MSP in must-win territory in fifth round

Expect a big Easter weekend from Marist St. Pat's teams in this weekend's fifth round set of Easter club rugby matches, particularly their Premier team who are in must-win territory if they want to win their 11th Swindale Shield title.

MSP, who celebrate their 40^th anniversary in three weeks, travel out to Maidstone Park to take on Upper Hutt in a key game for both sides. Both have two wins from four and the loser of this match will be in danger slipping out of first round title contention, particularly if frontrunners Northern United and Oriental-Rongotai continue to hit their straps and win their matches.

Northern United are unbeaten and on a maximum 20 points after a month and travel to Ian Galloway Park to take on the Wests Roosters, while Ories are also unbeaten and two points further adrift on 18. They host Wainuiomata at the Polo Ground.

It's Old Timers' Day at Maidstone Park and Upper Hutt also hosts MSP's Senior 2 team in the early game in their National Mutual Cup fifth round. This is also a key game in this grade, with unbeaten MSP gunning for its fifth straight win and Upper Hutt with three wins looking to rein them in and join them near the top of the table after this weekend.

In the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield, MSP are one of three unbeaten teams after four rounds, alongside Poneke and HOBM, and in their round five encounter travel a bit further up the road to Maoribank Park to play Rimutaka who are fourth with two wins and two losses.

Significant breaks could develop between the frontrunners and the rest of the fields in all three competitions after this weekend's fifth rounds and MSP teams are key protagonists in all.

In this week's Swindale Shield feature match, both MSP and Upper Hutt will be trying hard to prevent this occurring. Both are coming off fourth round losses in pouring rain to the two leaders. Upper Hutt were dismissed by Norths 31-9 at Porirua Park and MSP couldn't find a way through Ories before losing 14-3.

MSP may or may not have Japan-bound Fa'atonu Fili back for another week. But Upper Hutt's kicker and fullback Jason Woodward has been in terrific form so far this year, picking up two Best and Fairest Player of the Day awards and averaging 15 points per game. He also picked up a try and scored 19 points in the Hurricanes Development side's win over their Chiefs counterparts in Taupo on Wednesday

MSP and Upper Hutt were in similar positions when they met at Maidstone Park in this corresponding fixture last season, played a week earlier in round four. Both were winless and desperate for victory. MSP prevailed with a bonus point, 40-23, and went on to win their next seven games and finish second behind Norths. Upper Hutt finished eighth and scraped into the Jubilee Cup. In the second round, MSP also had the better of Upper Hutt, winning 49-0 and extending their grip on Upper Hutt in Premier rugby.

In one of the longest current winning streaks in Wellington club rugby, Upper have not beaten MSP in Swindale Shield or Jubilee Cup matches since May 2002 when they won 29-19 at Maidstone Park.

The streak goes back 14 games and includes eleven bonus point wins. The closest Upper Hutt have got to MSP in this time has been a pair of one-points losses in 2007 and 2005 - the latter ending their 10-game winning streak with the Swindale Shield title safely in the bag.

In two Premier interclub trophy games this weekend, Old Boys-University and Hutt Old Boys Marist meet for the Wood Cup at Nairnville Park and Avalon and Petone clash for the Morgan Family Trophy at Fraser Park.

The OBU-HOBM match is a key mid-table clash between two sides heavily favoured to contest the Jubilee Cup later in the season. Both have two wins from four, with HOBM coming off a 35-20 win over Avalon and OBU a 21-38 defeat to Petone. HOBM and OBU always produce good, positive matches, as evidenced by last year's two results between the sides that saw HOBM prevail 23-16 in the Swindale Shield and OBU win 27-22 in their return Jubilee Cup fixture. Information about the Wood Cup that they will be playing for is unknown.

In the curtain raiser at Nairnville Park at 1.15pm, OBU hosts unbeaten HOBM in the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield.

The Morgan Family Trophy match at Premier level sees Petone and Avalon meet for the first time in two seasons on account of Avalon being in Senior 1 last year. Avalon are holders having won 29-8 in the Harper Lock Shield last year.

