Above: Kemara Hauiti-Parapara gets a pass away for Tawa in a recent Swindale Shield fixture at Lyndhurst Park against Wainuiomata. Photo credit: Stewart Baird. With three weeks left to run in the Swindale Shield, Tawa are in a group of several clubs hoping to steer a safe course towards the second round Jubilee Cup. Last year’s New Zealand Secondary Schools halfback Kemara Hauiti-Parapara is one young player in the competition hoping to make a difference for Tawa throughout the remainder of the season...More

"If you've got nothing beyond talent, then you have nothing at all," is an adage that drives Luke Tau'alupe. The Oriental Rongotai No.8 is one of the most promising loose forwards in Wellington, but it hasn't been an easy ascent to that position. August 2011, the sun shines brightly at Wellington College. The atmosphere on Number One has reached fever pitch. It's the final of the annual quadrangular tourney - New Zealand's oldest rugby tournament - and Nelson College are a formidable opponent. The visitors have dominated much of the match, but Wellington clings to an 11-10 lead...More

A Hurricanes flag has appeared opposite where I sit at work, on a scaffolded building. It's a good 40 metres up and like the team; it's had a tumultuous week in the southerlies. I imagine it's well tied on, which is what you'd hope is still the case for the Canes. With the fascinating logjam in the New Zealand conference, everything should be screaming out that WE'RE STILL IN THIS. Considering the team has yet to put out more than the one really good performance, it's largely stayed in touch. Of course the margin for error now is getting smaller, but that's true of every New Zealand conference side...More

Above: From left to right: 1990 winner Hika Reid (Northern United), 1987 winner Dirk Williams (Western Suburbs) and 1988 winner Paul Goodwin (Wellington Axemen). Celebrating 50 years of the Billy Wallace Best and Fairest Wellington Premier club rugby competition. The Billy Wallace competition has been contested annually since its inception in 1966. Players in every Premier match are awarded points on a 3, 2 and 1 basis. Part 5 below profiles the winners between 1986-90: 1986Winner: Allan Hewson Position: FullbackClub: Petone Best and Fairest points accrued: 20About: A second time winner, after previously running away with it in 1979...More

Above: The St Pat's Town and Hastings Boys' High School scrums pack down on Westpac Stadium in round two of the Tranzit Coachlines First XV Festival. Photo by Dave Lintott. Wellington College were the only local school to win their match in the second round of the Tranzit Coachlines Hurricanes First XV Festival on Saturday, played at the Petone Recreation Ground and Westpac Stadium. Wellington College defeated Napier Boys’ High School 21-19, holding on defensively with the last play of the game...More

Above: The teams form a guard of honour for cancer survivors before today's Swindale Shield & Spud Lindsay Memorial Trophy match between Poneke and Wellington Axemen. Photo by Dave Lintott The Upper Hutt Rams remain alive in the race to finish inside the ‘top 8’ and qualify for the 2016 Jubilee Cup after spoiling Wainuiomata’s Old Timers’ Day today with a bonus point 36-29 win, on Wellington club rugby’s inaugural RUCK Cancer Day. Wainuiomata gave up an 18-point lead...More

Just four rounds remain in the Swindale and Harper Lock Shields and perhaps the picture as to where those two trophies will end up, as well as the teams themselves, will be much clearer at full-time tomorrow. There’s also the cream of the lower North Island’s rugby talent on show with the Tranzit 1st XV at the Petone Rec and Westpac Stadium, with defending Wellington champions St Pat’s Town given the honour of playing the curtainraiser to the Hurricanes vs Reds clash against Hastings Boys’ High School...More

After a slow start to this year’s Swindale Shield, perennial contenders Marist St Pat’s have stepped up a gear over the past three weeks with wins over Hutt Old Boys Marist (27-14), Northern United (64-15) and Tawa (31-20). The Red Machine is now safely ensconced inside the ‘top 8’, albeit 15 points back from clear-cut leaders Old Boys University, and favoured to ease into this year’s Jubilee Cup competition at the end of the 13-round Swindale Shield. It’s no coincidence that MSP’s mid-round form surge is in part due to the return of halfback Peter Sciascia, the most experienced halfback in the competition returning after the best part of 12 months off after breaking his leg against Poneke in early April 2015...More

From Nairnville Park to Westpac Stadium - Old Boys University's Wes Goosen will be starting for the Hurricanes on Saturday night instead for OBU against Tawa earlier in the day.  Goosen has been named to make his Investec Super Rugby debut against the Reds in a Hurricanes team missing five players who have been stood down for breaching team protocols. Goosen, 20, takes over on the left wing from Julian Savea in one of five changes to the team that ran out against the Sharks in Durban.Jason Woodward comes into the starting fifteen on the right wing for Cory Jane, Matt Proctor returns at centre, Blade Thomson replaces Victor Vito at No 8 and Callum Gibbins takes over at openside from Ardie Savea...More

Beaten 2015 national finalists Scots College and Wellington College are both looking for their first wins, while the two St. Patrick’s Colleges will be out to make it two from two when the Tranzit Coachlines First XV Festival resumes in Wellington on Saturday. Scots College were well beaten by a gun Hastings Boys’ High Side in the series opener in Palmerston North last weekend, the Hawke’s Bay school well-drilled and possessing an impressive halfback-first five-eighth combination in swamping Scots College 53-12...More