Petone and Norths share Swindale Shield

The 2009 Swindale Shield title has been shared by Petone and Northern United following a dramatic last day's play that saw Norths saunter to a bonus point win over Marist St. Pat's and draw level on competition points with Petone who beat Oriental-Rongotai but failed to score four tries.

The Swindale Shield is shared for the just the third time in the modern first round competiton's 41 year history after Petone knocked on over the line at the death and missed out on what would have been a last-gasp bonus point win that would have seen them finish ahead of Norths and claim the silverware outright.

With a strengthening southerly breeze behind them and desperate to score a fourth try, Petone spent the final few minutes hammering away inside Petone's 22 and went close to scoring on at least two occasions. No. 8 Shaun Mahoney was held up over the line under a tangle of bodies with a minute to go and Petone were unable to score from the ensuing phase of play from a five-metre scrum, meaning they had to settle for a three-try 20-10 win instead.

At Porirua Park, Norths had already done all they could to win the Shield on their own after turning on the afterburners and scoring five tries inside 45 minutes to beat MSP 39-13 on their Old Timers' Day.

A determined Norths, bristling with confidence and strikepower from numbers 1 to 22, had scored their bonus point try before halftime through tries to No. 8 Tui Meavao, winger Francis Seumanutafa, Anare Koliavu and Alipati Leiua. Flanker Dean Brunsdon cantered through a ruck soon after halftime for their fifth try and an unassailable lead and their supporters now turned their ears to the news at the Polo Ground.

At the same time that Norths were mopping up MSP, the Petone - Ories match was hanging in the balance, with Ories scoring two tries to one to take a 10-5 lead into the halftime break. Second five-eighth Paula Kinikinilau scored first for Ories off a break by left wing Johnny Sola. First five-eighth James Proctor added the conversion and then a penalty to put Ories ahead 10-0, before Petone winger Fautua Otto got his team on the board with a 70-metre runaway try.

Petone's Swindale Shield celebrations remained on ice until well into the second half, before hooker Eugene Smith's determined run to the tryline with defenders swarming all over?him tied the scores up at 10-10. This was followed by a length of the field intercept try to veteran winger Willie Moala and a conversion to first five-eighth Hayden Cripps and at 17-10 ahead ?Petone could finally think about celebrating.

Both Cripps and his replacement Dan Kirkpatrick went off injured, leaving? Micheal Lealava'a to kick a penalty to extend Petone's lead to 20-10 and they now set about throwing everything into scoring another try. But in the end Ories' determined and outstanding defence held them out until fulltime and the elusive fourth try was not to be.

The end result of a pulsating final day's play was that Petone and Norths will share the Shield for the third time in the competition's history, after Petone previously shared it with Wellington in 1972 and MSP in 1983.

With MSP and Norths having shared last year's Jubilee Cup, this is the second time that both Wellington club rugby's major trophies the Jubilee Cup and Swindale Shield have been shared at the same time. Previously, Petone and Wellington shared the Jubilee Cup in 1982 and then Petone and MSP were joint winners of the next season's Swindale Shield title.

The win is Petone's 14^th outright or joint Shield triumph, but their first since 2004 after dominating the first decade of Shield rugby from 1969. They will now go into their 125^th Jubilee season in 2010 with at least one major trophy in their cabinet and possibly another if they win the Jubilee Cup as well.

They also captured the Jim Brown Memorial Trophy and Bill Brien Challenge Cup off Ories in the last round, and in winning 10 from 11 games in the first round this season have won or retained most of the interclub trophies that they contest between other clubs. The exception being the Connelly Cup against Upper Hutt.

The Shield win for Norths is their fourth in seven years, following their first in 2003, followed by back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007. They recovered from a slow start in losing their first two games - to Poneke and Petone - to win their last nine consecutive encounters.

In establishing a big early lead against MSP, Norths also knocked out any hopes of both Poneke and Ories who were the other two contenders still alive heading into the last round.

While Ories had to try and beat Petone with a bonus point and rely on Norths losing to MSP to grab a share of the Shield, Poneke were gunning for an outright win over Wainuiomata at William Jones Park and also hoping for both Petone and Norths to lose.

Poneke beat Wainuiomata 26-19 in their clash at William Jones to finish up in third. The red and blacks met a stern challenge in retaining the Paul Hakaraia Shield and holding off Wainuiomata who themselves were playing for a hopeful bonus point win and a place in the Jubilee Cup ahead of Tawa.

Poneke wing Ambrose Plaister broke open a tense start with a converted try, his eighth of the season, before two more converted tries to Plaister's wing partner Marika Kau put them in front 21-0. Wainuiomata speedster Jason Love then flew in from fullback for a try in reply and Wainuiomata trailed 21-5 at halftime.

First five-eighth James Pointon scored Poneke's bonus point try soon after the break and their lead was more comfortable at 26-5. But Wainuiomata staged a fightback over the final 30 minutes, flanker Greg Lealofi crossing for a converted try to close the gap to 22-12 and I. Perenese scoring another to make the final score 26-19.

The loss for Wainuiomata meant they missed out an elusive first appearance in the Jubilee Cup starting next weekend, despite top eight rivals Tawa failing to gain any points from their 8-20 loss to Hutt Old Boys Marist in their final round match at Lyndhurst Park.

In a hard fought match, Tawa closed to within two points of HOBM to trail just 10-8 early in the second half, but a second converted try to the visitors gave them some breathing space and they held on to win to see them finish the Swindale Shield in sixth place and Tawa eighth.

The Wests Roosters leapfrogged Wainuiomata into ninth by beating Avalon 43-22 at Fraser Park, while Old Boys-University saved their best till last by defeating Jubilee Cup-bound Upper Hutt 30-28 at Maidstone Park.

