MSP lead congested championship field as women’s finalists decided

Marist St Pat's are the new leaders of the Wellington club rugby Bucqui Jubilee Cup championship but the chasing pack will be nipping at their heels over the remaining two rounds of the regular season coming up.

In fact, all eight teams are still alive with a fortnight remaining, making the race to the playoffs and for home ground semi-final advantage one of the closest in several seasons.

In today's fifth round matches, MSP were by the most comfortable victor of the four winners, beating the Upper Hutt Rams 49-31 at home at Evans Bay Park and retaining the Bill Brien Challenge Shield.

In other matches, defending champions Old Boys University defeated Poneke 24-17 at the Basin Reserve, Tawa upstaged the Wellington Axemen 21-8 at Hataitai Park and Wainuiomata held off previous frontrunners Oriental-Rongotai 21-20.

Remarkably, just seven points now separates the eight Jubilee Cup teams with rounds to come on 16 and 23 July ahead of the playoffs. MSP are on 16, ahead of OBU, Wainuiomata and Ories all on 15, Poneke 12, the Upper Hutt Rams 11, Tawa 10 and Wellington 9.

Meanwhile, the Hardham Cup is more straightforward, with the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles winning their fifth straight match today and qualifying for a home semi-final with two rounds to spare.

HOBM beat OBU B 53-40 in a high scoring 15-try encounter at the Hutt Rec, while Petone and Northern United also enjoyed comfortable frolics today. Petone defeated Paremata-Plimmerton 57-17 and Norths beat MSP B 50-13. Avalon also beat Johnsonville easily, winning 55-25.

These results have meant that second and third placed Norths and Petone have also officially joined HOBM in the Hardham Cup semi-finals and will look to book the second home playoff berth over the next two weeks, while the contest for the fourth spot could get severely heated.

Hardham Cup points after five rounds of seven see HOBM on 24, Norths 21, Petone 20, Avalon 10, MSP B, Paremata-Plimmerton and Johnsonville all on 9, OBU 6.

Semi-finals took place in the Women's championship today, with a series of convincing wins for the four winners in the two divisions.

Wainuiomata and Oriental-Rongotai will contest next weekend's Victoria Tavern Trophy Division 1 final, at a time and venue yet to be confirmed, although Wainuiomata are top qualifiers.

Hutt Old Boys Marist and Marist St Pat's are the two teams that will vie for the Division 2 title, with HOBM having home ground advantage for that one.

In the Ories-OBU semi-final at the Polo Ground, both teams were missing some influential players away with the NZ Tertiary 7s side in Wales.

Nevertheless, Ories took control early with an aggressive defensive effort and some powerful plays in broken play by their big ball-running forwards. The result was them scoring two converted tries and then kicking a penalty to open up a 17-0 lead into the wind by halftime.

Ories sailed home to win comfortably in the end, the result sewn up early in the second spell. For Ories, their second five-eighth Mikayla Figiola had a strong match, as did No. 8 Tina Paulo who scored one try herself and set up two more for flyhalf Mena Tumai'i.

Rounding up, Jubilee Cup matches today, MSP extended their winning run against Upper Hutt to 24 consecutive matches with an entertaining, if a little too lose win.

The first two tries were the result of charge-downs. Max Pearson scored for Upper Hutt and Valentine Meachen for MSP.

MSP enjoyed the superior scrum and when they played for territory they used that weapon to force mistakes and create pressure in the Rams half. Flanker turned wing Michael Buckley crossed as did openside Isaac O'Connor and rampant No.8 Pago Haini.

Upper Hutt kept in touch with three Joyner Key penalties, but defensive lapses saw Upper Hutt well behind at halftime.

Key scored a thrilling try in the second-half to make it 32-19 after flanker Daniel Schrijvers regained a chip and chase, but when hard-working hooker Meachen darted over on the wing any chances of a Rams victory were quashed. A penalty try reinforced MSP's dominance at scrum time.

Upper Hutt fought hard to the end and when reserve flanker Vern Sosefo crashed over after persistent attack, Upper Hutt collected a vital four try bonus point to keep them four points adrift of the top four with two rounds to play.

Wainuiomata dealt Ories their second straight loss with a narrow 21-20 victory at William Jones Park.

Down 15-8 at halftime, Ories scored in the opening two minutes of the second 40 through second five-eighth Paulo Aukuso to tie up the score and set up a nail-biting half.

Following Peter Umaga-Jensen's goal-kicking struggles earlier in the match, the home side handed the kicking duties over to substitute wing Jason Love who slotted two penalty goals to have Wainui up 21-15 with 10 minutes to go.

Though, against the run of play, Ories centre Malo Tuitama stripped the ball and ran 50-metres to score, though not under the posts, as Declan Hay failed to add the crucial two points seeing Wainui hold on for the win.

The Hataitai Park fixture was a closely fought match, with Tawa coming out on top of a torrid battle to register their second straight win of the second round.

