The excitement is building. With just under a week to go before the start of the 2013 Wellington Premier club rugby season, Club Rugby details below the changes to the coaching ranks for the year ahead. Changes this year include several coaches moving to other clubs, some returning and others taking up the reins for the first time.Of the 12 Premier clubs, just four - Hutt Old Boys Marist, Rimutaka, Wainuiomata and the Wests Roosters - enter the new season with the same core coaching panel as last year...More

Above: Seti Tafua and the Poneke and Northern Suburbs together after the match. Photo supplied. In June 2012 tragedy struck Wellington rugby player Seti Tafua. Tafua injured his C5 and C6 vertebrae in a club match in Sydney, consigning the talented youngster to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. Tafua has no mobility beneath the waste. On Saturday at Evans Bay Park, two clubs that have been central to Tafua’s life, Poneke and Northern Suburbs of Sydney, met in a fundraising fixture...More

No longer the dark horse.After a solid 2012 season, in which they finished comfortably inside the top eight in the Swindale Shield and competed credibly in the Jubilee Cup, can Tawa challenge the big guns this year and push for major title success?Tawa Club Coaching Coordinator Dion Waller certainly hopes so. “2012 was an excellent year for the Tawa club, which saw us rewarded with 12 players making Wellington representative teams,” Waller explained.Playing a positive brand of physical, direct rugby, Tawa’s Premiers impressed throughout 2012...More

Above: Calling the shots. Reggie Goodes in action at the Hutt Recreation Ground on Monday night for the Hurricanes Development XV against Tonga A. Goodes played the first half of the match at loosehead prop, helping to anchor a dominant scrum and making several strong runs culminating in scoring a try just before halftime. Upon arriving in Wellington from South Africa Wellington College coach, Lincoln Rawles, saw something special in young prop Reg Goodes. His rapid rise to professional rugby comes as no surprise...More

(Above): Alapati Leiua on the rampage for Northern United against Marist St Pat’s in last year’s Jubilee Cup semi-final. He went try-less in this match, but in almost 50 matches for Norths between 2008-2012 he scored two tries or more in match on 15 occasions. In the previous seventeen years of Super Rugby only the 2005 Bulls and 2009 Chiefs have made the semi-finals after losing their first three games of the season. Last Friday night at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, the Hurricanes faced the grim prospect of plummeting to a third consecutive defeat and a near impossible fight against history...More

Above: Last year's WRFU Referee of the Year Ben O'Keeffe officiating the Jubilee Cup Final between Marist St. Pat's and Oriental-Rongtotai Love the game and want to get involved? Club Rugby recently chatted with top local referee Ben O’Keeffe about how he started refereeing, what he enjoys about it and what opportunities are available for people who want to get involved. ?New to Wellington last year, O’Keeffe quickly impressed and officiated last year’s Jubilee Cup Final between Marist St...More

?To view the first round Premier, Senior 1 and Senior 2 draws visit the Draws & Results menu across the top of this page. Premier Women's first round draw to be added soon. ?The 2013 Premier Swindale Shield, Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield and Senior 2 National Mutual Cup Wellington club rugby competitions are kicking off on Easter Monday. Opening round Swindale Shield matches on Monday 1 April are:•?? ?Defending Jubilee Cup champions Marist St. Pat’s versus Old Boys University at Evans Bay Park for the Jack Lamason Memorial Cup...More

Above: Brad Shields on the charge last year for Petone against Rimutaka. Photo courtesy of Chris Clifton. Brad Shields looks right at home in the Hurricanes’ formidable loose forward trio. Club Rugby caught up with him to see how he’s enjoying life as a Hurricane and look back over how far he’s already come in his young career.Shields’ rugby career blossomed from an early age as a junior at the Stokes Valley Rugby Club. He fondly remembers pulling on the red and gold hoops and puts a lot of his success down to his early days with the club...More

Club Rugby is pleased to announce their partnership with Elevate+ for 2013. Elevate+ are a local team training fitness and health company dedicated to helping Wellington’s sports teams and individuals achieve their fitness and health goals in a friendly, welcoming family-based environment. They have a range of high intensity programmes which are tailored to suit any level of fitness. All their programmes provide variety from circuit and weight training, to full body muscle endurance and tabata/interval training...More

Above: Wellington flanker Graham Williams, who captained Wellington in Freeman's last year as coach of the Lions in 1970, is unable to haul in Hawke's Bay wing Mick Duncan neat the corner flag in a famous Ranfurly Shield challenge in Napier in 1967. Hawke's Bay drew the match 12-12 and retained the Shield. Photo reproduced from Shield Fever by Lindsay Knight, Rugby Press 1980.? “On the rise above the eyes” was one of legendary coach Bill freeman’s famous cries teaching hundreds of school players in the 1980s and 1990s the basics of catching and passing...More