Another feast of rugby to look forward to on Saturday

Wellington club rugby players and fans alike have barely have had time to come up for air after Wednesday's rugby before it resumes on Saturday with the fifth round set of matches in the top three grades and all other competitions in full flight.

Four days on from a thrilling and hard fought ANZAC Day round, Wellington's leading players will lace up their boots and do it all again in the Premier Swindale Shield, Harper Lock Shield and National Mutual Cup competitions.

The action also continues in earnest with second round games in the Fleurs Trophy Women's Premier, the Senior 3 JDR Cup and the U85KG Restricted competitions, while the opening rounds of the Colts John E Kelly Memorial Trophy and JRD Cup are this weekend. Additionally, it's also the opening day of junior grades, and to top it off the Hurricanes are playing the Chiefs in the evening.

Two clubs, Tawa and Oriental-Rongotai, are holding their Old Timers' Days, while there's another four interclub trophies being contested in the Swindale Shield and one in the Harper Lock Shield.

For fair-weather fans it's another much anticipated set of matches to get excited about, while for those teams desperately needing to pick up vital competition points it doesn't get any easier in round five.

While five of Wednesday's Swindale Shield matches pitted neighbour against neighbour, this round features two more significant traditional rivalry matches, between Petone and Poneke and Marist St. Pat's and Hutt Old Boys Marist, as well as a battle between defending Jubilee Cup champions Oriental-Rongotai and in-form Upper Hutt.

As far as unbroken traditional rivalries go, they don't get any older in Wellington club rugby than Petone and Poneke's and their tussle at Kilbirnie for the Fred Tilyard Memorial Shield promises to be immense.

Not least because both are coming off defeats, and in the case of Petone four consecutive defeats. For Petone, it's far too premature to state that they are in must win territory, but they'll need to secure at least three or four wins in the remaining seven rounds to secure their place inside the top eight at the end of the Swindale Shield.

Petone were soundly beaten 21-43 on Wednesday by a rampant Hutt Old Boys Marist side who sit on top of the standings with 19 out of a possible 20 points. With little time to re-group, they'll need to bounce back quickly to earn their first win of the season against Poneke. The red and blacks will also be smarting after missing out to MSP 8-20 on Wednesday in the battle of Kilbirnie.

It's been a tough start to the season for Petone who are missing several well known players this year through migrations, retirement and injury. In the backs, first five-eighth Hayden Cripps has moved on to Tasman, as has Michael Lealava'a - the latter the week before the start of the season. Hurricanes pivot Daniel Kirkpatrick (groin) is currently injured and ?last year's fullback Tomasio Alosio is in Brisbane. wings Willie Moala (Romania) and Fautua Otto are also both overseas and the experienced Ben Aoina is back playing for Upper Hutt after spending the last two years at Petone.

Additionally, last year's Wellington College first XV star fullback Andrew Quinlivan who is now a Villager hasn't been sighted this year due a groin injury he picked up while playing for the Wellington U18s late last year. A player of immense talent, Quinlivan has the X-factor that Petone missed against HOBM on Wednesday and he is sure to add spark once back playing.

In the forwards, bruising prop Mike Kainga is with the Chiefs Development Squad, Adrian Barone (calf) is currently injured, No. 8 Piers Gordon who started every match last season hasn't returned to the club so far this year, hugely experienced prop Thomas Tupuiavo is currently in a state of semi-retirement pending a possible return later in the season. Fellow 100-game veteran and former captain Eugene Smith (in Germany) may also make a return later in the year.

Poneke (founded in 1883) and Petone (1885) have fought many titanic battles over the years. The Fred Tilyard Shield that they are playing for on Saturday was first contested in 1958. The Tilyards were a famous Poneke family. There were four brothers. Fred and Jimmy were All Blacks while the other two, Harry and Brun, played for Wellington. Fred played for four club championship winning teams, was a Wellington Representative for seven years, was an All Black in 1923 and was a club administrator for 20 years.

Poneke will be attempting to win the Tilyard Shield back off Petone for the first time since 2007. Since then Petone's last four consecutive Swindale Shield wins over Poneke have been: 51-20 in 2008, 38-14 in 2009, 28-21 in 2010 and 24-20 in 2011. Poneke won their most recent meeting however, 30-24 in last year's Jubilee Cup round-robin.

MSP and HOBM have much to play for when they meet at the Hutt recreation Ground in the battle of the Marist clubs for the Father Cleary Trophy in what promises to be an exciting game between two in-form teams.

Whilst HOBM are the only team so far to have won every match, MSP are just off the pace in third with three wins from four, including three in a row against Rimutaka and fellow big guns Norths and Poneke.

