Above: Father Paul Kane SMs, the first of two ordained Marist priests who became All Blacks in the early 1920s. The New Zealand Marist Colleges Team and the Centurions Rugby Football Club U18s contest the inaugural Fr. Paul Kane Challenge Cup on Saturday.On Saturday, Wellington will commemorate and create rugby history, when the first ever New Zealand Marist Colleges Team takes to the field at St. Patrick’s College in Wellington.?The New Zealand Marist Colleges Team has been created under the umbrella of the New Zealand Marist Rugby Federation...More

2013 was momentous for the Tawa Premiers. In their 66-year history they had never won a major title until this season. Winning just about every Wellington club rugby Premier trophy going - the Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cups, the Bill Brien challenge Trophy, the Andy Leslie Trophy and several interclub trophies -? the Tawa Premiers were a popular pick for this year’s Club Team of the Year at tonight’s end of season WRFU awards.On a gloomy day at the start of June, Tawa clinched the Swindale Shield outright by drawing their final match with then defending Jubilee Cup champions Marist St Pat’s...More

A slick Scots College team ran out deserved winners in this afternoon’s Wellington Secondary Schools Condor Sevens tournament at Naenae College, beating Wellington College 24-17 in their Cup semi-final and then St Pat’s Silverstream 31-12 in the Cup final. ?For the second consecutive year, Scots College will represent Wellington at the National Condor tournament in Auckland at the end of November.Scots College will be joined at the tournament by Wellington East Girls’ College, who beat St Catherine’s College 10-0 in the girls’ Cup final...More

The final act of the 2013 college rugby season will be played out at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday with the College Sevens tournament.At stake is not only local supremacy, but also a place in the national Condor Sevens? tournament in Auckland in (30 November and 1 December) and like any good theatre, there will be plenty of drama before the day is over.Last year’s winners, Scots College (Boys) and Wainuiomata High School (Girls) both performed with credit at the national event last year...More

It’s the perfect lead-in to Saturday night’s ITM Cup Premiership final. Last year’s inaugural Village Kings tournament hosted by the Wellington Samoa Rugby Union (WSRU) was hugely popular and this year’s second edition at Porirua Park on Saturday promises to be just as exciting.Tournament director Steve Lau Young said this year’s tournament involves 12 teams representing their respective villages from Samoa.“They’ll be putting everything on the line for their families, friends and villages...More

Today seven New Zealand women, on average, will hear that they have breast cancer. These are our mothers, sisters, aunties, friends and extended family. This Saturday 26 October at 8.00 am Club Rugby’s partners Elevate+ will be running an event to help create awareness and fundraise for the the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation by crawling from the Elevate+ Gym in Kilbirnie down to Lyall Bay Beach. This is roughly 2.5 km. This is excellent initiative and you can help by sponsoring the trainers participating that will be crawling the distance individually OR by entering a team of three to 10 people taking turns on the way using the different crawls used every day at Elevate+ - Bears, Gorillas, Crabs, Spiderman’s - and getting sponsors to donate towards your team...More

Tawa, Western Suburbs and Northern United took out the three trophies up for grabs at today’s WRFU Open Club Sevens tournament held at Evans Bay Park this afternoon.Tawa won the Men’s Cup final, Wests the Colts final and Norths the Women’s final in the tournament played in warm, sunny conditions on the main field and on the adjacent St Pat’s artificial field.Defending Wellington club Men’s champions Tawa were pushed all the way in both their semi-final and final, edging out a well-drilled Upper Hutt 1 team 7-5 in the Cup semi-final and then recovering from a man down in the sin-bin to defeat an impressive Poneke 19-10 in the final after leading just 7-0 at halftime and Poneke in the ascendancy...More

Above: The Wellington U20s packing down against Manawatu last weekend. They are away in Auckland tomorrow for their final game of the seasonThe Wellington Pride, U18s and U20s wind up their 2013 representative seasons tomorrow with away matches in Christchurch, Blenheim and Auckland respectively.The Wellington Pride and Wellington U18s are playing in ITM Cup semi-final curtain-raisers. The Pride meet Canterbury in the seventh and final round of the Women’s NPC at Rugby Park in Christchurch ahead of the Premiership playoff between Canterbury and Auckland, while the U18s meet the Tasman U18s at Landsdowne Park in Blenheim in the curtain-raiser to the Tasman versus Southland Championship semi-final...More

Above: MSP and Upper Hutt players competing for the ball in last year's first American Ambassador's tournament at Maidstone Park. MSP and Upper Hutt tied with Tawa on 40 points at the head of last year's series but Tawa won the title based on a greater points differential. ? It’s a rugby bonanza. This Saturday marks the start of the Sevens rugby season in Wellington, with the first of two official Wellington Rugby Football Union club Sevens tournaments taking place at Evans Bay Park and on the adjacent St Pat’s Town Artificial...More

There were defeats to two of Wellington’s three sides this afternoon at Arena Manawatu in Palmerston on Finals Day of the Hurricanes Youth Council competition.The Wellington U20s missed out to the Manawatu U20s 15-17 and the Wellington U18s lost to the Hawke’s Bay U18s 11-24 in their finals, while the Wellington Centurions beat the Wairarapa Bush U18s 20-3 in their U18B division final.In the two other representative matches today, the Wellington Pride went down 0-46 to the Auckland Storm in the Women’s NPC and the Wellington Development side enjoyed a 50-10 lakeside win against Bay of Plenty Development...More