Pressure On Norths In Final Week Of Jubilee Cup

The pressure is on Northern United in this weekend's final round of 2008 Jubilee Cup matches to beat Poneke or risk missing out on the Jubilee Cup playoffs for the first time since 2002.

Norths have been the most successful club over the past five years, as the only side to have made the Jubilee Cup semi-finals every year between 2003-07. Their five consecutive semis appearances in this period also included four in a row at Porirua Park of which they won three, beating Petone 15-8 in 2004, Upper Hutt 26-21 in 2005 and Petone again in 2006 56-17.

While Petone's 17-9 win over them last week cemented the Villagers and MSP as the top two qualifiers in 2008 and consequently ended their brilliant run of playoff games at Porirua Park, Norths fans will be hoping their team can still finish inside the top four and earn a knockout fixture away at either Petone or Evans Bay Park. If not they will be watching the semi-finals from afar for the first time since 2002 when they finished fifth

It could all come down to their clash this weekend at a likely water logged Kilbirnie Park against specialist mudlarks Poneke, another club oozing playoff experience after appearing in six of eight Jubilee Cup finals between 1999-2006 and five of seven contested at Westpac Stadium between 2000 and 2006. Poneke's golden run ended last year when they missed out on the top four altogether, but a Jubilee Cup win in 2008 would be a fairytale end to their 125th year.

Norths and Poneke head into this week's closing round of matches occupying the all-important third and fourth spots on the table on 16 and 15 points respectively, with the loser of their encounter in danger of missing out to Oriental-Rongotai in the playoffs if Ories beat Upper Hutt in their fixture at Maidstone Park.

Ories moved to 12 points with their gritty 10-0 round six victory over last year's champions Hutt Old Boys Marist and will reach the semis for the first time since 2002 if they win and Norths beat Poneke. If Poneke and Ories finish on the same amount of points then Ories will progress as they beat them 20-16 in the round robin two weeks ago. If Poneke beat Norths then Ories can still qualify fourth but will need to win with a bonus point for scoring tries and also hope that Norths don't earn any bonus points themselves.

In the round's other matches, it's all about maintaining momentum for the top two qualifiers Marist St. Pat's and Petone as they take on Hutt Old Boys Marist and Old Boys-University. MSP and HOBM will be playing for end of year Marist supremacy at the Hutt Recreation Ground, after MSP won 12-5 and won the Father Cleary Shield when they last met at Evans Bay in round six of the Swindale Shield. Petone have now won four in a row since last losing 15-20 to MSP in round two of Jubilee Cup and will hope to beat OBU and capture the Andy Leslie Trophy for topping the points table at the end of the second round if MSP lose.

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