlier this evening after their team's Wellington Lions centre Wes Goosen plucked a high kick out of the air and scored in the Porirua Park clubrooms corner to take the score in the Jubilee Cup final to 30-20 with several minutes to play. But their hearts were pounding a few minutes later when reserve MSP lock Nick Harrison crashed over to score their third consecutive try of the second half from a forwards drive and evergreen first five-eighth Fa’atonu Fili added the conversion to close the score up to 30-27...More

A committed Northern United held off a fast-finishing Oriental-Rongotai to win the Wellington Women’s Victoria Tavern Trophy at Porirua Park this morning. Northern United won the final 24-22, but not without a scare, as Ories sprung into life over the final several minutes and scored two tries. But first five-eighth Lizzie Goulden was unable to convert the first of these from a handy angle, which would’ve taken the final into extra time. Two tries to Norths in the opening 10 minutes of the match and another early in the second half proved the difference as Norths skipped out to a 17-3 lead at one point...More

Starting with several matches tonight, a big weekend of rugby is anticipated around Wellington. Jubilee Cup Final preview: Old Boys-University v Marist St Pat’s A prominent Old Boys University player remarked under the tunnel at the Basin Reserve earlier this season that if there was a Jubilee Cup after dark then the Goats would win every year. For many in the club, they’d happily stay home on Saturday nights for the rest of the year if they win their first championship since amalgamation over two decades ago...More

Above: Norths captain Helen Collins making in-roads against Ories when they met at the Petone Rec earlier this season. The two heavyweights of the Women’s game will do battle for the third year in a row in the first of three Wellington club rugby finals at Porirua Park on Saturday. Despite being the second qualifier, Norths will have the familiarity of home field as the Women’s Victoria Tavern Trophy decider takes the early stage, replacing the top Colts final on the day’s schedule...More

Above: After almost a decade away in the Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Fiji, Germany and Sri Lanka, Peniasi Tokakece has returned to Marist St Pat's this season and has earned his Premier blazer. Along with first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili, he played in the 2003 Jubilee Cup final. Peniasi Tokakece works in the middle of the night on a construction site. From 9:30pm to 6am he is involved in earthquake strengthening the Majestic Centre on Boulcott Street. The powerful Fijian nomad has considerably strengthened Marist St...More

In 1942 Poneke and Oriental joined forces to compete in the Wellington club championship, owing to the second world war and the depleted numbers playing in the Senior competitions. After going close in their first season, the combined Poneke-Oriental side won the Jubilee Cup in 1943 and again in 1944. For Oriental (later Oriental-Rongotai), the title win was their only success until 2011. Poneke only won it twice more in the next 50 years. So for these proud and long-established eastern suburbs clubs, this win was a big deal despite the war raging overseas...More

Above: Last year's Player of the Jubilee Cup final, Hutt Old Boys Marist lock Steven Bradshaw, with past winners TJ Perenara (2010) and Steven So'oialo (2013) inset. The article below was first published two years ago – we’ve gone through and updated it. The Jim Brown Plate is awarded to the Player of the Jubilee Cup final. Jim Brown was a stalwart of the great Petone teams of the 1960s and 1970, playing over 200 matches for the club and many for Wellington. He was a contemporary of former Petone and All Black captain Andy Leslie, who described the former centre as “one of the best players I played with, and a player with a great rugby brain...More