bucqi Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup semi-finals previews
And then there were four. After last week's remarkable conclusion to the round-robin phase of the bucqi Jubilee Cup featuring all sorts of late drama - and the subsequent untangling of the four teams tied for three places was sorted out - things should be simpler this Saturday. It's head-to-head footy, with no tomorrow in the chase for Wellington club rugby's ultimate Prize
It's no different in the Hardham Cup either as the remaining sides each seeks the silverware to take back to their clubrooms for the summer.
bucqi Jubilee Cup
Marist St Pat's (1) vs Oriental-Rongotai (4) - Evans Bay Park
At shortly before 4pm last Saturday these two sides would have had quite contrasting emotions. MSP had just beaten Wellington to ensure top spot and with it the Andy Leslie Trophy, and to also retain the Bill Brien Challenge Trophy for the summer. A few hundred metres away Ories were convinced that the last-minute concession of a try to Old Boys-University to lose to them in that manner for the second-time this year (and eerily by the same 24-25 scoreline) had cost them a playoff place. Only when word came through from WRFU that they had survived on points-difference did the mood lift considerably, and even then they had to wait on the outcome of the clarification hearing earlier this week.
After alternating wins and losses to start the Jubilee Cup, MSP has run off three straight wins over Upper Hutt, Wainuiomata, and Wellington to conclude the round-robin; and through their results, accumulation of bonus points, and goings on elsewhere had secured their place even before last weekend.
Ories started in the same vein that carried them through the Swindale Shield winning their first three matches, which included beating MSP 25-22 at the Polo Ground. However they haven't won since, starting with surrendering a 24-7 lead at home to lose 29-46 to Upper Hutt, and with one-point losses to Wainuiomata and OBU bracketing a 25-all draw with Wellington which they only grabbed at the death. Of the four semi-finalists, they are the only one that didn't win last week.
MSP concluded the Swindale Shield in fourth; winning their last six matches to finish with nine wins, and added a further five in the Jubilee round-robin. Ories came home second to OBU with 10 wins and a draw, with their round 12 loss to Petone ending their hopes of the silverware.
As well as their win in the Jubilee Cup round, Ories also beat MSP in the Swindale round 54-21 at Wakefield Park in one of the night matches making them the only side MSP hasn't beaten so far this year. However their side is much changed from that late April night, with just seven players who started that game in the run-on side tomorrow. Roy Kinikinilau has stuck with the same backline - including himself - that started last Saturday, and just two changes up front with Joey Mears and Tutasi Masoe starting, with Alex Fidow to come off the bench.
MSP captain Isaac O'Connor returns to their starting lineup along with prop Frank Fa'atau and No8 Matt Peni, while Isaia Petelo and Ryan Setefano are restored to the backline.
Matchups to watch include the one in midfield between the hosts Petelo and Lote Raikabula and their opposites Paulo Aukuso and Kinikinilau, and between the pair of hard-running No. 8's in Peni and Luke Taualupe
Tawa (2) vs Wainuiomata (3) - Lyndhurst Park
The difference of a few weeks, or a few moments. A month ago Tawa were rooted to the bottom of the standings, after losses to MSP, Poneke, and Oriental-Rongotai left them with just a solitary competition point, and their odds of just making the semi-finals looked poor. However starting with that weekend's game where they beat their opposition tomorrow - Wainuiomata - at Westpac Stadium they racked up 18 competition points out of a possible 20 with further wins over Wellington, OBU, and last weekend the Upper Hutt Rams in the Maidstone mud. That, and a superior +26 points differential, saw them not just make the semi-finals, but also claim the right to host one of them.
Conversely Wainuiomata alternated wins and losses through the round-robin campaign, sitting there or thereabouts for the duration. Like Tawa they went into last weekend on 15 competition points, but faced Poneke, who were ahead of them, in what shaped as a virtual quarter-final. Ultimately that arm-wrestle was settled by replacement flanker Matt Jacobs' penalty goal a few minutes from time, sending them through to tomorrow. Their other Jubilee Cup wins came over Wellington, Upper Hutt, and Oriental-Rongotai.
Tawa have based their game in recent seasons around a mobile and physical forward pack led by the Fermanis brothers Hemi and TJ, and that will be the case again tomorrow. In fact coaches Willie Lafaele and Doug Fletcher have made just two changes to the side that won last week, with Joketani Koroi returning at lock and Pepesana Patafilo in midfield to partner Shaun Treeby, with Tito Ioane and Elijah Vaa-Brooking the players making way.
Wainuiomata are more substantially changed; Andrew Mamea comes in at loosehead, Greg Leolofi switches to No. 8 to allow Jacobs to start at openside while the back three are reshuffled with Teru Time replacing Jason Love on the wing, and Tau Mamea and Peter Umaga-Jensen swapping places. Veteran John Monu is once again entrusted to run the ship at first-five.
