Kick-off of the 2018 Wellington club rugby happens this coming weekend with a full slate of Premier Swindale Shield and Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield matches, all taking place at Upper Hutt’s Awakairangi and Maoribank Parks.     A: Age-Grade Some of the best rugby going around last year could be found in the Colts grade, where talented youngsters flashed their wares each week. In the end Petone claimed the Paris Memorial/John E Kelly Cup double but only after roaring back from 3-20 down at halftime to beat Old Boys-University 36-20 in the final, while Ories and Tawa also had fine seasons...More

"If my matches against the Crusaders finished in the 79th minute, I would have won most of them," Gareth Evans rues when reflecting on his previous encounters against the Super Rugby champions. Last year Evans featured for the Highlanders in both of their narrow losses to the Crusaders. An outrageous Mitchell Hunt dropped goal in Christchurch and a Seta Tamanivalu try in Dunedin denied the Highlanders late on both occasions. The Crusaders have won 19 of their last 20 matches and have scored convincing victories against the Chiefs and Stormers to start 2018...More

I'll make the stupid call so you don't have to. Canes to beat Crusaders this Saturday. Stupid of course because the home side is coming off a less than stellar opening away tour, one win, one loss. Stupid of course because they've largely played like a team still in pre-season, with frustrating glimpses of what is in store. Stupid because they are up against the champions who have so far made it two from two, and at times impressively. But then, there is no doubting this is a big match. And the Hurricanes need a big match...More

With several fresh faces making their debuts, the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles are confident of a strong showing in Auckland this weekend at the annual New Zealand Marist Federation’s Spillane Cup tournament. The Auckland Marist club is hosting the 87th Spillane tournament, with HOBM and the hosts joining leading clubs from Hawke’s Bay, Canterbury, North Harbour, Taranaki, Waikato and Counties Manukau. There are five trophies being contested this year, the Spillane Cup (Division 1), Ham Cumming Cup (Division 2), Moran Cup (Colts), Liston Cup (President's) and Women's...More

Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max , Lovelocks Sports Bar and Motor Doctors 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. ***** On Saturday, touring Argentina club San Carlos played Petone at North Park in Colts, Premier Reserve and Premier matches. The Premier match ended in a pulsating 36-36 draw, with a large crowd and the Argentina, Chile and Cuba ambassadors in attendance...More

Above: St Pat's Silverstream's Kienan Higgins evades Hastings BHS trio Danny Toala, Devan Flanders and Lincoln McClutchie last year in the Hurricanes schools final. The three Hastings players all start tomorrow with Higgins on the bench. A current All Black and a clutch of up and coming players headline the Hurricanes U20 side to face the Blues U20s at the Suburbs Rugby Club in Auckland at 1.00pm on Saturday. The Blues side lost to the Chiefs 17-29 last weekend in Waihi, while the Hurricanes U20s will be playing their first match together this year...More

Above: Tawa and Oriental-Rongotai met last weekend. Tomorrow Tawa plays Marist St Pat’s and Ories plays Wainuiomata in two pre-season fixtures. Photo by David Brownlie Photos Tomorrow marks two weeks before the 2017 Wellington club rugby season gets underway. The Premier Swindale Shield and Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield competitions start in Upper Hutt in a Gala Day opening on 17 March. There has been no competitive rugby in Wellington since last November’s American Ambassador’s 7s series, so players and supporters alike will be itching to hit the ground running...More

Where are you Phil Kearns? Your country may not need you but the Hurricanes do. We need your fat jokes. Your unfit jokes. Anything will do to rub salt into the wound.  Yes, what to make of the 21-19 opening loss at Pretoria. Well, for one thing, the hurricane is clearly not a weather system designed for high altitude. We saw that in Joberg last year. Surprising that a team, even so, at the start of the season should run out of gas but so it seems. It was by no means a down trou of Canberra proportions, so it was good to see Chris Boyd rank it where he saw it...More

The alarming proliferation of cards in Super Rugby is showing no signs of abating. There were 49 more cards in Super Rugby last year than what they were in 2016. In the first full round of 2018, there were 10 cards in seven games and in four of those games the cards had a massive bearing on the final result. In fact of the 439 points scored across all matches last weekend, 149 or a third were scored when one side was undermanned.   The only match which featured no cards was the entertaining and competitive tussle between the Brumbies and Sunwolves...More

UPDATE: The Hurricanes Development XV destroyed the Crusader Knights 71-36 in Sunday's match.  Above: Former St Pat's Silverstream and Hutt Old Boys Marist player Chase Tiatia starts at fullback for the Hurricanes Development side. A number of regular Premier club rugby players from Wellington and other regions are set to take the field for the Hurricanes Development side against the Crusaders Knights this weekend. The match is at Linfield Park, Christchurch, on Sunday at 1.00pm. The starting XV named to face the Knights includes six players that were often seen in Wellington club rugby in 2017...More