First XV college rugby starts up in earnest this weekend

Above: St Pat's Silversteam joins St Pat's Town, Wellington College, Feilding High School, Palmerston North Boys' High School, Gisborne Boys' High Schools, Hastings Boys' High School and host team Napier Boys' Bigh High School this coming Saturday in the opening weekend of the?Tranzit Coachlines 1st XV Festival.

Saturday sees the opening of the college rugby season, with once again two sets of matches taking place to determine this year’s College Sport Wellington competitions.

Play starts tonight with two boys Co-ed Cup matches being played and girls preseason matches (featuring the expansion of the top grade to 12-a-side) starting tomorrow afternoon.

Tranzit Coachlines 1st XV Festival

Last year’s Premier 1 semi-finalists return to the top grade by right, and have been invited to the third edition of the Tranzit Coachlines 1st XV Festival over the next three weekends. There they will face off against the Hurricanes-region schools aligned to the Super 8 competition.

However only three Wellington schools – runners up St Pat’s Silverstream and semi-finalists Wellington College and St Pat’s Town – will take part in the first two legs, as joint-national champions Scots College will be in Japan as the New Zealand representatives at the Sanix World Championship. Scots’ place will be taken by Feilding High School for the Napier and Palmerston North legs, with Scots returning in time to play in the final leg at the Petone Rec on 16 May.

As well as being a strong early season barometer of form - with the change to the Hurricanes regional qualifying for the National Top 4 - these games will be a pointer towards possible matchups later in the year.

Match Schedule

2 May - Napier Boys’ High School: Palmerston North BHS v Feilding HS; Gisborne BHS v St Pat’s Wellington; Napier BHS v Wellington College; Hastings BHS v St Pat’s Silverstream (at Hastings BHS)

9 May - Massey University: Feilding HS v Hastings BHS; Palmerston North BHS v Wellington College; Gisborne BHS v St Pat’s Silverstream; St Pat’s Wellington v Napier BHS

16 May - Petone Recreation Ground: St Pat’s Wellington v Palmerston North BHS; St Pat’s Silverstream v Napier BHS; Wellington College v Gisborne BHS; Scots College v Hastings BHS

Premier Grading Pools

All other college Premier (open weight) teams are in action in a series of grading games over those same three weekends to determine which division they will be placed into for the season ahead. The main focus is on those schools vying for one of the four remaining places in Premier 1, joining those four schools who return by right.

The format has 16 school first XVs placed into four pools of four, seeded based on their finishing position last year. Within each pool the teams play each other once in a round-robin, with the pool winner qualifying for Premier 1, positions two and three being placed into Premier 2, and the bottom team into Premier 3.

A fifth pool, Pool E, contains the second XV's of the four major boys schools with the top two teams qualifying for Premier 2 and the other two placed in Premier 3.

Further sets of pools below these determine the remaining teams in Premier 3, as well as the 4th, 5th, and if needed, 6th divisions. For three first XV's - Heretaunga, Onslow, and once powerful Mana - the best they can achieve is qualification for Premier 3.

There are some interesting matchups in the main qualifying pools, and although the four schools looking to return will favour their chances, they each face potentially tricky assignments.

Rongotai College headlines Pool A and will be warm favourites to return to Premier 1, though for the third year in succession they will have to head off Hutt Valley HS for that spot. Two years ago Rongotai won 17-14, last year they drew 17-all with the Kilbirnie school only coming out ahead by virtue of a bonus point. Kapiti College actually finished ahead of HVHS in Premier 2 last year, while Taita College earned their way into these pools by being one of the top four 1st XV’s in Premier 3 last year.

Hutt International Boys’ School fronts Pool B; last year in Premier 1 they managed their first win over Wellington College, but also suffered a 100-point mauling by Scots. Their assignment includes neighbours Upper Hutt College as well as Porirua College and Wainuiomata HS. Porirua were beaten semi-finalists in Premier 2 last year and played in Premier 1 in 2013, so seem the likely challengers, while HIBS will need to rebound from their 63-5 loss in their annual preseason match with Palmerston North BHS last weekend. Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata seem likely to battle for the second Premier 2 spot.

Pool C shapes as perhaps the toughest pool. St Bernard’s are the Premier 1 incumbents but will face a stiff challenge from last year’s Premier 2 runners-up Wairarapa College who are now eligible for Premier 1 status. Bishop Viard College have the bulk of last year’s team returning and loom as a possible dark horse that could upset both. By contrast Paraparaumu College have few players returning from last year, and it would be something of a surprise if they retained their Premier 2 status.

Pool D is perhaps the most open of them all. On the back of their 2013 sides outstanding season Naenae College automatically returned to Premier 1 but found 2014 much tougher.

Their main challenger will be 2014 Premier 2 winners Tawa College who return a good number of that team for this season. Aotea College and Newlands College will look to make their claims as well and this is one pool that should be much clearer after the first week’s matches.

Week 1 schedule (home teams first, all matches kickoff at 2.30pm unless stated):

• Pool A: Rongotai v Taita, Kapiti v HVHS at Kapiti (1pm)
• Pool B: Upper Hutt v HIBS, Porirua v Wainuiomata
• Pool C: St Bernard’s v Bishop Viard, Wairarapa v Paraparaumu (11am)
• Pool D: Naenae v Newlands, Tawa v Aotea

All other College grades – Under 15, Under 80kg, Under 65kg, and Under 55kg – also start with grading matches this weekend.