Look out for the contest in the loose between Tawa's trio of Tavita Logovae, TJ Fermanis, and Peniasi Tokakece and Wainui's Leolofi, Jacobs, and Cameron Ross, and the battle between halfbacks Kemara Hauiti-Parapara and Waiariki Koia.
Tawa finished the Swindale Shield in 6th place with eight wins from their 13 matches, but their place wasn't certain until they beat Norths in the last round. Wainuiomata finished the Swindale one place higher in fifth with seven wins backed by no fewer than 13 bonus points, with both claiming four wins from seven in the Jubilee Cup.
Tawa do hold the edge in terms of the head-to-head results, winning 25-23 at Lyndhurst in late April via Randall Bishop's last gasp dropped goal (after Frae Wilson had put Wainuiomata ahead moments earlier using the same method) and then 29-15 five weeks ago at Westpac Stadium. You have to go all the way back to the 2012 Swindale Shield for Wainuiomata's last success at Lyndhurst, a 31-23 success that involved a handful of tomorrow's participants from both sides.
Vincent Ringrose will be in the middle at Evans Bay, with Nick Hogan the referee at Lyndhurst Park.
Premier 2 Hardham Cup
Hutt Old Boys Marist (1) vs Paremata-Plimmerton (4) - Hutt Rec
From the time they lifted the Swindale Shield last year until the end of the same competition Hutt Old Boys Marist's record read P20 W5 D2 L13, a stunning fall from their recent heady heights. However life in the Hardham Cup has seen them go undefeated through the round-robin stage averaging nearly 50 points per outing, with only Norths holding them without a try-scoring bonus point. With several of their players having regained confidence and returned to form they justifiably hold the favourites tag, and have named a strong-looking side including Samoan 7's rep Tomasi Alosio and representative front-rowers James O'Reilly and Joe Apikatoa.
For Paremata-Plimmerton tomorrow is something of a watershed day in the club's history; never before have they contested a play-off match at this level. While the odds seem stacked against them and are most certainly the underdog they'll back themselves to achieve an upset, and showed plenty of resolve last week to grind out the win they needed against MSP B to make certain of their semi-final place. Much will depend on their ability to achieve parity up front and get and retain possession and territory. They are completely unchanged from the side that got them to this stage last week.
HOBM certainly haven't showed any leniency in the sides' two meetings so far this year, keeping their tryline intact in 160 minutes against their opponents winning 33-6 at Maidstone Park in the second of the midweek night rounds and 62-3 at Ngatitoa six weeks ago.
Northern United (2) vs Petone (3) - Porirua Park
It's an element of déjà vu for these two, who only met last weekend. Norths won that encounter 24-21 at the Petone Rec, meaning the rematch would be played instead at Jerry Collins Stadium.
For the fourth year in a row Norths found themselves consigned to the Hardham Cup. After a bright start where they won five of their first six they were dragged back into the pack, and missed out after losing their last two games of the Swindale Shield, both at home, when a win in either would have seen them through. In the round-robin however they have won 6 of their 7 games, racking up three 50-point hauls and raising a ton against Johnsonville, a marked improvement on last year when a surprise home hammering by Avalon saw them miss out on the playoffs altogether.
For the first time since 1996 - when their team was shorn of their stars by the new Super Rugby competition - and only the second time since the 1960's Petone found themselves in the Hardham Cup. A string of close losses was only interrupted by their last-minute McBain Shield win over neighbours and rivals HOBM, and ironically they were eliminated from the Jubilee Cup on the same day they ended Ories' Swindale Shield hopes when they won 6-3 at the Polo Ground. Like Norths they ran up big totals against the lesser sides, but their two losses came against Norths and HOBM.
Norths make only three changes, all in the outside backs with Johnny Tealaga back to fullback, Perry Hayman back at centre and Jonty Garrett on to the wing. Johnwhite Silva and Api Naikatini are on the bench along with veterans Siaosi Anamani and Peato Lafaele. Petone bring back Eugene Smith, Marcus Roil, and Mateaki Kafetolu into their pack, with 200-gamer Cam Incledon given the job of directing their young backline from halfback.
Aside from last weekend, the other meeting between the two came at Porirua Park all the way back on the opening day of the season, where Norths came back from an 8-20 halftime deficit to win 32-28.
Blair York will have the whistle at the Hutt Rec with Steve Newson in charge at Porirua Park.
All four matches kickoff at 2.15pm.
Should any be drawn at 80 minutes there will be two extra-time periods of 10 minutes each way. If still drawn the side that scored the most tries in the match will advance but if this was equal, then the side that won their second round meeting will proceed. That is the home in side each match above, except for MSP.