The Father Cleary Shield, which commemorates the late Father Tom Cleary, a sportsmaster and well known First XV coach at St. Pat's Town and one of the founders of the St. Pat's College Old Boys RC. It was first played for between MSP and Hutt Valley Marist in 1974.

The Father Cleary clash has gone the way of MSP on each of the past four years and on six of nine occasions since they first met in 2003 when HOBM were re-promoted to the top grade. There have been several close clashes in recent seasons, such as HOBM's 29-28 win in 2006 and MSP 32-29 and 22-20 wins in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Last year MSP won this match 18-13 on their weekend of their 40^th anniversary celebrations.

The HOBM and MSP Senior 1 and Senior 2 teams also clash on the Hutt Recreation Ground in joint curtain-raisers to the main game.

Tawa and Wainuiomata play for the Chris Stirling Cup on Tawa's Old Timers' day at Lyndhurst Park. Again, this is a key clash for both sides, but more so for the home side Tawa who need a second win to keep in touch with the frontrunners. This could be a bruising encounter between two physical sides that like to run hard at the line and take opposition on up the middle.

The Chris Stirling Cup is a recent interclub trophy on Premier calendar, presented by the Wainuiomata Premier's of 2009 in appreciation of the excellent work Chris Stirling did for Wainuiomata as Club Coaching Co-ordinator from 2005 to 2007. Stirling also has very strong connections with the Tawa Rugby Club where he played over 200 premier games for them and was their Club Coaching Co-ordinator from 2008 to May 2009.

Wainuiomata are the current holders having won 35-32 last year - but only just. Trailing by 14, Tawa scored two late converted tries to square the ledger up. Wainuiomata inched back ahead with a penalty and then watched as Tawa missed a handy penalty at the end that would have tied the scores up again. In the previous two clashes, the first one was a 20-20 draw and Tawa won 39-23 last year.

In the curtain-raiser at Lyndhurst Park, Tawa's Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield team hosts Wainuiomata's. Tawa need to win to climb off the bottom of the table, while joint frontrunners Wainuiomata can stay out in front if they prevail.

Oriental-Rongotai host Upper Hutt on their Old Timers' Day and also put the Bob Lendrum Cup on the line. This match could also be a cracker, with Upper Hutt out to continue their unbeaten run and Ories eager to bounce back from their upset loss to Wainuiomata on Wednesday.

Bob Lendrum played senior 1 (now Premier) ?rugby for Ories from 1963 to 1966 and was captain for most of that time. He returned?as a player coach?in 1968 and 1969. He also played for Wellington A from 1963 to 1966 and subsequently captained Wellington B. In the 1970s he went to Fiji with work and coached the?Fijian national side for about three years from 1977, his tenure including memorable wins over New South Wales and Queensland. Bob set up an engineering consultancy business in Upper Hutt and for some years provided advice to various Upper Hutt coaches in a mentoring role. In 2011, aged 73, he co-coached the Upper Hutt senior 2 team.

?In the curtain-raiser on the Polo Ground, Ories' Senior 2 hosts Upper Hutt's Senior 2's. Ories, with one win from four, will attempting to stop a rampant Upper Hutt side that has the maximum 20 points from its first four games in the National Mutual Cup and has already rattled on more than 200 points.

Earlier in the day, the new Ories Women's side will be playing for their first win their Fleurs Trophy round three match against Stokes Valley who are also winless.

At Nairnville Park, Old Boys-University will be eyeing up their third win of the season and their first bonus point victory against Rimutaka. The students will know to be wary of the Rams though, who will be fighting hard to earn their first competition points of their Premier tenure.

The Wests Roosters will be hoping for an upset ?win over Norths at home at Ian Galloway Park, but will have a battle on their hands against the side that not only is looking to stamp their mark on the 2012 season but has caused no end of problems for them in recent seasons.

To win, the Wests Roosters must break a nine-match losing streak against Norths in Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup rugby. Most of these losses have been by big margins too - 6-72 in 2010 and 8-53 this time last year.

The Norths club also contests an interclub trophy this week, the Barlow Trophy against Johnsonville in their Senior 1 clash at Helston Park.

This trophy is named after Bert Barlow who played senior club rugby as a wing for Johnsonville before moving to Titahi Bay and becoming active at the Titahi Bay Rugby Club where he became a coach in the lower grades before moving through to coach the club's top team with another Bay stalwart Ken Stirling. After coaching he moved into the management, where he held the positions of Club Captain, Building Convener and President.?

In other notable fixtures on Saturday, unbeaten Wellington host mid-table Avalon in the National Mutual Cup at Hataitai Park at 3pm, the two MSP teams clash at Evans Bay Park at 3pm in the second round of the U85kg Division 1 grade and big guns Eketahuna and Norths meet at Eketahuna in round 3 of the Fleurs Trophy.