Petone narrowly lost a gripping encounter with Buenos Aries’ Club Newman at North Park today, after leaping to a 14 point lead early in the second half.   Leading by 26-12 with 20 minutes to play, it looked for all money that the home side had done enough to inflict defeat on the Argentinian tourists who struggled with ill-discipline for much of the match.   Playing into a strengthening northerly breeze which swept dust-devils across the ground, the URBA Top 14 side were first to score, when left wing Jose Pena sprinted into a gap following a line-out maul inside Petone’s 22 metre zone, for the first of his two tries of the afternoon...More

It’s the competition that stops Wellington. As part of our commitment to covering all rugby from the ground up, Club Rugby is pleased to be partnering with Te Upoko O Te Ika in 2017. Thanks to Te Upoko’s team of commentators and community rugby analysts, Club Rugby will now be coming over the airwaves. Club Rugby and Te Upoko’s coverage in 2017 will include club rugby, representative rugby and sevens tournaments and First XV and schools rugby. Wellington-based but on the road too, such as next weekend’s Te Tini a Maui Central Maori Rugby tournament in in Masterton...More

It's stating the obvious that you don't win Super Rugby in round one, or round two. I mean, you can even lose your first two games and wind up 2016 champions. But you can certainly dig yourself a nice little hole by dropping a game early. It always feels like you're in a bit of a catch-up after that, like your team's muffed a Formula One start and got itself stuck in the pack. Especially if it's against a weak side, and you're in the NZ conference, because clawing games back off them won't ever be easy...More

Above: Peniasi Tokakece scoring a key try for Marist St Pat's against Tawa in their 2015 semi-final.  As part of the build-up to the start of the 2017 Premier club rugby season (starting in 18 days), we’re recapping some of the memorable tries in Wellington Premier club rugby over the past 15 years or so. There’s been approximately 10,000 tries scored in this period, so these are just the tip of the iceberg and ones that stuck out or we reported from our vantage point on halfway or through our camera lens...More

The story begins 123 years ago, in 1894. This was the year that the New Zealand Rugby Union established a Referee’s Association based on the rules and papers of the Queensland Referees Association. The first Branch of the New Zealand Referee’s Association (as it was called) was established in Nelson in May 1894. This was closely followed by Marlborough and then by Wellington, on the 25th of May of that year. As was reported in the press, “it was formally decided to form a Wellington Branch on the motion of Mr de Costa, seconded by Mr Hodgings who was appointed the local Secretary...More

In an interesting move, Ross Bond has been appointed as the Wellington Pride head coach for 2017. Bond replaces James Porter, who coached the team to the Women’s NPC Farah Palmer Cup final in 2015 and again coached them in 2016. He is now Petone’s CCO. Bond is a long-time Wellington Premier club coach, having guided Poneke, Northern United and Marist St Pat’s teams over the past decade and a half. He first won the Jubilee Cup with Poneke in 2003. Most recently, he coached beaten Jubilee Cup finalists MSP in 2016...More

Touring Argentinian club side Club Universidad de Buenos Aires (C.U.B.A.) defeated Old Boys University nine tries to three in a special international club rugby pre-season fixture at Prince of Wales Park this afternoon. The match was divided into four 20-minute quarters and featured rolling substitutions without conversions. At the end of the third quarter the tourists held a narrow 15-10 lead, but the floodgates opened in the final quarter as OBU mistakes piled up and the visitors’ confidence grew...More

Above: A group of past and present members of the Johnsonville Rugby Club parade down a street in Johnsonville, in decade groups, as part of the club's Jubilee in 1950. Photo credit below.  Editor’s note: This article is an updated version of one published in December 2013 Going into the 2017 season, the Wellington Rugby Football Union has 17 member clubs affiliated to it, all of who have had at least one team taking part in the WRFU’s competitions; but what of the history of the club game in the capital? A perusal of the lists of championship winners, and the names engraved on the Jubilee and Hardham Cups themselves, reveal a number of names that have since disappeared; and many other names have also come and gone from the roll of clubs...More

After two years in the Men’s NPC Championship division the bell is chiming for the Wellington Lions. Former head coach Andre Bell returns in 2017 as the Wellington Lions assistant coach. Bell teams up with new head coach Chris Gibbes who returns from Connacht in Ireland. This pair takes the reins for the next two seasons. It is understood that former Wellington Lions head coach and High Performance Director Earl Va’a has resigned his role for a sweet deal at Coca-Cola in Japan. In addition to the Lions coaching appointments, former Tawa Premier Head Coach and ex-Hurricanes and All Blacks lock lock Dion Waller will be the Wellington Development Team’s head coach in 2017...More

Above: The Hurricanes after their pre-season win over the Crusaders in Waverley last Friday. Photo by Dave Lintott Photography - more photos of the match here I'm sure you've got over the heartbreak of last year. Second year in a row that the Canes reached the final of Super Rugby - and lost. Not that it wasn't pretty epic, but was there ever a bigger heartbreaker than watching Elton Jantjes skid through to score in the 81st minute, after six minutes of desperate lung-busting defence at Ellis Park...More