Frantic Final Fortnight In Jubilee Cup

A frantic final fortnight of regular season Jubilee Cup rugby is in store for supporters with six of the chasing seven teams behind leaders Marist St. Pat's still in the hunt to varying degrees for this year's semi-finals.

Last weekend Marist St. Pat's officially became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals when they defeated Upper Hutt 34-0 at Evans Bay Park for their 15th straight win, and they now have an eleven-point buffer on the points table to Poneke who currently occupy the all-important fourth place. At the other end of the table, OBU became the first team to drop out of the race when they suffered their fourth defeat of the second round to Northern United. With four competition points only the best OBU can finish is fifth, the same spot they have ended up in each of the past two seasons.

In this week's crucial sixth round of Jubilee Cup matches, MSP and OBU meet each other at the Basin Reserve, in the only encounter of the four that won't affect the fortunes of the other six teams in their bids to secure the remaining three playoff spots. The only thing at stake in this match will be MSP playing for the right to host a semi-final with a week to spare, while OBU are the only team to have beaten them all season when they prevailed 20-10 on Gala Day in week one and will be hoping for a repeat result.

Defending champions Hutt Old Boys Marist are also sitting on one win from five games, but can still sneak into the top four if they win this week away at the Polo Ground to Oriental Rongotai then topple MSP a week later at home. For a team struggling to fire on all cylinders as it is, their fortunes would also be reliant on either Poneke or Upper Hutt not winning with bonus points this weekend and then losing in the last round to either Norths or Ories respectively.

Both HOBM and Ories fans will take a keen interest on the outcome of the another key clash this weekend between Poneke and Upper Hutt at Kilbirnie Park, where the winner will head into the closing set of games next week in fourth position and in the box seat for the semi-finals. But the loser will be leapfrogged by either Ories or HOBM into fifth, potentially setting up an explosive final weekend for all these teams involved.

Meanwhile it's a similar story in the Hardham Cup, where clear leaders Tawa will be playing for a home semi-final this weekend but six of the seven teams are locked in a tight struggle for the remaining three semi-final spots up for grabs. In games this weekend, joint second placed MSP B and Wainuiomata square off at Evans Bay Park, the Wests Roosters travel to Maoribank Park to play Rimutaka, Tawa meet Norths at Lyndhurst Park and Avalon and Johnsonville try to stay alive against Avalon at Helston Park.

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