Jubilee and Hardham Cup competition previews 2011

Jubilee Cup

Can Northern United be stopped? That is a question that will be answered over the next couple of months by the seven other contenders currently awaiting the starter’s gun for this year’s 83^rd edition of the coveted Jubilee Cup, all wanting a shot at the champions and a chance to capture Wellington sport’s greatest prize.

Norths are three-time defending Swindale Shield champions and four time Jubilee Cup champions since winning their first in 2004. Having just become the first team to win three first round titles in succession in the decade and a half since Marist St. Pat’s won three on the trot between 1994-96, Norths are hot favourites to retain the season’s major spoils.

They have been impressive this year, although not as dominant statistically as last season when they averaged almost 50 points a game in the Swindale Shield and two of their players, James So’oialo and Buxton Popoalii, broke Wellington club rugby point and try scoring records. Norths go into the Jubilee Cup as favourites on the numbers alone having scored 138 more Swindale Shield points than the next best attacking team (Petone) and also conceded 25 fewer than the next best defensive team (Oriental-Rongotai). As well as presenting danger to any side right across the field, from their formidable scrum to their counter attacking brilliance and flair, they also play with tremendous heart under pressure. Especially so at home at Porirua Park where they play four of their first five games in the upcoming Jubilee Cup round-robin.

But, as the saying goes, you can’t drink from the Swindale Shield. First round form and past glories will both be out the window when the seven pretenders to Norths’ throne line up across the region’s Premier rugby fields on Saturday for the first round.

Anything can and probably will happen over the next seven weeks of round-robin play. Assuming Norths will be one semi-finalist in two months from now, picking the other three playoff sides amongst the other seven contenders could be anyone’s guess this year. Such has been the closeness in the Swindale Shield that any one of the other sides will be expected to be beat any other on any given day and there will be no upsets this year. Just six points separated second placed Ories (36 points) through to eighth placed qualifier Wainuiomata (30) in this year’s Swindale Shield. As a comparison the points spreads in the previous five Swindale Shields between second and eighth were 13 in 2006, 24 in 2007, 19 in 2008, 28 in 2009 and 18 in 2010.

Two factors set to make the rugby even closer and more unpredictable in this year’s Jubilee Cup will be the onset of winter weather and the loss of leading players to the Vodafone Wellington Lions and other ITM Cup squads around the country when they come calling for players from halfway through the round. The abbreviated national provincial competition kicks off in mid-July, plus there’s pre-season games, so clubs will ?be expected to lose some of their most influential players from as early as round five.

At this stage, all players are available for their Jubilee Cup sides for the first four rounds but only the non-playing ITM Cup match-day players will be unleashed back to their clubs to play the business end of the season, starting on Friday 8 July in the second pre-season match against the defending NPC champions the Canterbury Lambs.

Additionally, once the cold, wintry weather kicks in then the ingredients are there for possibly one of the most evenly contested Jubilee Cups in a long time.

The stage is set for a dark horse, such as a Wainuiomata or an Upper Hutt to come steaming out of the pack and rattle the traditional powerhouses Petone, Poneke and MSP and go all the way to the final. Or for a club like Ories to finally go further this year after top four finishes in each of the previous two Swindale Shields.

Certainly Wainuiomata are no strangers to playoff rugby and finals, having contested four of the past five Hardham Cup finals and winning three of them. They’ve also got a fantastic support base this year at William Jones Park and will be hard to beat at home over the hill. Upper Hutt finished fifth in the Swindale Shield but could easily have finished as high as second if they’d won one or two close matches at home at Maidstone earlier in the round. Posessing both the season’s the leading try and points scorer so far in Jason Woodward (eight tries and 172 points) they too will be especially hard to beat at home and could be there at semi-fnals time. Except as a temporary amalgam with Poneke during world war two, Ories have never won the Jubilee Cup and their supporters will be hoping this is their year.

Hutt Old Boys Marist will be hoping for a repeat of their 2007 success that saw them win the Jubilee Cup for the first time as an amalgamated club, and are another that has the firepower, the support and backing and big game experience to beat anyone and make it through to the final on 7 August, which this year is being held at the Petone Recreation Ground. The Eagles lost their first two matches of the year to the only two teams that finished higher than them in the Swindale Shield, Norths and Ories, but then won six of their next nine and picked up regular bonus points along the way to comfortably qualify inside the top eight.

The other clubs, Poneke, MSP and Petone, can never be discounted. While neither of these sides have been in particularly vintage form this year, with so much history, pride and Jubilee Cup winning tradition behind them, it will be a surprise if two, if not all three, are there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Petone are coming off a 32-32 draw with Norths and will count themselves unlucky not to have won this match after leading 26-3 at halftime, but only won five of their 11 first round matches. Poneke won seven, but even their most ardent supporters would say they have yet to produce a convincing performance, while MSP’s roller-coaster first round very nearly saw them get relegated to the Hardham Cup for the first time since 1975.

