What would be your starting XV if the team had to have at least one player from each of the 14 Premier clubs in Wellington? Plus you’re allowed two players from one team to make up the 15 as there are only 14 Premier teams. Also no Hurricanes or Super Rugby players are permitted. And to make the challenge tougher, your team should be different to anyone else's team.  Jack Green was the captain of the Old Boys University Colts Paris Memorial Trophy winning team last year. In 2017 he is in the Premier Reserves and on the brink of premier selection for the Billygoats...More

Above from left to right: Chris Middleton, Fala Tuala and Antony Fox packing down on Saturday against Wainuiomata. If Northern United win this coming weekend’s feature Swindale Shield match against Old Boys University at Nairnville Park then they will all but qualify for the Jubilee Cup. They might even go on and win the first round competition, which they won for the first time in 2003 and last captured in 2011. Lock Chris Middleton was in some of those winning teams, raising the first round silverware in 2007 at Ian Galloway Park and playing a leading role for his side in the famous 10-10 Jubilee Cup final against Marist St Pat’s at Westpac Stadium, before continuing his rugby journey in the Waikato and then in Italy for several seasons before returning home and joining the fire service last year...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 coming week. There’s been a chill in the air this Monday morning as the first sign that winter is approaching. But Wellington’s club rugby supporters can take a breather by the heater and the Premier players and support staff can take stock at the conclusion of the busiest stretch of games this season...More

Northern United played like it was 2010 and beat Wainuiomata 36-5 today at Jerry Collins Stadium, while Oriental-Rongotai knocked over previously unbeaten Old Boys University 32-11 at the Polo Ground to see Northern United shoot to the top of the Swindale Shield standings after eight rounds. Northern United’s entertaining and emphatic bonus point win in dreary conditions and Old Boys University’s first taste of defeat in 2017 puts Northern United on top of the table on 36 points. Ories have leapftogged OBU into second on 35, with the Goats now third on 34...More

Club Rugby is supporting a new organisation that has been established by well-known sporting names and community leaders to promote and support amateur sport in New Zealand. The amateur ethos is the true essence of all sport: playing for the fun, enjoyment, and social aspects in a spirit of healthy competition and strengthening communities. The overwhelming majority of New Zealanders’ participation in sport is centred around amateur clubs and based on amateur values. A decision was made to form The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association at a meeting on Wednesday 26 April 2017...More

With the Anzac Day round in the rear mirror the teams in the top two grades finish the only compact week of the year with tomorrow’s eighth round in both the Swindale and Harper Lock Shields. With the halfway mark in the first-round having been passed, the race and fight is on to be in the top-8 places and qualification for the Jubilee Cup, and tomorrows action features the current top four on the ladder in matches amongst themselves and one of the keenest fought rivalries in local club rugby; with forecast changeable weather perhaps adding a wildcard element...More

Above: Ben Huntley playing for Poneke against Avalon last year at Fraser Park. Photo by Hugh Pretorius. This Saturday Poneke pops across the road to play Marist St Pat’s for the ‘Battle of Kilbirnie’ and for the Horan-Millar Trophy. The match will be extra special for wing/fullback Ben Huntley who will run on to Evans Bay Park to play his 150th Premier game for the red and blacks. We caught up with Huntley ahead of the match. Congratulations on the milestone of 150 games for Poneke...More

The Lions tour will hopefully see some epic rugby. It definitely will see some epic hot air. I mean, let's start with just one pre-tour starter for 10. That this is an incredibly difficult tour. It was I believe Ted who started that off, but Warren Gatland has hardly hosed down the perception. So what does it mean. If as coach you accept it is an IDT, then what are you trying to say to your squad? Are you saying to them that it's okay to drop games. There there, never mind. No, I don't think so...More

 Above: Old Boys University left wing Chris Crichton scores his first Premier try in his first start in competition leaders OBU’s 47-10 win over the Wellington Axemen this afternoon. The Upper Hutt Rams were the day’s biggest winners, while Oriental-Rongotai and Poneke finished all square in two of today’s ANZAC Day Swindale Shield matches that were once played in glorious sunshine throughout the Hutt Valley, Welington and Porirua. The Upper Hutt Rams defeated Avalon 72-6 to retain the Harper Vine Trophy, running away with the match on Maidstone Park after Avalon prop Solomon Tuiano was red carded just before halftime for two head high tackle offences...More

Tomorrow is one of the special days on the WRFU’s calendar, alongside the Jubilee Cup final and Opening Day. Introduced a few years ago Derby Day pits near neighbours, and the two Marist clubs, against each other, with all seven matches also having an interclub trophy at stake. With the round falling on ANZAC Day there will commemorations ahead of each Premier game, and not only is the round the only midweek one of the season, it also represents the halfway mark of the Swindale Shield. Note: As at time of writing team lists had not been submitted...More