Above: Wellington Pride fullback and now fulltime New Zealand Sevens player Kat Simpkins recently presenting medals at the Wellington Secondary Schools Division 2 Finals at Te Whaea The Women's NPC kicked off last weekend, but a first choice player who will be missing from the Wellington Pride's line-up when they host the Otago Spirit in their first home game this Saturday at the Petone Recreation Ground is the side's regular fullback from recent seasons, Kat Simpkins. Instead, Wellington's only New Zealand Sevens contracted player, Simpkins, has her sights set on the upcoming second Women's World Cup Sevens series and possibly a berth in the 2016 Olympic Games squad...More

Above: Action from the Hurricanes U20s final last year in Palmerston North. The U20s programme this season has been stopped in favour of the U19s and a new National U19 tournament being played at the end of September in Taupo The Wellington club rugby competition season ends this coming Saturday, but there's a feast of representative rugby coming up over the next several weeks for fans to look forward to. From this coming Saturday to 18 October there's a stack of representative matches involving Wellington teams and in region, including International Schools games, Women's NPC rugby and age-group, Maori, Samoans and Development ?teams all in action...More

Above: The Tawa College First XV celebrating winning the Wellington secondary school Premier 2 title today, beating Wairarapa College 15-11. There were wins today for the Tawa College First XV in the Wellington secondary school Premier 2 final, for the Poneke Ruffnuts in the Reserve Grade Division 1 Johnsonville Centennium Cup club final and for Poneke and Upper Hutt Rams teams in the Colts Division 2 and 3 club finals. Tawa College beat defending champions Wairarapa College 15-11 to claim the college Premier 2 Murray Jensen Cup in the feature match of today's secondary Schools finals day held at St Pat's Silverstream...More

Above: Action from the Wellington Maori v Wellington City match last Saturday. The big hits continue in the Festival series at Fraser Park, while Colts, Reserve Grade and U85kg club rugby grades are in action in finals and semi-finals. After four titles were decided last week, the 2014 Wellington club season continues to rapidly draw to a close with three more grade finals to be played tomorrow, along with the semi-finals of the Under 85kg grade. Second round Festival matches are being played at Fraser Park, involving the Wellington City, Suburbs, Maori and Samoan teams...More

Above: Defending Premier 2 champions and undefeated Wairarapa College should be well supported again in their Murray Jensen Cup final against Tawa College tomorrow afternoon at St Pat's Silverstream. Tomorrow sees the conclusion to the local College Rugby season with the finals day at St Pats Silverstream. With the exception of the Boys Premier 1 and Girls titles, every other grade and division winners will be found. In all there are 13 finals, with 12 different schools being represented; with the host school having the highest representation with seven teams on show...More

Above: Wellington's Henry Stowers makes his presence felt in last year's Hurricanes Youth Council U18 final in Palmerston North against Hawke's Bay.? Stowers, Chase Tiatia and Sam McNicol all played in this game and are now in the Wellington Lions ITM Cup squad. Age-group representative rugby in the Hurricanes Region has taken another big step forward in 2014, with five major events planned for players from the Under 15 to the Under 19 age groups, during September and October. New Zealand Rugby's introduction of the National U19 Tournament in October in Taupo has created two new events for this age-group, with a new Seeding Tournament being played for the region's ITM Cup Provincial Unions on a home and away basis and a new Development Series being played for the region's Heartland Provincial Unions, in Palmerston North...More

Above: Underneath a pile of bodies is John Schwalger, who has just scored the winning try in Wellington's 31-28 win over Northland in 2010. The Lions are gunning for their 10th straight win over the Taniwha on Saturday but most of these recent nine wins and previous victories against them have been hard fought. Photo by Dave Lintott. The young Wellington Lions travel to Whangarei this coming Saturday to tackle the Northland Taniwha in their second match of the ITM Cup. The Lions have won their last nine matches against Northland, posting at least 30 points each time...More

Above: Southland Stag and Hurricane Cardiff Vaega crashing in to Tawa's James So'oialo, who came off the bench for the Wellington Lions against Waikato on Saturday and whose brother Steven is assistant coach of Horowhenua -Kapiti in this year's Heartland Championship getting underway this weekend. As the representative season swings into full gear this coming weekend, with the start of the Heartland Championship and Women's NPC competitions, here is our annual compilation of current and former Wellington club players playing in these competitions and in the ITM Cup...More

Above: Tom Ellison's picture hangs proudly on the Poneke FC clubrooms staircase wall. New Zealand's first captain, Ellison invented the All Black brand with his proposal that the playing colours of the then new NZRU should be black with a silver fern. The current All Black squad has nearly 1,000 test caps combined. That suggests it's harder to get out of the Test team than in it. In days gone by many All Blacks didn't earn a test cap. They were simply known as 'dirt-trackers...More

Above: Action from the Auckland 7s last year. Entries into this year's Auckland 7s tournament are officially open. The event in its third edition is to be held on 22-23 November 2014 at Harvey Wright Fields in conjunction with the Northcote/Birkenhead Rugby Football Club.? Entries are open for both New Zealand and International Club teams in the Women's, Open Men's and Colts (U21) divisions. The two-day tournament will see the introduction of a Boys' Colts competition on Saturday 22nd and the women's division on Sunday 23rd with the Open Men's being played like Nationals 7s over both days...More