TeamTalk 36
Thursday, 15 October 2009 00:00
For the Trivia Fan
The tour of the British Isles and France by the 1905/6 All Blacks will always be important in New Zealand's sporting history. Name three out of the four reasons for this.
Post Season 7’s Tournaments
Two of these tournaments have now been held.
The Local Point 7’s was held at Trentham Memorial Park on 26 September.
The scores in the finals were:
Open Grade: Oriental-Rongotai Yellow 36 beat Hutt Old Boys Marist 17
Under 20: Northern United 26 beat Oriental-Rongotai 24.
The WRFU 7’s was held at Porirua Park on 3 October.
The scores in the finals were:
Open Grade: Oriental-Rongotai Black 39 beat Marist St Pat’s 19
Under 20: Northern United 36 beat Oriental-Rongotai 19.
The third and last in this series is the American Ambassadors 7’s Tournament to be held at Trentham Memorial Park on 10 October.
Under 14 and 15 Development Week
This is to be held 5 to 8 October at the MSP Gym at Evans Bay, Kilbirnie. 150 players from all over Wellington will be in attendance and will receive coaching from the WRFU CCO’s, Wellington Lions players, & important information on nutrition from the WRFU academy trainers. Teams are made up from Hutt Valley, Wellington City and Western Bay, along with our heartland neighbours: Horowhenua-Kapiti U14 and Wairarapa Bush U15.
There will be skill and team training sessions on Day 1, followed by position specific sessions with the Lions players and nutritional advice from the WRFU academy trainers on Day 3. On the other two days there will be games for the players to apply what they have been learning during the week.
For further information contact Rick Whatarau on 021 228 2129 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Disciplinary Summary
The final number of incidents for Judicial Matters in the Club Season was 68. This is an incredibly disappointing number, especially concerning the rise in Referee Abuse cases from last season. We urge all clubs to work with their teams regarding discipline over the off-season to ensure that referees need to give fewer red cards next season.
Code of Conduct
This season has been the first with the newly implemented WRFU Code of Conduct. We thank all clubs who have done their best to ensure that the Rugby Community is aware of the code. We will be working on further advertising programmes over the off-season so look out for this material. If you have not seen the Code visit the WRFU website.
Te Upoko o te Ika Wellington Maori Rugby
The Wellington Maori team has completed their programme for 2009 with a two win, two loss record. After tough games against Wellington U21 and Wellington Samoans, they turned around to finish with good wins over Canterbury Maori and Counties-Manukau Maori.
Former Maori All Black Ray MacDonald, who coached this year’s team, identified four players who stood out for the short campaign: vice captain James Measor and Josh Hunt (both Upper Hutt ) from the forward pack, and Trevor Marama (Paremata-Plimmerton) and Hayden Wheelan (Oriental Rongotai) starred for the backs.
Next for this team is the “Te Tini a Maui” Central Region Maori Tournament in Palmerston North on the last weekend of February 2010.
Results for each game were: v Wellington U21 Colts lost 14 – 69, v Wellington Samoan lost 21 – 22, v Canterbury Maori won 28 – 3, v Counties-Manukau Maori won 19 – 8.
Points: For 82, Against 102
The Wellington Maori Development team also played this season.
They were selected from U21 players plus some old heads to help with development of the younger ones, and several college first XV players.
The team was invited to take part in the 2009 RDO Cup (reported separately)
Coached by former Wellington player John Bradbrook and 2006 Women’s NPC winning coach Ash Pointon, with assistance from up and coming coach Jason Atkin, the team found it tough losing a string of close results.
Poneke’s Kenny Anderson stood out with his experience, plus the consistence of exciting loose forwards Daniel McCool (Petone) and Ellery Prisk (Johnsonville). Avalon’s Laith Rua showed some class while Jarad Henry (Rongotai College) was a very promising future prospect. Retimana Hartley showed great versatility for this team.
This team will play in the “Te Tini a Maui” Central region Maori tournament in Palmerston North on the last weekend of February 2010.
