Big weekend of semi-finals in Wellington

A big weekend of grassroots club and college semi-finals rugby is anticipated in Wellington this weekend. There's several mouthwatering playoff games to look forward to on Saturday to decide the contenders for weekend's Jubilee and Hardham Cups, Premier Women's, Colts and Premier First XV finals. ?

All four of the Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup semi-finals are in Wellington city. Kilbirnie, Miramar and Newtown are expected to be brought to standstills from 3.00pm on Saturday afternoon. The two Jubilee Cup semi-finals see Oriental-Rongotai hosting Wainuiomata at the Polo Ground and Marist St Pat's hosting Northern United at Evans Bay Park. In the Hardham Cup, top qualifier Poneke and fourth placed Marist St Pat's B meet at Kilbirnie Park and at Kelburn Park second and third placed Old Boys University and the Wests Roosters clash.?

As well as semi-finals, there's a series of matches being contested for the first time in all grades ?amongst the fifth to eighth placed finishers from the just completed round-robin series to determine their exact finishing orders.

In the Jubilee Cup, fifth placed Hutt Old Boys Marist host eighth placed finisher Petone and sixth placed Tawa and seventh placed Upper Hutt square off at Lyndhurst Park. In the Hardham Cup, these matches see fifth placed Rimutaka and eighth placed Norths B play at Maoribank Park and sixth placed Johnsonville entertain seventh placed Wainuiomata B at Helston Park. All these games are at 3.00pm.

In the two Victoria Tavern Women's Premier semi-finals matches, top qualifier Wainuiomata and fourth placed Eketahuna play at William Jones Park at 11.30am and Norths and OBU play in the other top four match at Porirua 2 at 11.35am. In the match to decide fifth and sixth, Ories and Stokes Valley clash at the Polo Ground at 11.30am.

In Premier First XV college semi-finals, top qualifier Wellington College and fourth placed St Pat's Town battle it out at Wellington College and St Pat's Silverstream and Scots College meet in the other semi-final match at Silverstream. Both these matches start at 2.30pm.

It's also semi-finals time in the Colts Division 1 John E Kelly Memorial competition. In these, top qualifier and unbeaten Wellington Axemen host fourth placed MSP with two wins from five at Hataitai Park, while second placed OBU Green and third placed Petone Blue meet at Te Whaea. In the playoff for fifth and sixth, HOBM and Upper Hutt play at the Hutt Recreation Ground. All these matches are at 1.00pm.

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