Tawa win the Swindale Shield outright; Norths in Hardham Cup

Above: Tawa have just scored their bonus point try and they've won the Swindale Shield outright.

It's Tawa on their own.

In a highly entertaining game at home at Lyndhurst Park, Tawa drew their battle 29-29 with Marist St Pat's but still won the campaign, ?earning the minimum of one bonus point they needed from the match and sealing the 2013 Wellington club rugby first round Swindale Shield outright for the first time in the club's 66-year history.

And no-one at the ground could say it wasn't richly deserved. The ground was packed afterwards with supporters young and old, former and current players who remained with the team and with the Swindale Shield itself that acted like a beacon in the late afternoon gloom. A magic touch was the Tawa College First XV performing a haka to the team moments after its presentation.

The game itself was frenetic and exciting, with the final drawn result reflective of the big effort? MSP put into the match. Several of their players had massive matches, lock Charlie Graham and flanker Isaac O'Connor two to stand out.

MSP scored the game's opening try and then once Tawa had got their noses ahead, MSP had twice come back and threatened to steal the show.

Tawa recovered from the early 0-7 deficit to with tries to prop Siaosi Mafi and Junior Togia and they led 12-7 at halftime. MSP started the second spell like the first, O'Connor scoring a well-organsied team try in the corner to even it up at 12-12.

Tawa replied with a try to hard running replacement Tawa loose forward Chucky Koroi who burst up the middle, converted by fullback Randall Bishop to put Tawa ahead 19-12. MSP's first try scorer, right wing Jackson Martin grabbed an intercept and scored under the posts and it was 19-19. Both sides traded penalties to advance the score to 22-22 with about 15 minutes to play.

The biggest cheer of the game came when Tawa openside flanker TJ Fermanis scored the next try of the match. This was Tawa's bonus point try and it meant the Swindale Shield was theirs on their own accord for the next twelve months.

However, MSP hit back with a converted try to centre JP Tocker near the end, running on to a kick put through by halfback Peter Sciascia. Fullback Andrew Wells converted and it was 29-29.

The other big news of the day in the last round of the 2013 Swindale Shield was the consignment to the Hardham Cup of Northern United.

On the day that Tawa won their first ever Swindale Shield, near neighbours and 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009 (shared with Petone), 2010 and 2011 first round Premier champions found out that their fate will be playing in the lower grade for the rest of this season.

Norths had to beat Rimutaka with a bonus point to stay up. They did that handsomely enough, winning 85-10, with openside flanker Dean Brunsdon scoring five tries - which must be a Wellington Premier record for the most tries in a match by a forward - and first five-eighth Jackson Garden-Bachop scoring 30 points.

But they also needed Poneke to lose to OBU.

Poneke won. Beating the mercurial students 24-15 at Nairnville Park. Poneke did it without their inspirational captain Misipalauni Moananu who broke his arm in the warm-ups and only played a limited role before being subbed off in the first half. OBU also had Hurricanes midfielder Tim Bateman in their backline.

After leading 12-10 at halftime, playing into the wind, Poneke fullback Sosi Tuimavavae scored a brace of tries in the second half to see his side pull clear. Once in the lead good old fashioned Poneke determination saw them home and into the Jubilee Cup round at the expense of Norths.

OBU also won the interclub Beet Algar Rosebowl trophy off Poneke.

The remaining three matches in the 11^th and last round of the Swindale Shield weren't meaningful in the sense that the remaining clubs already knew their fates for the second round.

The Oriental-Rongotai club celebrated its 125^th anniversary weekend with a 30-point win over Petone for the Jim Brown Memorial Trophy.

Ories won the match 45-15, with the result not beyond too much doubt from very early on in the contest.

Ories scored scored two converted tries, followed by a penalty to first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili, followed by a third try to lead 24-3 midway through the first half.

Petone came back with a try to former Ories captain and talisman prop, with the Villagers since the start of this season, Donal McNamara . But in-form barnstorming wing Afa Fa'atau ran in his second try of the first half just before halftime and the match was as good as safe at 31-8 up at the turnaround.

Ories also had their bonus point by this stage, and with news filtering through in the wireless that ?the Tawa-MSP match was tight, there was cause for optimism that they might be sharing the Shield.

Petone responded with their second try, to openside flanker Jack Wolfreys, but Ories pulled clear and earned another good win to sound out to the rest of the field that they are looking ominous for the Jubilee Cup.

Hardham Cup bound Upper Hutt finished the first round with a flourish, beating Jubilee Cup side Hutt Old Boys Marist 38-35 at Maidstone Park.

HOBM scored the first try of the match, to lock Steven Bradshaw, but Upper Hutt first five-eighth Liam Berry came back with a try and it was 10-8 to Upper Hutt. Wing Greg Strickland scored again before the break and it was 18-11 to the home team at halftime.

The home team then scored three more tries in the opening 20 minutes of the second half and at 35-14 ahead had the match won. HOBM, missing some key players due to injury and rest, came back at the end but it was too late.

At William Jones Park, Jubilee Cup contenders Wainuiomata defeated the Wests Roosters 45-24.

Fullback Tayler Tane scored a first half hat-trick and the green and blacks went into halftime leading the Roosters 20-10.

The second half was all Wainuiomata, who ran in another five tries and won comfortably in the end, errant kicking making the scoreline much closer than the run of play.

Senior 1 and Senior 2

Johnsonville are the 2013 Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield champions.

Johnsonville went into the last round just needing to beat Norths, and they won 39-10.

With 10 wins from their 11 matches, they finished just ahead of second placed the Wellington Axemen, who defeated Petone 24-14 at fortress Hataitai Park.

OBU's second XV got up to finish third after pipping Poneke 19-17, ahead of fourth placed Avalon who suffered a surprise 10-27 defeat to lower ranked Wainuiomata.

Johnsonville, Wellington, OBU and Avalon are the four clubs moving up to contest the Hardham Cup along with the bottom four clubs of the Swindale Shield, Norths, Upper Hutt, Rimutaka and the Wests Roosters.

Seven individual clubs will effectively be chasing Premier status in 2014 and the four spots available in next year's Swindale Shield.

In other last round Senior 1 matches today, Tawa beat MSP 30-18 and Paremata-Plimmerton defeated Upper Hutt 28-17.

Hutt Old Boys Marist are the 2013 Senior 2 first round National Mutual Cup champions.

HOBM went into today's last round just needing to beat Johnsonville and claim the first round title, and they won 62-0.

HOBM and Ories are the two teams from this competition moving up to the higher Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup for the second half of the season.

Ories confirmed their place in the higher grade with a ?61-5 win over mid-table Petone in the early game on their 125^th anniversary day.

In other Senior 2 games today, OBU beat Poneke 46-28, Wainuiomata beat Norths 26-12, MSP beat Stokes Valley 41-0 and Avalon defeated the Wests Roosters 31-27.

Meanwhile, the OBU Green team defeated the HOBM Green team 25-20 in the last round of the first round U21 Paris Memorial Trophy competition on the Hutt Recreation Ground. OBU are the first round U21 champions.

For full Swindale Shield game-by-game match reports from round 11 click here