Results for their games were: v Horowhenua-Kapiti B lost 24 – 26, v Wanganui B lost 13 – 26, v King Country B lost 15 – 17, Wairarapa Bush B lost 12 – 17.
Points: For 64, Against 86.
2009 RDO Cup
Congratulations to Wairarapa Bush B for taking out the 2009 RDO Cup. This trophy was played for by Heartland B teams and a Wellington Maori Development team over a six week period. The results of our Maori Development team games are shown above.
Waterman Intermediate Tournament
Waterman Innovations Ltd has been the major supporter of this tournament since 2004. It is only for intermediate schools and invited Y7/8 college teams, with a 16 team limit competing for the ultimate prize of the “Waterman Cup”. Some 350 players were involved in total.
After pool play, teams played in different categories to compete for a trophy.
Fergusson Intermediate downed rival Maidstone Intermediate to win the Bowl Trophy. In the Shield section Evans Bay Intermediate beat Brandon Intermediate to claim a trophy for the fifth time in the six years of the tournament. Masterton Intermediate accounted for Newlands Intermediate to win the Plate.
In the grand final for the Waterman Cup, defending champions Naenae Intermediate were too strong for Tawa Intermediate in an excellent game of rugby. The trophy was presented by All Black Conrad Smith.
Waterman Innovations offer schools a range of products to help their teaching efforts, as well as freeing up their valuable time.
U16 Hurricanes Tournament
Wellington had two teams at the Hurricanes U16 tournament held recently in Masterton.
The A team finished second overall with the following results: v Manawatu lost 27 – 32, v Taranaki won 40 – 13, v Hawkes Bay won 26 – 6.
The Wellington Development team won its division with superior points differential: v East Coast won 71 – 0, v Wanganui won 27 – 3, v Poverty Bay drawn 10 – 10.
Under 13 Programme
This programme is now underway with so far six of the seven provincial games having been played, for six wins.
It was pleasing to see six Wellington players selected for the NZRU Schoolboys team, the most any Union has produced; five of these six came through this U13 Development program, with the sixth being a South African import.
Wellington RRA Annual Awards Dinner
This was held on Friday 2 October and awards of note included:
PREMIER TOP FIVE - Mike Fraser, Wayne Dickson, Gordon Noble-Campbell, Phil Smith and Daniel Kershaw
INTERMEDIATE TOP FIVE - Rob Neru, Brent Ringrose, Daniel Mangin, Bradley Hudson and Nick Hogan
FIRST YEAR TOP FIVE - Scott Kennedy, Daniel Murphy, Peter Campbell, Bevan Brocklehurst and Shane Bennett
TROPHIES
Daniel Kershaw - Hugh Jacobs Trophy for Most Promising Premier Referee
Geoff Willmott - Joe Beagle Memorial Cup for Most Promising Senior Referee
Brent Ringrose - Lougher Cup for Most Improved Intermediate Referee
Vincent Ringrose - Cummins Cup for Most Promising 2nd Year Referee
Promoted to Premier Grade - Daniel Kershaw, Aaron Parker
Promoted to Senior Grade - Matthew Goodger, Chris Graham, Matt Smith, Geoff Willmott
Promoted to Intermediate Grade - Jamie Fairmaid, Paul Mitchell, Bradley Hudson, Ian Carson, Nick Hogan, Brett Beaumont, Vincent Ringrose
AMI SCHOLARSHIPS - Jared Clarke and Matthew Goodger
SPECIAL AWARD - Joe O’Brien for 65 years service to Rugby Refereeing.
The Answer – for the Trivia Fan
The reasons why this tour of the British Isles and France by the 1905/6 All Blacks will always be important in New Zealand's sporting history are:
· It was wonderfully successful on the field, with 34 of the 35 matches won.
· It gave rise to the “All Black” name, one of the best known sporting names in the Western world.
· The pre-match performances of the haka gave the team a special quality, unique to New Zealand.
· The team brought a degree of specialisation and planning to the game far in advance of that in the country where the game originated.