Above: TJ Perenara will captain the Hurricanes for the first time, this weekend against the Blues in Eketahuna. From London to Eketahuna – five 2015 RWC winning All Blacks will come out to play on Saturday for the first time since their World Cup final win over the Wallabies last year. Fullback Nehe Milner-Skudder (Varsity), wing Julian Savea (Oriental-Rongotai), first five-eighth Beauden Barrett (Coastal), TJ Perenara (Northern United) and No. 8 Victor Vito (Marist St Pat’s) will all take the field for the Hurricanes against the Blues at Eketahuna...More

Above: Alapati Leiua scored four tries for Northern United against the Wests Roosters in this tenth round Swindale Shield match in 2009. The tries came thick and fast throughout the 2009 Swindale Shield. Of the 98 Premier Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup individual try-scoring hat-tricks and the 27 Premier 2 Hardham Cup try hat-tricks in Wellington club rugby in the decade between 2006-15, few could top some of those scored throughout the first round competition in 2009. In the first half of the 2009 season, a group of players seemingly caught white line fever all at once...More

Above: Upper Hutt Rams captain Murphy Taramai tears up the sideline in his side’s 28-5 Cup semi-final win over Awanui at the National Club Sevens on Sunday. Taramai, who departs for North Harbour soon, signed off with a 24-34 loss to Waikato club Melville in the final.  Waikato club sevens champions Melville are now New Zealand’s champions. Melville have won the 2016 Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup with a 34-24 win over Wellington’s Upper Hutt Rams in the final played at a hot and dusty William Jones Park, Wainuiomata, this afternoon...More

Day two National Club Sevens Bowl and Cup quarterfinal matches (Sunday 7 February): Bowl Quarterfinals Poneke v Hamilton Marist, 9.17am Mount Maunganuui v Old Boys University, 9.34am Wainuiomata Bye Tauranga Sports Bye Cup Quarterfinals Melville v Marist St Pat’s, 10.08am Rangataua v Karaka, 10.25am Upper Hutt Rams v Nelson Wanderers, 10.42am Suburbs v Awanui, 10.59am Auckland champions Suburbs staked their claim as the team to beat on day two tomorrow after impressing with their pace and organisation in their three wins on the opening day of the tournament today at William Jones Park-Wainuiomata...More

The National Club Sevens is this Saturday and Sunday at William Jones Park, Wainuiomata. The tournament runs all day Saturday and on Sunday from 9.00am to mid-afternoon, with the men’s Cup final scheduled for 2.23pm on Sunday when the 2016 Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup champion will be crowned. Who will be this year’s winner? Despite the late withdrawals of Manawatu champion Feilding Old Boys-Oroua and Hawke’s Bay contenders Napier Pirates, many of the country’s best sevens rugby clubs will be vying for the title...More

Many of New Zealand’s leading sevens rugby clubs are entered in this coming Waitangi weekend’s New Zealand Club Sevens tournament at William Jones Park, Wainuiomata, including 16 clubs in the men’s division and a small group in the inaugural women’s competition. As defending champions of the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup, Wainuiomata are hosting the tournament. Last year they won the tournament at the tournament hosted by 2014 winners Rangataua, who are entered this year along with leading Bay of Plenty fifteens sides Mount Maunganui and Tauranga Sports...More

Above: Upper Hutt Rams right wing Cory Jane was the last player to score a Super Rugby hat-trick for the Hurricanes, against the Reds in 2014. After 20 years of Super Rugby, the competition is expanding to 18 teams in 2016. As we look forward to the start of this year’s competition that kicks off at the end of February, we’ve taken a look at the some of the Hurricanes players that have lit up Super Rugby thus far. There were 11 hat-tricks by Hurricanes players in the first 20 years of Super Rugby, including three in one season in 1997, the year the Hurricanes first made the semi-finals, and two in 2012, the year the Hurricanes scored 58 tries...More

It was a Marist St Pat’s one-two at the New Zealand Marist Federation Club Sevens tournament this weekend, with the two MSP teams squaring off in the Cup final at Wakefield Park on Sunday afternoon. MSP’s top side ran away with a 51-10 Cup final win over their club mates, after earlier edging out Hutt Old Boys Marist 14-12 in their Cup semi-final in a match that saw both sides score two tries but MSP converting both of theirs.  MSP’s second side [MSP Blue] had defeated Whakatane Marist 26-14 in their Cup semi-final...More

Above: action from last year’s final between winners North Harbour Marist and Hutt Old Boys Marist Many of the country’s Marist clubs plus composite North Island and Southland teams descend on Wellington this weekend for the 20th annual New Zealand Marist Federation Club Sevens tournament. The tournament returns to Wakefield Park, after a successful event on the two new artificial surfaces there last year. The tournament runs over two days on Saturday and Sunday from early morning to early afternoon, fitting in with the international Sevens on both afternoons at Westpac Stadium...More

After 20 years of Super Rugby, the competition is expanding to 18 teams in 2016. As we look forward to the start of this year’s competition that kicks off at the end of February, we’ve taken a look at the some of the Hurricanes players that have lit up Super Rugby thus far.Over 200 players have worn the Hurricanes jersey in 20 years of Super Rugby and exactly 15 have worn the captain’s armband. Dane Coles leads the team into 2016, having made his captaincy debut in one match last season...More