The Roosters powered past Avalon in the first half, scoring three tries in the opening 30 minutes and then crossing for their fourth on the stroke of halftime. They led 29-3 at the break and held on as Avalon came crashing back into the contest with three tries.

OBU provided a last round upset for their fans to savour to see them finish ahead of Avalon at the foot of the table. OBU lock Mike Scott set the tone for a big last day performance when he galloped half the length of the field and scored to put his side ahead 8-0.

Upper Hutt came storming back with the first two of three tries to 2008 New Zealand U20 No. 8 Matt Luamanu to grab a 19-8 lead, followed by his third to give the home team a 28-13 lead at halftime. The students came back with another two tries and to hit the lead again late in the match and held on for a much needed win.

It was also the last day of the first round for the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield, Senior 2 National Mutual Cup and Women's Premier Fleurs Trophy.

The Norths women's side picked up the first trophy on offer for the day with a 52-3 final round win over MSP, to see them end the round five points ahead of second placed Johnsonville who fended off the challenge of OBU 37-18.

Elsewhere, Stokes Valley got up to beat Ories 12-5, who held on to finish third ahead of Eketahuna who won by default against Waikanae. Just six points separated positions third to seven on the points table, making for a keenly contested second round Victoria Tavern Trophy starting next week.

The Club Weekly was sideline to see Norths beat MSP in their ‘virtual' Senior 2 final for the National Mutual Cup, winning 31-13 after coming from behind and scoring three tries over the final quarter to ensure their win.

MSP took a 13-12 lead midway through the second half when they kicked a penalty with the freshening breeze in their favour. But Norths came back and went to 17-13 to the good after a series of drives close to the line. This was followed by a match-winning try with less than ten minutes to go, which was converted to extend the lead to 24-13. Another seven-pointer at the end sealed the win for Norths.

Norths and MSP now progress to the round two Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup starting next week. In other Senior 2 results, Tawa got up to finish third ahead of fourth placed Hutt Old Boys Marist after winning the last round clash between these sides 34-17. Old Boys-University defeated Johnsonville 28-25 to place these two teams and Poneke in a three-way share of sixth.

The Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield was presented to MSP at the conclusion of their eleventh straight win of the season, a 39-17 win over Norths at Porirua Park.

The win for MSP was their ninth four-try bonus point victory from 11 games and saw them end the first round on 53 points and a convincing 17 ahead of second placed Johnsonville.

The third and fourth Hardham Cup qualifiers from Senior 1 were confirmed on the last day, with Johnsonville and Rimutaka winning their last round encounters and joining MSP and Poneke in the Hardham Cup for the second half of the season.

With their spot already confirmed last week, Poneke were out-passioned by Paremata-Plimmerton 36-26 on Paremata-Plimmerton's 50 anniversary weekend at Ngatitoa Domain.

Johnsonville comfortably beat HOBM 40-14 to jump ahead of Poneke and finish second behind MSP, while Rimutaka squeezed past Stokes Valley 10-6 and clinched fourth place ahead of fifth placed Petone who defeated OBU 29-5 in the last round.

Meanwhile, Norths were in hot form against MSP in their final round Swindale Shield match and took the game away from last year's winners with some excellent first half attacking rugby.

Led by powerful No.8 Anare Koliavu, lock Chris Middleton, Hurricanes prop Jacob Ellison and halfback Tomasi Palu, the Porirua champions took the game to MSP and established a 10-0 lead after as many minutes.

With the wind at their backs, Norths won early field position and were quickly on the board with a James So'oialo penalty. An attacking lineout and series of drives near the line led to a 5-metre scrum and the opening try to blindside Tui Meaveo after a Koliavu surge from close quarters.

MSP were the next team to score, first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili converting a penalty from in front following a promising counterattack up the sideline by left wing JP Tocker and then a darting run into the 22 by halfback Peter Sciascia.

Soon after Norths replied with their second try to wing Francis Seumanutafa, after Koliavu and Middleton combined off the back of a scrum to surge into MSP's 22 and set up quick ruck ball for an assault out wide. Fullback So'oialo then provided a magical last pass for former lock Seumanutafa to score in front of the Norths clubrooms.

Norths swung straight on to attack from the kickoff with a breakout up the right wing and Middleton almost scoring another try straightaway, and then centre Alipati Leiua making a clean break from a lineout move. Another penalty followed, which So'oialo nailed from in front and Norths led 18-3 after 27 minutes.

So'oialo, younger brother of Rodney, was in the action five minutes later when he fielded a kick on the full from his opposite Jackson Martin and set sail up field on a 40-metre run. MSP scrambled well on defence, but from the next ruck Norths hooker Nathan Fotuali'I and Middleton combined to rip the ball across the face of the posts to the waiting Koliavu who ran in their third try. The conversion was successful and the lead was now 25-3.

The bonus point try came two minutes before halftime, electric centre Leiua bursting through to score under the posts for his 17^th try of the season in 12 games, after Norths had won a turnover at the back of an MSP defensive scrum on their 22. So'oialo added the extras and Norths went to the break leading 32-3.

Outstanding openside flanker Dean Brunsdon picked up a loose ball from a ruck and skipped through from close range to score another converted try in the 44^th minute, and at 39-3 it was game over.

MSP rallied well and scored two tries over the final 25 minutes. With Jacob Ellison in the sin bin for Norths, replacement halfback Sean Hay scooted around the blindside for their first try in the 68^th minute. Fullback Martin added the other five minutes from the end for the final score of 39-13.

For MSP, hooker Ged Robinson led from the front, No. 8 Alex Tulou had a standout second half after a shaky first 40 minutes and second five-eighth Joe Wright stood up well in the midfield.??

The draws for the Jubilee and Hardham Cups will be?confirmed early this week.

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