Frantic final round for Jubilee Cup hopefuls

Northern United have already wrapped up the 2010 Swindale Shield title, but the tussle down the points table to join them and the five other already confirmed qualifiers in the prestigious Jubilee Cup is set to get exciting this weekend.

While Norths have been busy bamboozling their fans in a record breaking first round campaign, the race to finish inside the top eight and make the Jubilee Cup has been steadily gathering pace to the point where four teams - Wainuiomata, Tawa, Old Boys-University and Upper Hutt - are effectively chasing the final two Jubilee Cup spots this weekend.

Heading into the last round, OBU are on 23 points, Wainuiomata 21, Tawa 20 and Upper Hutt 17 and all still in contention of finishing either seventh or eighth.

This week's final round draw involving these teams sees OBU and Wainuiomata playing each other, Tawa playing the eleventh placed the Wests Roosters and Upper Hutt meeting winless Johnsonville.

This means that whoever wins at the Allied Nationwide Finance Basin Reserve between OBU and Wainuiomata will grab one of the two remaining spots - but the loser could miss out completely depending on what happens in Tawa's and Upper Hutt's matches.

Depending on bonus points, Tawa will likely leapfrog either Wainui or OBU if they beat the Wests Roosters in their last match at Ian Galloway Park. But two factors that could preclude Tawa winning this match are their pre-match preparations and the Roosters' new-found form. Tawa's build-up this week has included the majority of the team being in Rarotonga for playmaker Willie Lafaele's wedding on Wednesday, while Wests have a new-found confidence after coming within a conversion of beating OBU last week and scoring five tries in the process.

Upper Hutt's chances rest entirely on what happens in these other two matches and they need OBU to beat Wainui and the Wests Roosters to beat Tawa. But at the same time they will see themselves a big chance of beating Johnsonville at home at Maidstone Park.

It could also come down to bonus points and a countback system of who beat who in the round-robin if two teams are tied in eighth, or by points differential in a circular tie situation with three of more teams locked on the same points. Current points differential sees Wainui on -20, OBU -63, Tawa -100 and Upper Hutt -118.

Elsewhere, Norths' quest for a perfect first round campaign of eleven straight wins and three head-to-head matches involving the already confirmed top six Jubilee Cup-bound sides are the other key elements of the final round of the 2010 Swindale Shield.

Norths will be playing to become the first Swindale Shield champions in at least several seasons to wipe the floor clean by winning all their eleven first round games when they welcome Poneke on to Porirua Park.

In recent years the closest to achieving this has been Upper Hutt in 2005 and Marist St. Pat's in 2008. In 2005 Upper Hutt won 10 games straight to claim the Swindale Shield with a round to spare, but then lost to Marist St. Pat's at home in their final game. In 2008 MSP also won 10 consecutive games en route to winning the title, but that was after they had lost their season opener to Old Boys-University.

Norths, with 512 points, have already shattered the all-time record for most points in the first round, surpassing the 500 points exactly that they scored in the Swindale Shield last year.

Similarly, with 48 competition points (out of a possible 50), Norths have already accumulated the most points in the first round for at least several seasons. As a comparison, first round winners and points after 11 rounds since 2003 have been: 2003 Norths, 44; 2004 Petone, 43; 2005 Upper Hutt, 47; 2006 Norths, 44; 2007 Norths, 47; 2008 MSP, 47; 2009 Norths and Petone, 46.

However, one recent record (since 2003) Norths may want to avoid is the most points conceded by a first round winner, which currently stands at 194 set by themselves in 2003. Norths have so far conceded 179 points this year, meaning they will want to restrict Poneke to two converted tries or fewer to avoid this one. Of note, the fewest points conceded in the first round since 2003 was 99 by MSP in 2008.

Behind Norths, the rest of the points table sees a tightly bunched group of five teams chasing the minor placings who are all currently separated by just four competition points. These are MSP and Ories (36), Poneke (35),Petone (34) and Hutt Old Boys Marist (32).

In other last round clashes, Ories and Petone meet at the Petone Recreation Ground and MSP and HOBM vie at Evans Bay Park, meaning Poneke could finish the first round as high as outright second or as low as outright sixth depending on the outcomes of these three games.

Poneke are coming off a typically fighting 20-18 win over HOBM, but for this match are missing all three of their representative players Charlie Ngatai (NZ U20s) and Daniel Ramsay and Dane Coles (both NZ Maori), while their recent record against Norths is a poor one.

The two teams have met 10 times since the start of 2006 with Norths winning seven, Poneke two and with one draw. Poneke won this corresponding clash last year in round one at the neutral venue of Trentham Memorial Park, but Norths beat Poneke twice at Klbirnie Park in the second round. Just three of these 10 clashes have been at Porirua Park, with Norths winning 28-12 in the 2008 Swindale Shield, 67-7 in the 2007 Jubilee Cup and they played out a 13-13 draw in the 2006 Jubilee Cup.

Another big match this weekend sees MSP and HOBM lock horns for the battle of Marist supremacy and for the Father Cleary Shield, which commemorates the late Father Tom Cleary (commonly known as "Creeps") a sportsmaster and well known first XV coach at St. Pat's College, Wellington and one of the founders of the St. Pat's College Old Boys RC.

