I know there's a bit of unease over the casualty rate in the All Blacks' potential backline for the Lions series. But we're worrying about the wrong thing. It's the piano movers, big rigs and poachers where the clash will be decided. And the good news is that so far so good - the key forwards are firing and the back-ups are doing the job too. You see, we'll probably put together a backline regardless that will edge the Lions for creativity. That may well be the reason we win. But if they don't see any ball, and spend their time tackling and it rains (it never rains in Wellington but two of the tests are in Auckland) then it could easily swing the other way...More

Sam Coventry blames "injuries to key players" as the main reason behind Old Boys University's exit from the Jubilee Cup before the semi-finals last year. "It went down to the wire, but we just couldn't gel us a unit with all the personnel changes," he believes. Already in 2017, Joe Beech, Joe Hill, Hugh Renton, Maile Koloto, Agustin Escalona, Wes Goosen, Alex Coventry and Reece Plumtree are among the players consigned to the sidelines with injuries or unavailable for selection. The Billy Goats have scored two impressive wins to start the Swindale Shield, inculding an emphatic win over Jubilee Cup Champions Tawa on Saturday...More

Above: George Hinaki (left) and Dave Painter at Maidstone Park on Saturday. Photo credit: Peter McDonald. As it has been every match-day for the past three decades, Saturday was shaping up to be another busy afternoon at the club for Upper Hutt Rams’ Premier team masseuse and strapper Dave Painter. Pulling into the carpark ahead of the first home match of the new season for the Rams’ Premier and Premier Reserve sides and then throughout the curtain-raiser match, he had no inkling of what was to come...More

Above: New Zealand U20 player Alex Fidow playing club rugby on Saturday. Photo by Hugh Pretorius.   The New Zealand Under 20 squad to travel to the Gold Coast, Australia next month for the Oceania Under 20 tournament, has been named.    New Zealand Under 20 Head Coach Craig Philpott said that he was pleased with the talent available for the tournament which will see them play Test matches against Australia, Fiji and Samoa in an expanded Oceania Tournament starting on April 28.   “This is a very experienced squad we are taking to the Oceania under 20s...More

A new series for Mondays looking at some of the news in briefs, milestones, happenings, statistics and observations from the weekend of rugby just gone. Off the Ball is in association with Rob Law Max and Lovelocks Sports Bar  On Saturday, the Maidstone Park stand was named after two local servants of the game. David “Paints” Painter (Upper Hutt) and George Hinaki (Rimutaka) were surprised and humbled to be the centre of attention at the unveiling of the new Painter-Hinaki Grandstand...More

This week, Club Rugby sat down with Marist St Pat’s Coaching Development Officer, Kas Lealamanua (above left, with Toki Service's Jacob Ellison), to discuss his work with the Wellington based Sports company "Toki Services".  Many Wellingtonians will know Kas as a stalwart MSP player, winning five Jubilee Cups over the years and having clocked up a very impressive career representing the Wellington Lions and Hawke’s Bay provincial sides and also plying his trade overseas for English club Coventry and French club Biarritz...More

Above: The Johnsonville Hawks celebrating their first win in the Swindale Shield since 2015, after beating Paremata-Plimmerton in round two this afternoon.  The 2017 Swindale Shield took off with a bang today, with a series of exciting matches and a couple of surprise results, all to suggest that supporters are in for another cracking season of club rugby. Five teams - the Upper Hutt Rams, Old Boys University, Oriental-Rongotai, Northern United and Wainuiomata - are unbeaten after two rounds, while Johnsonville and Petone each grabbed their first wins of the year...More

Wainuiomata halfback Frae Wilson gets a pass away in his team's narrow opening weekend win over Avalon. Tomorrow, they host Hutt Old Boys Marist at William Jones Park. A juicy early season clash takes place at leafy Lyndhurst Park tomorrow, between home side and Jubilee Cup title holders Tawa and defending first round Swindale Shield champions Old Boys University. Last year Old Boys University became the fourth Swindale Shield winner of the past four seasons and also the second consecutive incumbent Jubilee Cup holder after HOBM in 2015 to also win the following year’s Swindale Shield...More

Former Northern United junior player and St Pat’s Town student Jared James is the only foreigner in an all Japanese rugby team, Shizuoka Rugby Club. 24-year old Jared recently graduated from Victoria University before heading to Japan to teach English. It wasn’t until a workmate suggested he should play rugby that he rediscovered the sport. Rugby has been an opportunity for Jared to find a support system and friends in Japan. Next month a small team of kiwi filmmakers will travel to Japan to shoot a documentary about grassroots rugby...More

What a satisfying win on Saturday night - but before we get too carried away, a couple of things of ponder. That wasn't the Highlanders of old. Injury hit, they still stuck in the game for nigh on sixty minutes of course - but leaked like a sieve in the end. But that's not the biggie. Just how would we have gone if the remorseful TJ had ended up with red, not a yellow? As he clearly feared was going to be the case. I think it would have been a much scarier second half, albeit that the Canes did score a cracking try when down to 14 men...More