“The vibe is really good. Everybody loves each other’s company,” responds Alex Fidow when asked to contrast the differences between the 2016 and 2017 Wellington Lions. With a match remaining in the round robin of the National Provincial Championship, Wellington sits atop the Championship standings and is guaranteed to finish top qualifier earning a home semi-final and hosting rights for the decider should they advance that far. Wellington comprehensively beat Premiership leaders Canterbury and new Ranfurly Shield holders Taranaki and blew a 28-13 lead in their only defeat of the season to Tasman...More

Above: Petone's Piri Paraone showing good late season form, see below for more. Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max , Lovelocks Sports Bar  and Harcourts Johnsonville  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. +++++ And that is the end of the local fifteens season in Wellington, but it’s not all over completely. The Wellington Lions play two, hopefully, three, more matches...More

Wellington: 61 (Trent Renata, Will Mangos, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Asafo Aumua, Wes Goosen, Regan Verney, Sitiveni Paongo, Kemera Hauiti-Parapara tries; Garden-Bachop  4 con, Renata 2 con) Southland 12 (Tim Boys, Mike McKee tries; Greg Dyer con). WHAT HAPPENED Wellington made no fewer than eight changes from the Otago fixture, but still thumped a Southland side that would struggle to make the semi-finals of the Jubilee Cup. Fullback Trent Renata opened the scoring in the 15th minute when Wellington opted to take a scrum instead of a penalty kick and Southland was unable to shut down space on the blind side...More

Both the Wellington Pride and Development teams missed out to their visitors in their matches today at a wet Jerry Collins Stadium. In steady rain, the Wellington Pride were beaten 13-43 by Counties Manukau in the first match of the afternoon. The conditions eased off for the second contest, with the Wellington Development team losing 24-37 to Canterbury Development. Round-ups of both matches are below. Canterbury B (37) v Wellington Development (24) Scoreboard: Canterbury B 37 (Caleb Makene 3, Ben Morris, Jonny Van Der Velde, Nick Hyde tries; Brook Retallick 2 con; Myles Thoroughgood pen) beat Wellington Development 24 (Matt Peni 2, Piri Paraone, Lester Maulolo tries; Pakai Turia con; Paraone con) HT: 19-12...More

As the 15’s season winds down there’s just three sides in action tomorrow with most representative sides having finished up their programs. The Pride and Development sides are both at Porirua Park, while the Lions are in the deep south. Conveniently they are timed so that people could watch all three. First up on Saturday are the Wellington Pride who take on current Farah Palmer Cup champions the Counties-Manukau Heat at 12pm at Porirua Park. The visitors will be rested having had last weekend off, but will have spent that time simmering on their 29-34 loss to Canterbury at home the week before that saw the Mainlanders also take the JJ Stewart Trophy (the Ranfurly Shield equivalent of the Women’s game) back south with them...More

UPDATED: The Hurricanes Under-16 representative tourney concluded at Wanganui Collegiate today with both the Wellington A and Development teams successfully defending their titles from last year. Wellington A beat Hawke’s Bay 31-19 in the final of the Don Broughton Shield to capture that prize for a third successive season while the Wellington Development won the Saracens Cup with a 27-17 win over their Hawke’s Bay equivalent. Manawatu (Division A) and Wairarapa Bush (Division B) finished third in the respective divisions...More

Te Ariki Te Puni had a big presence as head prefect of Palmerston North Boys’ High School in 2016. A vital member of the First XV, he won the prestigious Korimako award at the National Manu Korero speech competition for his address, ‘Stand up for race unity – don't be a bystander.’ Additionally he was an integral part of a spine-tingling haka performed by 1500 Palmerston North Boys' High School students at Pa Dawson's tangihanga that went viral around the world. Dawson, a long-standing teacher at the college, was an uncle of Te Puni who was skyped at midnight by the BBC wearing “his blazer and a pair of shorts” to discuss the meaning and impact of the haka...More

I've got a niggling feeling about the All Blacks transformation into beautiful swans as the Rugby Championship has played out. Some of the attacking footy is phenomenal. Tries are routinely scored that 5 or 10 or 20 years ago would have been considered out of this world good. Now they tend to blur a bit - how do you rate one over the other, when so many are mini-masterpieces. I'd suggest one key rule is that a try scored in a really big match - a World Cup final, a Lions decider, etc - is clearly worth a lot more...More

Tonga Schools: 26 (Heimuli Taufa,Sione Etoni, Hiliau Latu, Nawruz Kanongata’a tries; Etoni 3 con) Wellington Under-18: 24 (Tai Neli 2, Malo Manuao, Kyle Preston tries: Tom Maiava con, Manuao con) The Tonga Schools impressive form in New Zealand continued at Jerry Collins Stadium this afternoon, pipping the Wellington Under-18’s 26-24 in an entertaining and physical spectacle. Tonga leapt out to a 26-12 lead early in the second-half, but were forced to defend stoutly in the last quarter to earn their victory...More

Wellington: 27 (Ben Lam 2, Alex Fidow, Julian Savea tries; Jackson Garden-Bachop 2 con, pen) Otago: 24 (Jonathan Ruru, Vilimoni Koroi tries; Fletcher Smith 4 pen, con). WHAT HAPPENED It wasn’t always pretty, but Wellington did enough to secure a bonus point victory over Otago. Wellington won the game with two tries in five minutes, turning a 17-10 deficit into a 24-17 advantage after 55 minutes. In the 50th minute Otago had a kick charged down on the halfway line. The ball bounced favourably, and in space, for Ben Lam who swerved around the last defender and galloped away to score...More