Above: Mike Lealava'a scores one of the 656 tries in last year's Swindale Shield competition, for Wainuiomata against Petone.  The 2017 Wellington club rugby season kicks off this coming Saturday. The season starts with the opening round of the Premier Swindale Shield and Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield competitions in Upper Hutt. See below for our pre-season ‘stat attack’. 87 – The number of Jubilee Cups contested. First won in 1929 by University (a forerunner to Old Boys University)...More

Above: Members of the Wellington and Whanganui teams after the Te Tini A Maui tournament decider at Memorial Park. UPDATED: Wellington's Te Upoko O Te Ika have successfully defended the Hikaia Amohia Trophy beating Whanganui 36-22 in the Men’s A Division final of the Central North Island Maori tournament in Masterton this afternoon. Te Upoko O Te Ika surged to a 36-5 lead shortly after halftime, punishing an inaccurate Whanganui. Tawera Rameka-Styles opened the scoring for Te Upoko O Te Ika when fullback Andrew Ellis retrieved a shallow clearance and put his centre in the clear...More

Above: MSP and HOBM met on the first day of the Spillane Cup tournament in Plamerston North today. Photo credit: MSP Facebook  UPDATED: A sodden Saturday around Wellington marked the final weekend of pre-season preperations for teams staying at home, while others were in action around the North Island, ahead of the Gala Day start of the 2017 Swindale Shield at Upper Hutt next weekend. Marist St Pat’s and Hutt Old Boys Marist are both involved in the New Zealand Marist Spillane tournament in Palmerston North this weekend...More

The annual Te Tini A Maui (Central North Island Maori) Tournament is being played in Masterton this weekend, featuring teams from throughout the Hurricanes catchment area. The Te Tini A Maui Tournament dates back 30 years. All Blacks Aaron Cruden, Aaron Smith and, most recently, Nehe Milner-Shudder have all played in previous tournaments. This year representative teams from Wellington, Hawkes Bay, East Coast, Whanganui, Manawatu and Wairarapa-Bush are taking part. The Tournament divisions this year are Senior Men (Tane), Senior Women (Wahine) and U18 (Taiohi)...More

The Spillane Cup is one New Zealand’s oldest inter-provincial club rugby trophies and this year it’s being played for in Palmerston North this weekend. The Palmerston North Old Boys Marist club is set to host the 86th Spillane tournament, with leading Marist clubs from Manawatu, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato, Taranaki, and Whanganui taking part. There are six trophies up for grabs, the Spillane Cup (Division 1), Ham Cumming Cup (Division 2), Brennan Cup (Division 3), Moran Cup (Colts), Liston Cup (President's) and Women's...More

Ricky Riccitelli ventured to Dunedin in 2013 to study at Otago University on "half a promise." Torn between cricket and rugby a surprise visit by Tony Brown to a pre-season rugby fixture soon firmly resolved the direction in which Riccitelli was travelling. "I heard Tony was turning up to have a look at a game and I went hard and completely emptied the tank. I was lucky to get picked up by the Otago Academy where we were up at 5:30am five times a week training. I learned so much about becoming a better rugby player and person down South," Riccitelli recalls...More

As Wellington's Russell Crowe almost tells his cavalry squadron in Gladiator, "If you find yourself alone, watching daytime rugby with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are already dead". So after 24 tries in two games. Are you riding in Elysium? Or curmudgeoning that the season hasn't started yet. I'm with the sun on the face crowd. The Canes can only play what they face, and somewhere down the track, that whopping points differential (and 10 points) will be money in the bank. Of course we won't be the only team to feast out on sunwolf, and rebel roast, but we might as well be first to the banquet...More

Above: Wellington Lions wing Wes Goosen heading for the tryline in last year’s Championship semi-final defeat to North Harbour. Championship contenders the Wellington Lions face Manawatu for the Coronation Cup in Palmerston North on a Sunday afternoon in their Men’s NPC Championship opener this year. The 20 August clash comes a fortnight after the Jubilee Cup final, and is followed the following Saturday by their first home game for the John F Henning Trophy against Taranaki at Westpac Stadium, a fixture that will directly clash with the loads of other representative rugby and First XV rugby on that afternoon too...More

Above: Petone's last competitive Wellington club rugby outing was the Hardham Cup final last August in pouring rain against Hutt Old Boys Marist. Photo by Hugh Pretorius.  The 14 Wellington club rugby Premier teams are busy putting the finishing touches on their preparations for the opening round of Swindale Shield matches next Saturday. Petone, Wellington’s third oldest club and proud winner of 38 Wellington club rugby titles, starts the new season having not won the first round Swindale Shield since 2009 nor the championship Jubilee Cup since 2005...More

Above: Fullback Nehe Milner-Skudder scores one of his three tries for the Hurricanes against the Rebels in 2017.  UPDATE - Most points in a Super Rugby match: 96 Crusaders beat Waratahs 96-19 Christchurch - 200292 Bulls beat Reds 92-3 Pretoria - 200792 Cheetahs beat Sunwolves 92-17 Bloemfontein - 201685 Crusaders beat Rebels 85-26 Christchurch - 201683 Hurricanes beat Sunwolves 83-17 Tokyo – 2017 The top 10 Hurricanes wins ordered by the most points in a Super Rugby match below: 2017: Hurricanes 83 v Sunwolves 17, Tokyo The Hurricanes picked up from where they left off in 2016 in style, thrashing the home side the Sunwolves in their inaugural match against them...More