Wednesday night under lights for Swindale Shield this week

It’s a quick turnaround for the Premier teams as they back up from Saturday’s round for Wednesday night’s third round of the Swindale Shield, knowing they all have another match less than 72 hours later on Saturday afternoon.

Such turnarounds aren’t uncommon in recent times, with double-rounds over Easter and midweek rounds on Anzac Day part of the landscape. However night rugby hasn’t been a regular feature of the Premier grade in several years and a full round played on the region’s artificial turfs will be a first, with three of those – Wakefield, Ascot, and Alex Moore Parks – hosting their first Premier grade matches.

As an added wrinkle, none of the notational ‘home’ sides will be on, and some cases even near to, their usual home ground.

Three sides go in with perfect two-from-two records, Old Boys-University, Northern United, and Poneke.

Starting with OBU, they take on Petone at the St Patrick’s College turf in what is nominally a home game for the Villagers. The Goats followed up their opening win thumping of the Upper Hutt Rams by again prevailing in an arm-wrestle with Marist St Pat’s and the arguably form team so far will be looking to run their winning-streak out to twelve games. Petone must feel they’re snake-bit so far this year losing both their matches in the dying moments, and another loss here would surely eat away at the psyche, but a win would be a boost ahead of Sunday’s annual McBain Shield clash against Hutt Old Boys Marist.

The two will also have their Marc Verhoeven interclub trophy at stake. Verhoeven, a former Wellington captain who played for and captained both clubs, and passed away in Australia in 2011 after complications during surgery aged just 50. The two didn’t meet in last year’s Swindale Shield, so this was played for when they met in the Jubilee Cup, won on that occasion by OBU by 38-20.

The second interclub trophy up for grabs features two sides both yet to taste defeat as two-win Northern United clash with one-win, one-draw Oriental-Rongotai at the neutral venue of Alex Moore Park in Johnsonville. Norths have shown much improved fortitude so far in 2016 winning close matches against Petone and the Upper Hutt Rams, while Ories rebounded from a misfiring effort first up to simply run riot over Johnsonville. The aforementioned trophy is the To’omaga Alex Iona Memorial Cup – Alex first played for the Magpies after arriving from Samoa, later moving to Porirua where he joined Norths’ predecessor club Porirua – and it is held by Ories after their 32-22 win in 2014; last year’s Swindale draw and the fact the two contested separate second-round competitions means it wasn’t played for last year.

The third piece of silverware on the line will be at Wakefield Park, where unbeaten Poneke take on tail-enders Johnsonville. Poneke have shown remarkable resilience; snatching a win against Wainuiomata first-up then mounting a successful comeback from 23-8 to beat Hutt Old Boys Marist, and will put up the Bill Brien Challenge Cup. On form though you wouldn’t give the Hawks much chance having endured two big reversals so far, but strangers things have happened.

The fourth game in the city is up at Te Whaea where Wellington and MSP meet. Both sides come in on the back of losses – to Avalon for the Axemen and to OBU for MSP – and would dearly want to get back into the winners circle they enjoyed after opening day wins. The two only met during last year’s Jubilee Cup, with MSP successful on that occasion by 38 points to 25.

The fifth unbeaten side – Avalon – takes their record on the road into suburban Porirua and the Bernie Wood turf at Ascot Park where they will meet Paremata-Plimmerton. The Wolves probably didn’t get the credit they deserved from their Opening Day draw against Oriental-Rongotai, so left no doubt as to their improved credentials in beating Wellington last weekend; the club’s first Swindale Shield win in five years. Paremata-Plimmerton will be less than pleased by their execution in Saturday’s loss to Wainuiomata and perhaps the short turnaround will help them avoid dwelling on that. Avalon edged their only meeting in 2015, winning 15-13 in the Hardham Cup.

The final two matches are out in the Hutt Valley. At Fraser Park the winless Upper Hutt Rams meet Tawa. The Rams turned in an improved effort against Norths but still fell to their second successive loss, and will be desperate to avoid their season falling into an early deep hole; and while Tawa managed to head off Petone at the death to notch their first win and they will be keen to keep the momentum going. Like Norths and Ories these two didn’t meet last year, with the Rams winning their last encounter 29-14 in 2014’s Jubilee Cup.

The second is at Maidstone Park’s artificial where Wainuiomata and Hutt Old Boys Marist both make the journey up the valley. Wainuiomata – nominally the home side – largely eased their way past Paremata-Plimmerton but will also feel they need to improve their accuracy for this one. The Eagles will be quite happy with three of their four halves of work so far, but it’s the last one when they surrendered a handy lead to Poneke that will stick in their craw and they’ll look to rectify.

All matches kickoff at 7.30pm. The corresponding Premier Reserve clashes will be played next Wednesday night.