This trophy was established in 1987 and donated by cousins John and Trevor Morgan. Trevor's father, Ray Morgan played Senior A, coached Senior B, and was also the club treasurer.?Ray was also the secretary/treasurer of the NZRU. ?He died in 1975 aged 53. John Morgan played age group rugby for Petone in the 1970s. Through his wife Lauren, he joined the Taita club, where he became treasurer and was on the committee that amalgamated to form the Avalon club in 1980. Trevor represented Wellington between 1971-75. He was also Player-Coach of the Avalon Senior As in the club's early years.

Petone will also be down two forwards, with local Taita College old boys Bradley Shields and Mike Kainga preparing for next week's New Zealand U20 trial. Shields and Kainga (playing half a game) are two of five Wellington players involved in this trial in Palmerston North, the others being MSP's Solomona Sakalia, Poneke's Reg Goodes and Norths' TJ Perenara.

Elsewhere, Norths will be confident of earning their fifth straight win of 2011 at Roosterville against the home side Wests who are yet to get off the mark this year.

To prevail over Norths, the Roosters will need to break an eight-match losing streak over Norths and disregard all their previous four clashes that saw Norths win comfortably on each occasion. Last year in their only match Norths beat Wests 72-6.

At William Jones Park, leaders Ories will meet a Wainuiomata side determined to topple them on their home track. Wainuiomata will probably have the services of Piri Weepu again, while flanker Greg Lealofi has been a standout in their side to date.

Second only to Norths on the attacking, Ories also have the most miserly defence of the Swindale Shield after a month, conceding just 11 points per game. In contrast, Wainuiomata, have leaked the most points of anyone in conceding 38 points per game.

Since their re-promotion to the Premier ranks in 2006 Wainuiomata have mostly had the better of clashes with Ories, winning five of eight since their first match in many years in the Hardham Cup round in 2006. Ories won their last two - 26-8 in 2009 and 27-17 last year - but before that Wainuiomata won five of their previous six.

Tawa travel to Evans Bay Park desperate for their first win against Poneke. A loss for Tawa would put their Jubilee Cup hopes in serious jeopardy, particularly given they play HOBM, Ories and Norths in that order in the following three weeks.

For inspiration, Tawa can point to this match last season at Lyndhurst Park in which they were involved in one of the great comebacks - earning a spectacular victory being seemingly down and out early in the second half. Trailing 7-35 early in the second half, they came roaring back with five unanswered tries - 18-year old winger George Tilsley racing in to score his second consecutive hat trick in the process. Current Highlander Shaun Treeby scored the match winning converted try under the posts with two minutes to play. Tawa won 42-35.

Their match two years ago was not without incident either. Poneke won their 2009 encounter 40-13 -but the match was notable for being delayed half and hour due to the Lyndhurst Park sprinkler system firing into life on its automatic cycle and no one being at the ground to turn it off.

Poneke will be playing for their fifth consecutive win of the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield against winless Tawa when they meet in the curtain-raiser at 1.15pm.

In other Senior 1 games, Paremata-Plimmerton host Ories at Ngatitoa Domain. Both have one win each and need to prevail in this match to stay in the hunt for the Harper Lock Shield. Stokes Valley will be desperate for their first win against Petone at Delaney Park and fifth equal Norths and Johnsonville meet at Helston Park.

Norths and Johnsonville also meet for the Barlow Trophy, after Bert Barlow who played senior club rugby as a winger for Johnsonville before moving to Titahi Bay. Bert became active at the local Titahi Bay Rugby Club where he became a coach in the lower grades before moving through to coach the club's top team with another old Bay stalwart Ken Stirling. After coaching he moved into the management, where he held the positions of Club Captain, Building Convenor & President.?Bert also had a big input in the completion of the upgrade of the old Onepoto clubrooms.

In the Senior 2 National Mutual Cup, OBU and HOBM clash at Martin Luckie Park at 3.00pm in the feature game of the round. Both are unbeaten after four weeks and the winner will take a significant step towards trying to win this grade.

Elsewhere, Wainuiomata host the Wellington Axmen at William Jones Park, Poneke entertain winless Johnsonville at Kilbirnie Park, Avalon play winless Petone at Fraser Park, and the Wests Roosters host another winless team in Norths at Ian Galloway Park.

In round four Fleurs Trophy Senior Women's action, defending champions Norths will be out to make it four from four against OBU at Porirua Park, Stokes Valley will be searching for their first win against Petone at Delaney Park and Eketahuna will be looking to bounce back from their shock loss to Petone last week when they host MSP. Petone have the bye.