Teams representing Stokes Valley have been a permanent fixture on Wellington’s rugby fields since the club’s formation in 1949. The club grew to have as many as 11 teams in the early 1990s and the top side played in the Swindale Shield and the Hardham Cup for several seasons. In the past decade, Stokes Valley’s top team has won the Senior 1 (now Premier Reserve) Ed Chaney Cup twice, in 2005 and 2008, while they have also enjoyed success with age-grade and President’s teams...More

Match Details Result: Wellington 24 – Fiji 8 When: 9 August 1980Weather: Cold southerly and showersCrowd: Not known The Tour Fiji had previously toured New Zealand in 1939 and 1951, but had not played any internationals. Similarly, the All Blacks had visited Fiji on three occasions, in 1968, 1974 and 1980 (a few months before this in-bound tour by the Fijians) and rugby in the Pacific was growing. This was a 12-match tour taking in matches against leading provincial opposition as well as a match each the New Zealand Maori side and the New Zealand XV...More

Above: Oriental Rongotai wing Aukuso Tuitama runs in a try early in the second half for his side in today's Jubilee Cup win over Wainuiomata. UPDATED SUNDAY: The Old Boys University Goats have made it five from five in this year’s Jubilee Cup round-robin, qualifying for the Jubilee Cup semi-finals and being just a couple of bonus points away from earning a home semi-final, after pulling clear to beat Petone 38-20 today. Petone led OBU 12-3 early in the match, but the Goats scored a key try just before the break and then refuelled at halftime to run away to win four tries to three...More

Above: After missing out to unbeaten Old Boys University last Saturday, the Marist St Pat’s Premiers will be hoping to steer a course towards the Jubilee Cup semi-finals when they take on the Wellington Axemen at Hataitai Park in the fifth round tomorrow. While the big event of the day is understandably the Super Rugby final at Westpac Stadium between the Hurricanes and Highlanders, there will still be plenty of action at club level to whet the appetite for the evening, with much on the line for sides up and down the grades...More

Looking at 20 memorable Hurricanes matches from the first ever game of Super Rugby in 1996 to last weekend's semi-final win over the Brumbies. 1996: Hurricanes and Blues open Super RugbyThe Hurricanes and the Blues contested the first ever Super Rugby match at Palmerston North. The Blues went on to win their maiden title in 1996 and won it again in 1997; the Hurricanes made the semi-finals for the first time in 1997 and reached their one and only final in 2006. The Blues won this competition opening game 36-28 but Hurricanes midfielder Alama Ieremia scored the first ever Super Rugby try and Hurricanes first five-eighth James Cameron kicked seven penalties and a conversion...More

Above: No way through for Wellington College. Despite several furious second half assaults on the try line by the home team, Nelson College held on to beat Wellington College on penalties in today’s Quadrangular final. St Pat’s Silverstream beat Rongotai College 22-15 and Nelson College defeated Wellington College 6-3 in this afternoon’s First XV rugby matches involving Wellington schools. St Pat’s Silverstream have consiolated second place on the WelTec Premiership table behind unbeaten Scots College with today’s Traditional fixture win over Rongotai College...More

Above: Tawa’s Pati Gaualofa, who recently played his 100th Premier match, playing against Ories in a Swindale Shield match earlier this year. Photo by http://juntanlaycosports.com/ The Jubilee Cup final is a month away, and like every club rugby player, Tawa’s Pati Gaualofa would love nothing more but to raise the Jubilee Cup aloft at Porirua Park after the final. In 2013 Tawa swept all before them to win the Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup titles. As a member of a powerful forward pack, Gaualofa was at the heart of a hugely successful season that saw them win or draw 17 of their 20 matches and go on to defeat Oriental-Rongotai 26-21 in the final...More

Match Details Result: France 14 – Wellington 9When: 30 June 1979Weather: Cool southerly Crowd: 18,000 The Tour In 1961, Waikato fullback Don ‘the boot’ Clarke had famously kicked a sideline conversion into the teeth of a howling gale to clinch a 5-3 win over France at Athletic Park in a Test that became known as the ‘Hurricane’ Test. New Zealand has also beaten France 9-3 there in 1968, but none of these two previous tours included games against Wellington. Thus in 1979, on their third tour to New Zealand, Wellington finally got the chance to play them...More

Above: It was tight in the first half between Northern United and Paremata-Plimmerton on the former's Old Timers' Day, before Norths pulled away to win in the second half. UPDATED: On their Old Timers’ Day at the Basin Reserve, Old Boys-University have won their fourth straight Jubilee Cup match to take an outright lead at the top of the standings and take a significant step towards booking their semi-final place. OBU pulled clear of Marist St Pat’s in the second half to win 29-20 and become the only unbeaten side, after Tawa were pipped on fulltime by Petone 31-30 in their match at Lyndhurst Park...More

Above: It’s Old Timers’ Day tomorrow at Old Boys University, Avalon and Northern United, with home fans at all three venues hopeful of more tries like this being scored. Just four weeks remain in the Jubilee and Hardham Cup round-robins and for some teams their playoff hopes are well alive while for others they are simply hanging by a thread; this weekend could start seeing teams effectively eliminated from the races. Elsewhere the other grades march on, with every game crucial to their chances of playoff rugby...More