Aotea College has been somewhat lucky in reaching this year’s YouthTown Condor 7s. St Mary’s College's dominance of Wellington and National Secondary Schools rugby in the past two seasons has opened up the draw for another capital team and Aotea, after an arduous fundraising campaign, have earned their trip to Sacred Heart College, Auckland. Aotea coach Findlay Malaga Mali'i Siania insists Aotea is not attending to “merely make up the numbers.” “We have a good support crew going up which includes 2016 Captain Eve Siania with the and past players Litia Sene Lui and Liana Seiuli who helped coached the Under-15 girls in 15s...More

Two one-day sevens tournaments in Napier and in Pukekohe this Saturday feature clubs and representative teams from throughout the North Island. The first is the Napier Old Boys Marist Invitational 7s tournament hosted by the Hawke’s Bay club sevens and fifteens champions. The second is the Counties Manukau Provincial Union hosted by the home union in Pukekohe. Napier Old Boys Marist Invitational 7s tournament The NOBM Invitational 7s tournament features 15 men’s and eight Colts teams from throughout Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Waikato and King Country...More

WRFU MEDIA RELEASE: Last evening WRFU clubs overwhelming voted in favour of removing one team from the Jubilee Cup to create a seven-team competition for 2018 onwards. As a result, the Hardham Cup will now consist of the bottom seven Premier teams at the completion of the Swindale Shield round (up one team from 2017). WRFU Rugby Board Chairman Peter Scott remarked that "this was a significant change in Premier rugby, and the first change to the Jubilee Cup since a six team competition was played in 1995...More

Above: The 1919 Wellington representative team, featuring three Selwyn players, the Shearer brothers and de Clifton WELLINGTON’S “GHOST” RUGBY CLUBS Part 4 – “The All Black Plumbers” – Selwyn Football Club, Thorndon Today, 7 Cottleville Terrace is a well-restored Victorian villa on one of Wellington’s historic Thorndon streets. Over 100 years ago, it was the home of Alexander and Mercy Shearer, whose two sons, Sidney (Sid) and Jack were to become the only All Blacks ever selected from the now long-forgotten Selwyn Football Club, which had a proud 50-year history as an important member of the Wellington Rugby Football Union...More

Above: Tawa and Wellington halfback Kemara Hauiti-Parapara chases Wellington Black player Esi Komaisavai to the tryline in today's Tawa Sevens tournament.  Following in the footsteps of the Lions, the Wellington Sevens team have won a final. Wellington White have thrashed their wider training squad counterparts Wellington Black, 46-5 in the final of the Clockwork Gold Tawa Sevens at Lyndhurst Park. The eight-team tourney was a warm-up event for the Wellington rep squad who compete in the Counties Sevens next Saturday, looking ahead up for the Central Region qualifiers in December and qualification for Nationals in January...More

Above: St Pat's Silverstream's Kienan Higgins gets a pass away with Wellington College's Naitoa Ah Kuoi chasing hard in the Wellington Premiership final in August. NZ Schools Barbarians midfielder Higgins has been named as one of six school players in the Wider Wellington 7s Training squad, while Ah Kuoi was tonight named the CSW Rugby player of the year (see below).  A Wellington Sevens Wider Training Squad has been selected, following the completion of the three-leg American Ambassador’s series at Ngatitoa Domain on Saturday...More

The Schrijvers brothers, Dan with ball in hand and Hayden far left, were both outstanding players today and throughout the three-round Ambassador's Sevens series for the Upper Hutt Rams. Northern United won the third tournament of the American Ambassador’s Sevens, but the Upper Hutt Rams wrapped up the overall series victory at a windswept and dusty Ngatitoa Domain this afternoon. Northern United won their second successive tournament but were too far back in the series standings to win the silverware after losing all their points last weekend by fielding an ineligible player...More

The third and final American Ambassador’s club rugby sevens series tournament is being staged at Ngati Toa Domain tomorrow, and for several teams there’s much to play for. Like last week’s second leg in Wainuiomata, the tournament starts at 9.00am with pool play on two fields simultaneously running through to approximately 3.30pm when the playoff rounds begin. The women’s Cup final is at 4.39pm and the men’s Cup final is slated to get underway at 5.13pm. Like last week, there will be cross pools in the men’s competition to ensure that all teams play four matches each in the pool rounds...More

Above: The St. James’s team of 1911, which came close to winning Wellington’s Senior Championship. Wellington's "Ghost" Rugby Clubs  Part 2 – “A Tale of Three Churches and Three Clubs” – St. John’s, St. David’s, St. James’s Throughout our country’s young history, Rugby Union has often been irreverently referred to as “New Zealand’s official religion”. In many respects, the truth of this statement is stranger than its fictional basis, with many early Wellington rugby clubs based around religious communities...More

I'm seen a few crazy games at the stadium over the decades, but I think none will ever match the Lions' championship-clinching victory. 40-all at fulltime, then three extra time tries, including a classic insano-Savea to cap it off. There really must be something in the DNA of the turf, because as any Wellington follower can attest, there's no province (at Super or NPC level) that can turn from the sublime to the ridiculous so fast. How many times did you think Wellington were pulling away, only for the stubborn Bay of Plenty boys to haul them in...More