It was donated by the Roche family for competition between Marist and St. Pat's at a time when relations between them were not very cordial, in the hope that it might improve these relations. Its effectiveness may be judged by the fact that the two clubs are now amalgamated. Following the amalgamation, the trophy briefly fell into disuse. It was revived in 1974 for competition between MSP and Hutt Valley Marist. In 1995 it was re-allocated for the first round match between MSP and Hutt Old Boys Marist after their amalgamation with Hutt Old Boys.

The Father Cleary clash has gone the way of MSP on each of the past two years and on five of seven occasions since they first met in 2003 when HOBM were re-promoted to the top grade. MSP won 35-7 last year and 12-5 in 2008, but the two previous encounters were epics- HOBM winning 29-28 in 2006 and MSP 32-29 in 2007.

HOBM has already beaten MSP once this year - 24-18 in the final of the Spillane Cup New Zealand Marist tournament in Hastings in March.

The Petone - Oriental Rongotai match is for the Bill Brien Shield and the Jim Brown Memorial Trophy, which was donated by Jim's employer Dominion Breweries shortly after his death from cancer in 2004.

It could be argued that Jim is the most unlucky player never to play for the All Blacks. The story goes that Petone were playing Upper Hutt the day before The All Blacks were to be named and Jim was called to the Union offices in Wellington to be measured up for his uniform. According to Andy Leslie the game was held up for 5 minutes for Jim to arrive from his fitting session and it was in this game that he broke his leg and was therefore not named.

Jim gave loyal service to his club through his playing days and he represented Wellington from 1965 to 1974. He was a major driving force in getting Petone away to North America in 1973, and although his leg was in plaster he was often seen mixing concrete with a plastic bag over his cast at the many working bees to raise funds.

Jim's biggest supporter was his wife Anne. His children are all top line athletes with son Mark one of New Zealand's leading Golfers and daughters Sharon and Helen involved in Netball.

Meanwhile, Norths will also be presented with the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield at Porirua Park on Saturday, following their last match against Poneke in the curtain raiser at 1.15pm.

With a five-point buffer at the top of the table to joint second placed HOBM and Avalon, but having beaten both of these two teams in the round-robin, Norths can't be headed in the Senior 1 grade.

Similarly, the top four has already been decided, with HOBM, Avalon and MSP already confirmed as the three teams joining Norths in the Hardham Cup for the second round.

In other games, HOBM and MSP clash at Evans Bay Park at 1.15pm in a battle for the minor placings, Avalon play eighth placed Tawa at Fraser Park at 3pm, sixth placed Ories take on ninth placed Petone at the Petone Rec at 1.15pm, seventh placed OBU tussle with 10th placed Stokes Valley at Nairnville Park at 1pm. In the battle for the wooden spoon, the Rimutaka Rams lock horns with Paremata-Plimmerton at Maoribank Park at 3pm.

Norths' trophy cabinet will be overflowing on Saturday evening when their Senior 2 outfit collects the National Mutual Cup following their match against Poneke on Porirua 2 at 3pm.

Norths' 3rd XV are guaranteed to win the National Mutual Cup by at least two points and move up a grade and contest the Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup throughout the second half of the season.

Two teams from the National Mutual Cup will move up a grade to the Ed Chaney Cup. Norths' opposition on Saturday, Poneke, are currently second (on 36 points) but are ineligible due to their second team already being in the Ed Chaney Cup. This then opens the door for either third placed Avalon (32), fourth placed Upper Hutt (31) or fifth placed Wainuiomata (30) to get up and grab this second spot.

This week's matches involving these three teams sees Avalon play sixth placed Marist St. Pat's at Kilbirnie Park, Upper Hutt play eleventh placed Paremata-Plimmerton at Maidstone Park and Wainui meet seventh placed OBU at Martin Luckie Park.

Like the Swindale Shield grade, if two or more of these three teams are tied on the same amount of points the team that is promoted to the Ed Chaney Cup alongside Norths will be decided on who beat who earlier in the round or if necessary by points differential.

The Petone - Wellington match at the Petone Recreation Ground is for the Air New Zealand Cup, now contested at Senior 2 level but formerly in the Premier grade.

In 1977 the Wellington FC, after a mammoth fundraising effort, took their Senior side on a world tour playing 11 games in the USA, England, Wales, Scotland, Holland and Hong Kong. Air New Zealand sponsored this journey by providing some free seats for the team and a trophy to be contested between Wellington and Petone.

The U21 Paris Memorial Trophy is still alive this week, with Petone (on 23 points), Norths (22) and MSP (22) still alive to take the first round Colts title.

In this week's last round set of games, Petone play fifth placed Upper Hutt, Norths play seventh placed OBU and MSP meet fourth placed Ories.

It's also the last week of the Senior 3 first round JDR Cup, with Johnsonville having already wrapped this one up with a round to spare. This week Johnsonville play ninth placed Rimutaka, while joint second placed MSP and Ories will be battling for the minor places against lower ranked HOBM and Avalon respectively.

The second round Victoria Tavern Women's Premier competition resumes this week following last weekend's women's regional tournament. Northern United play Petone at Porirua Park on Friday night, MSP and OBU tangle at Martin Luckie Park and Stokes Valley and Eketahuna meet at Delaney Park. Wainuiomata has the bye.

The second round Paul Potiki Shield for the 85kg Restricted grade and Eric Connolly Cup for the U19 grade both kick off this weekend, after the MSP Blues (85kg) and HOBM (U19) won their first round competitions last week.

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