The Wellington club rugby Premier Swindale Shield, Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield and Senior 2 National Mutual Cup competitions all move into top gear from this Saturday with rounds three, four and five played over the course of the next week, including next Wednesday's midweek ANZAC Day round. It's early in a long season, but the pressure is already on several teams to chalk up wins or they could be gone by the end of April. The Petone Premiers are one such contender who will find themselves in the gun from as early as next Wednesday's fourth round if they can't earn their first Swindale Shield win this Saturday against unbeaten Upper Hutt...More

Upper Hutt fullback Jason Woodward brought the house down at Maidstone Park with the last act of the game, kicking the match winning conversion to give his side an Old Timers' Day 25-23 victory over Wainuiomata in Saturday's round two Swindale Shield feature match.A deathly silence descended inside the packed clubrooms as Woodward, who had kicked terribly all day and missed?four from five of his previous kicks, lined up the winning conversion from about 15 metres inside the right hand touchline...More

Last weekend's Wellington club rugby season opener was a scorcher, and round two promises to be just as exciting. First round bonus point winners Hutt Old Boys Marist, Oriental-Rongotai,? Poneke and Upper Hutt will all be keen to keen to push on and make it two from two, while for those beaten first round teams Saturday is a chance to open their accounts in the winner's column.All eyes will be on Maidstone and Kilbirnie Parks in particular this weekend, where the respective home teams Upper Hutt and Poneke will be hoping to build on their first round away wins...More

Club rugby in Wellington will be in full swing from this weekend with the start of all other grades. Two more competition grades start up this Saturday, the Senior 3 JDR Cup and the first round Fleurs Trophy women's competition. Ten teams representing nine clubs will take part in the first round of JDR Cup matches, while six women's teams will contest the Fleurs Trophy double round-robin competition. The two dominant women's sides of recent seasons Norths and Eketahuna, are joined by Stokes Valley, Wainuiomata, OBU and Ories teams - are all eager to knock this pair off the mantle...More

Above: Rimutaka fullback Dan Konise probing for a hole in Poneke's defence. Upper Hutt caused the upset of the opening round of Wellington club rugby Swindale Shield matches on Saturday, stunning defending first round champions Northern United 46-34 at Porirua Park.Upper Hutt ran in six tries to Norths' five to inflict a third successive defeat on Norths, including last August's Jubilee Cup final loss to Ories and their unofficial New Zealand club championship defeat to Ponsonby in October...More

Note: Swindale Shield round one starting XVs will be named on the Draws & Results section of this website on Friday The phony war is over. Now may the season proper commence. Preparations are complete, predictions have been made and planning is in place for the start of the 2012 Wellington club rugby rugby season that kicks off with a full round of Premier Swindale Shield, Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield and Senior 2 National Mutual Cup matches on Saturday. Kick-off is a week later than in recent years, but an action packed season gets straight into full swing right from the opening afternoon on Saturday, with five rounds being played throughout April...More

Want to experience the action from the best vantage point on the field? Then become a referee.The Wellington Rugby Referees Association (WRRA) is one of the biggest and best referee associations in the country, producing numerous top referees such as Lyndon Bray, Chris Pollock, Garratt Williamson, Mike Fraser, Jonathan White and Brent Murray - with several of these appointed to Test, Junior World Cup and even Rugby World Cup level fixtures. The WRRA controls all Wellington secondary school and senior club matches as well as representative fixtures...More

The loss of several prominent and long-serving players for part of or all of the season provides the opportunity for a new wave of young players to make their marks on Wellington Premier rugby in 2012 says Marist St. Pat's co-coach Murray Tocker.Tocker, who has been involved with MSP's top sides since he started playing for the Premiers in 1978, says that while the club has lost several key players to retirement, overseas and injury, there's a number of up and coming players at the club hoping to make the step up...More

Since capturing their first in 2004, Northern United win the Jubilee Cup every second year. So will the trend continue in 2012?? With a new coaching team in Ross Bond and Okesene Moananu and for the most part the same players as last season, the 2004, 2006, 2008 (shared with MSP) and 2010 Jubilee Cup champions and current three-time defending Swindale Shield champions looked sharp and hungry in their first hit-out of the year recently. The respective Norths and Ories Senior 1 and Premier squads - albeit both understrength with several key players from both clubs absent - met in two pre-season matches at Rongotai College on Saturday...More

Wellington rugby fans can now start plotting their Saturday afternoons throughout April, May and June by visiting the Draws & Results section of this website in the menu bar above.?All Premier Swindale Shield, Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield and Senior 2 National Mutual Cup draws are in place. As per previous years, we will also publish Premier starting XVs every Friday once the 2012 season gets underway in the first week of April.? ?Highlights of the first round Swindale Shield draw include:• A round of Derby fixtures on Anzac Day with five of the six Swindale Shield matches being local derbies...More