The two teams from either end of the North Island, Northland and Wellington, meet in Thursday’s fifth round Men’s NPC match in Whangarei, in what is expected to be a fast and furious fixture. Northland beat the Lions 35-5 when the two teams last met in Whangarei in 2014, breaking a nine-match losing streak that spanned the period 2001-2013. Each of those nine wins to the Lions were bonus point victories, highlights being 51-18, 65-12 and 43-19 wins in Wellington in 2002 and 2004 and 2011 and a 41-7 win in Whangarei in 2009...More

Total Touch invites club rugby clubs and players to enter teams for the upcoming 14-week summer touch rugby season. The pre-season tournament on the first day of October is already full, showing the popularity of the sport. Pop down to Wakefield Park from 12-4pm for a cheeky look at how Total Touch run their competitions and the fun being had. The regular season starts on 17 October, with registrations closing on 9 October. Total Touch competitions run at Wakefield Park Monday- Thursday nights, with a women’s grade on Wednesdays...More

Above: Owen Delaney Park in Taupo during the Auckland - Wellington semi-final ths evening. Photo by Dave Lintott Photography Waikato will play Auckland in the Premiership Graham Mourie Cup final and Bay of Plenty will play Counties Manukau in the Championship Michael Jones Trophy final on Wednesday.  Otago and Manawatu will square off for fifth place in the top division.  Day Two results at a glance: Division 1 Graham Mourie Cup: Manawatu 52 - Auckland B 10 Otago 62 - Taranaki 23Waikato 32 - Canterbury 21Auckland A 19 - Wellington 17 Division 2 Michael Jones Trophy Bay of Plenty 31 - Hawke's Bay 8 North Harbour 36 - Southland 24Northland 18 - Heartland XV 8 Counties Manukau 22 - Tasman 11   Auckland (19) v Wellington (17) Auckland: 19 (Jerry Samania try; Oliver Polson 2 pen 1 con Wiseguy Faiane 2 pen Wellington: 17 (Levi Harmon, Losi Filipo, Alex Fidow tries; Sam Fox 1 con) Auckland have made the final for the first time since 2014, defeating Wellington by a whisker...More

Above: Action from the match between the Wellington Samoans and the Welliington Development side on Saturday. In two feature representative rugby matches in the Wellington region today, the Wellington Pride defeated the Bay of Plenty Volcanix 27-0 at Porirua Park and the Wellington Samoans toppled the Wellington Development side 26-17 at the Petone Recreation Ground. In steady rain, the Pride pulled away from Bay of Plenty after leading 5-0 at halftime to seal a four-try bonus point victory and clinch a place in next week’s Farah Palmer Cup semi-finals, leapfrogging Manawatu who lost 22-27 to Canterbury in their last round game this afternoon...More

Wellington: 24 (Reg Goodes 2, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Wes Goosen tries; Jackson Garden-Bachop 2 con) Bay of Plenty: 10 (Terrence Hepetema try, Luke Campbell 1 pen, Dan Hollinshead 1 con). HT: 17-3. Wellington have won their third game in a row, foiling Bay of Plenty 24-10 on a bleak night at the Westpac Stadium. A three-try burst early in the first-half was sufficient to resist a spirited Steamers challenge. The early exchanges were error-ridden as both teams struggled to adjust to the inclement weather...More

The Wellington U19s, Wellington Pride, Wellington Development and Wellington Samoans sides are all in action this weekend at home and in Taupo. The Wellington U19s pulled clear of their Otago counterparts yesterday in their Jock Hobbs Memorial Tournament quarter-final in winning 37-14 and on Sunday they play Auckland A in their semi-final, kick-off 5.00pm. Should they win this, they will contest the final next Wednesday against either Canterbury or Waikato. Read a day one wrap of the U19 tournament here  The Wellington Pride are the headline act in Wellington representative rugby tomorrow, playing their final match of the regular season, against the Bay of Plenty Volcanix at home at Porirua Park...More

Thank God someone has worked out how to beat the All Blacks, because this winning is getting monotonous. You will probably have read England coach  Eddie Jones' comments by now that he has identifiedsignificant weaknesses in the New Zealand team. Sadly he won't be sharing what they are until 2018, when the two teams are due to meet, although no doubt a fair few Englishmen will bolster the Lions party Down Under. Actually I'm prepared to reveal right now how to beat the All Blacks. Essentially it resolves around achieving probably 80 per cent of possession, since no ball, no Beaudy...More

Above: BoP captain and flanker Tuck Waaka on the burst against Wellington on 5 August 1976. Photo Credit: The Evening Post For many seasons Wellington either won their National Provincial Championship fixture against Bay of Plenty or the two sides never met as the Steamers spent most of the 1990s playing in the old NPC second division. But two notable exceptions where in 1976, the inaugural NPC season and which Bay of Plenty won, and in 2004 which was the year that Bay of Plenty took the Ranfurly Shield off Auckland and reached the semi-finals...More

Above: The Graham Mourie Cup is up for grabs at the National U19 tournament. Wellington (2014) and Canterbury (2015) were the first two champions. Who will win this year? Photo credit: Dave Lintott Photography The National Jock Hobbs U19 Memorial tournament is a great showcase of New Zealand's leading age group rugby talent. The third annual event in Taupo starts this Thursday and each of the 16 sides are seeded, playing three games over the course of a week to determine the National Champion. The DJ Graham Award for Player of the Tournament was awarded to openisde flankers Mitchell Karpik (Auckland) in 2014 and Charlie Gamble (Canterbury) in 2015...More

Above: Josh Brown playing for this New Zealand Barbarians Schools against the NZSS Schools late last year. The Wellington U19's won the inaugural Graham Mourie Cup at the National Jock Hobbs Memorial event in 2014, finishing fifth last year. In the last in our U19s profile series before Thursday’s kick-off, we meet loose forward and captain Josh Brown. Josh Brown concedes he was "a bit of a shambles" 18 months ago. He was mixing with the wrong crowd, misbehaving at school and causing more trouble than he should have been...More