Wellington went ahead early through a monster James So'oialo penalty, before Tawa replied with a converted try. Fullback Randall Bishop then crossed for a second try that doubled their lead to 14-3 at halftime.

There was no let-up in intensity in the second 40 minutes, with Tawa hooker Matt Treeby scoring his side's third try and what proved to be the match-winner with about 20 to play. Wellington got in the try-scoring books through centre Matt Goosen but the 2013 champions deserved their 21-8 victory.

Down at the Basin Reserve, the OBU Goats came back to beat Poneke in another fierce tussle.

Poneke had scored an early try to put them ahead 7-3, before an exchange of penalties had Poneke ahead 10-9 at the break. Poneke scored a second converted try and OBU kicked a fourth penalty and the red and blacks led 17-12. But the Goats got themselves ahead 19-17 with a seven-pointer and then sealed the match late in the piece with a second try.

In Hardham Cup scoring today, lock Patrick Fenika and prop John WhiteSilva scored two tries each for Norths against MSP, Belgium Tuatagaloa crossed for a hat-trick and fellow wing Losi Filipo for two for Petone, flanker Levi Ekevati scored a brace for HOBM, first five-eighth Josh Fifita scored two tries for OBU B, Ben Lua'ai and Cameron Cross both scored two tries for Avalon and Johnsonville No. 8 Mykel Herewini scored a brace for his side.

Perhaps the most thrilling result of all today came in Colts rugby today, between Marist St Pat's and Oriental-Rongotai in the Division 1 John E Kelly Memorial Cup on the St Pat's artificial.

After building all the early pressure MSP were ahead 3-0 after 20 minutes but then conceded 26 straight points to be trailing 3-26 at halftime and still by that score about 10 minutes to go. Game over at that point?

No - MSP scored four tries in the final 10 minutes to come back and snatch a 27-26 win. After getting to 22-26 behind, MSP rallied from a line break 40 metres out from Ethan Meredith, who sidestepped and beat three defenders then offloaded to his support Zac Lemon who beat more defenders and dotted down on the left flank for the match winner.

It was also a super-tight Colts contest just a few hundred metres away at Kilbirnie Park between frontrunners Old Boys University and Poneke. OBU had their noses in front at 12-5 up at halftime and then held on to win 26-24 and retain their position at the top of the table.

Tawa are snapping at OBU's heels after dispatching Wellington 72-14, while MSP have moved up to third with their win over Ories, ahead of fourth placed Poneke.

Elsewhere, the Upper Hutt Rams hold steady in the middle of the Colts Division 1 table after beating HOBM 62-5, ahead of Northern United who beat Johnsonville 21-14.

Paremata-Plimmerton are the Colts Division 2 leaders, defeating the Avalon Junior Wolves 55-27 today.

In Ed Chaney Cup/HD Morgan Memorial Premier Reserve matches, the Upper Hutt Rams have hit the lead of the Premier Reserve competition with their 30-20 win over HOBM today.

Poneke, Tawa and Norths are just back in second equal, after Poneke defeated Norths 29-24 in today's feature Ed Chaney match and Tawa accounted for Wellington 41-18 in a crossover fixture.

First round winners Petone are within striking distance on the Ed Chaney table after beating Paremata-Plimmerton in another crossover match. Wainuiomata beat Ories 52-17 to head the HD Morgan table, ahead of Avalon defeated minnows Johnsonville 61-10 in the other.

The Petone Brotherhood continues to set the cracking pace in the First Grade Johnsonville Centennium Cup competition. Today they earned their sixth straight bonus point win of the second round in accounting for the Petone Saxons 36-7.

HOBM are second after beating the Avalon Wolves 24-12 in another all Hutt Valley First Grade affair, whilst OBU beat Tawa 54-12 and Norths beat Poneke 43-5 in other games.

There were a series of close matches in the U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield grade this afternoon.

The Tawa Titans are still the competition leaders as they have played one more game, but they went down 3-18 to the Wellington Light Axemen in today's top-of-the-table clash.

Johnsonville are now third after beating the Kapiti side 29-23, ahead of Eastbourne, who had the bye today, and Poneke, who beat the Avalon Wolves 18-16, in joint third. Further down the U85kg Division 1 table, the OBU Bunnies edged the Upper Hutt Rams 13-12.

In the U85kg Division 2 competition, leaders MSP Red are unbeaten after five rounds with a 47-11 win over Wainuiomata.

Leaders the Poneke Ruffnuts defeated Stokes Valley 27-24 in a key John Davies Cup Reserve Grade third round encounter this afternoon.

There were three Weltec Premiership First XV matches played today. Wellington College flew home from Christchurch to defeat minnows St Bernard's College 88-0, Wairarapa College ousted Bishop Viard College 19-15 and Scots College secured third for the playoff series after beating Rongotai College 27-16. The reminder of the round-robin series will conclude at the end of the month after school holidays.