Above: Home team St Pat's Silverstream Second XV and Tawa College meet tomorrow in the final of the Premier 2 Murray Jensen Cup. It might be a week later than initially planned, but tomorrow sees the conclusion of the local college rugby season. St Patrick’s College Silverstream is once again the venue, where twelve more grade winners will be determined. Fourteen schools will have at least one team in action at Silverstream, with the host school leading the way with 5 and looking for a clean sweep of the day’s big prizes...More

The scoring Otago: 44 (Matt Faddes, Tom Franklin, Sam Anderson-Heather, Jack Wilson, Michael Collins tries; Fletcher Smith 5 con 2 pen; Scott Eade 1 pen) Wellington Lions: 21 (Wes Goosen, Shaun Treeby, Matt Proctor tries; Jackson Garden-Bachop 3 con) The round-up The omens were alarming from the outset when Wellington conceded two penalties for the same offence. Brad Shields and Vaea Fifita shelled high kicks by Fletcher Smith and the cover defence retrieved the ball in offside positions. Smith was unable to punish Wellington for those transgressions, but the points soon flowed for the hosts as Wellington's breakdown inaccuracy and leaky defence was brutally exposed...More

It takes some doing, but on Saturday night, I felt genuinely sorry for the Wallabies.  If this had been a boxing match, they would have called it off in the 4th round, just to stop something - like Wallabies rugby - dying. As it was, they survived the second 40, probably because there was no provision to give the entire team a concussion test at halftime. That was a devilishly good All Black first 40, that no tier-one opponent could have stuck with. But then you have to say the Wallabies are starting to cling on to that status by their fingernails...More

Above: Hunter Prescott playing against Poneke in the annual Jimmy Grbich Shield match earlier this year. photo by Caswell Images.  Earlier this year Oriental-Rongotai hooker Hunter Prescott left the Polo Ground and made the move up to Palmerston North. After playing 10 straight games for Ories in Wellington’s club rugby Swindale Shield competition, the former Scots College captain transferred to Manawatu in a bid to play National Provincial Championship rugby. “There was a log-jam of hookers in Wellington and the likes of Leni Apisai, Asafo Aumua and James O'Reilly [now at Bay of Plenty] are all good players so I had in the back of my mind that I might look somewhere else,” Hunter explained...More

The Wellington U19's won the inaugural Graham Mourie Cup at the National Jock Hobbs Memorial event in 2014. Last year they underwhelmed and finished fifth. Leading up to the 2016 tournament, Club Rugby will profile some of the young Lions who are likely to feature in the tournament and who are the future of the game in the capital. Ivan Fepuleai has had the misfortune of losing three finals by a combined margin of 10 points at the Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua. Twice he suffered last-minute defeats to Wellington College (2013) and Scots College (2014) while a member of the St...More

The Wellington Samoa Rugby Union (WSRU) is holding the first of two trials this coming Saturday for its U18 representative team. Over 70 players (see names below) have been selected from an initial nomination pool of over 100 to play in this weekend’s first trial at Ngatitoa Domain. From this group – some will be playing for their schools in this weekend’s secondary school finals – a group of 44 players will play in the second trial next Saturday, which also coincides with the WSRU’s inaugural Old Timers’ Day at the Paremata-Plimmerton RFC...More

Above: Wellington and Otago play for the Mke Gibson Memorial Trophy at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Thursday night. Photo: Dave Lintott Photography. Since the National Provincial Championship’s inception in 1976 the Wellington Lions and Otago have had many tight NPC battles over the years, such as these two matches highlighted below. 1986: Wellington 30 – Otago 6 In 1986 the Lions went through unbeaten to win the competition, starting with an opening round 30-6 win over Otago. The following week they beat defending champions Auckland 23-12 at home in front of a crowd of 25,000, setting up a string of wins...More

The scoring Wellington Lions 36 (Alex Fidow, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Galu Taufale, Joe Hill, Greg Foe tries; Jason Woodward con, Garden-Bachop 2 con, pen) Hawke's Bay 26 (Billy Rohipa, Fa'alemiga Selesele, Geoff Cridge, Ryan Tongia tries; Ihaia West 2 con) HT: 7-12. The round-up The Wellington Lions have avenged their heart-breaking Championship final loss in 2015 to beat the Hawke's Bay Magpies at McLean Park in Napier 36-26. The second half was played at a frantic pace, with a combined 43 points being scored between the two teams, though it was Wellington who scored 29 of those to record a bonus point victory in their first competitive hit-out of the season...More

UPDATED: The curtain came down on the 2016 Wellington club rugby season today in typically dramatic fashion with three lower grade finals that were all only decided late in the piece. The Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles came from behind with a late long-range try to pip Poneke 25-20 and win the Premier Reserve Division 1 Ed Chaney Cup final on the neutral Petone Recreation Ground (report below). Across the hill at William Jones Park, home side Wainuiomata defeated Oriental-Rongotai 23-15 to win the Premier Reserve Division 2 HD Morgan Memorial Trophy...More

Head Coach Mark Rutene has named a talented and experienced line-up to form the Hurricanes Under 19 Barbarians Team, which will compete in the Hurricanes Under 19 Tournament for the Central Region Shield. The team comprises players from Hawkes Bay RFU, Manawatu RFU and Wellington RFU and will play matches against teams from each of these provinces over three consecutive weekends, starting on Saturday, 27 August. The team will assemble for their pre-season Formation Camp at the Sport & Rugby Institute in Palmerston North this weekend, where they will also have a warm-up fixture against the Manawatu Colts...More