These three clubs have won or shared 54 Jubilee titles between them and one of these clubs has won it 13 of the past 20 years. Petone and MSP have won the most, while Poneke have appeared in seven of the past 12 finals.

In this week’s first round matches, Norths host MSP at Porirua Park, Ories host Upper Hutt at the Polo Ground, also for the Bill Brien Challenge Cup, HOBM entertain Poneke at the Hutt Recreation Ground and Wainuiomata tussle with Petone at William Jones Park.

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Hardham Cup

For the four current Premier sides competing in this year’s Hardham Cup the two “Rs” – Rimutaka and relegation – will be ringing in their ears for the rest of the season. The first could be a serious threat, and the second is the consequence if they can’t shake off both the disappointment of missing out on the Jubilee Cup and the challenge of Rimutaka who are back in the Hardham Cup for the third time in four years and focused on giving next year’s Swindale Shield a real crack.?

The Jubilee Cup might may be out of reach for another season, but there’s still much at stake over the remainder of the year for the bottom four clubs from the just completed Swindale Shield round and none will want to relinquish their Premier status without a scrap. Throw into the mix the three other ‘B’ teams who are out to upset the apple cart as much as possible and the 2011 Hardham Cup could have a real edge to it.

Rimutaka are joining current Premier clubs Old Boys-University, the Wests Roosters, Tawa and Avalon in this year’s Hardham Cup. For Rimutaka, this will be their fourth apprearance in the Hardham Cup in the past seven years, after coming up from Senior One in 2004 and again in 2008 and 2009. The boys from Maoribank Park have yet to reach the semi-final stage in these three appearances, winning two games and losing two more by four points or fewer to miss out in 2004, bottom and winless in 2008 and sixth in their last season up with two wins, a draw and four defeats. Of note, one of their wins in 2009 was a 3-0 victory over eventual champions Wainuiomata which remains the lowest scoring match in Wellington club rugby for at least several seasons.

This year they are confident of a strong showing. Captained by long-serving No. 8 Martin Asiata and with a clutch of former Upper Hutt premier players in their ranks such as wing Ofa Pongi (10 tries in the 2010 Swindale Shield) and midfielder Clayton Masina, the Logan Ili coached Rams have been quietly going about their business and came through to finish outright second behind runaway winners Hutt Old Boys Marist B in the first round Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield. They also lost a couple of close games that could have gone either way and drew 18-18 with HOBM so they could have been pushing for the title at the end if these results had gone their way. It’s also straight into the fire for the Rams, who play the highest finishing of the four Swindale Shield team OBU away this week so know the students will be a big step up from their opposition from the last two weeks, Stokes Valley (won 31-12) and Johnsonville (won 80-12).

Of the four Premier clubs relegated to this year’s Hardham Cup from the Swindale Shield, OBU were the most unlucky to have missed out. If they had beaten MSP in the last round they would have been joining the big boys in the Jubilee Cup. They were also left rueing close losses to Poneke (14-18), Upper Hutt (23-27) and Wainuiomata (20-23). They also finished with five wins, the same number as fourth placed Petone and just one fewer than Jubilee Cup sides HOBM, Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata, so assuming they can pick themselves up from the disappointment of being pipped at the post, they will be tough to beat over the next several weeks.

Tawa finished the Swindale Shield well with two wins including a victory over Jubilee Cup contenders Petone in round 10, so could be developing some winning momentum going into the Hardham Cup round and on form could seen as the team most likely to join OBU in the Hardham Cup final on 6 August.

The Wests Roosters are an unknown quantity - as was described of them this time last year. At the end of last year’s first round they were in a similar position having conceded 243 more points than they had scored, compared to this year when that same margin was ?225. Last year they went on to win every Hardham Cup round-robin game and easily qualified top. They were then shocked By Avalon in the semi-finals and bundled out.

Avalon may have finished last in the Swindale Shield, but they have been competitive and could have beaten Tawa last weekend and grabbed their second win before losing 23-27. Of the other Hardham Cup teams they played in the first round, they pushed OBU close in going down 10-18 and beat the Wests Roosters 31-3 back in round two. They will be a tough nut to crack and will be desperate to retain their Swindale Shield status and keep rebuilding to the level they were at only a few seasons ago as one of the leading Premier clubs.

The? four current Premier ?teams are joined in the Hardham Cup by the second XV sides HOBM, Norths and Poneke ?who finished first, third and fourth in the Harper Lock Shield, but can't be promoted to the Swindale Shield with their top sides already in that grade.

In other first round Hardham Cup games, Harper Lock Shield champions HOBM B host Poneke B at the Hutt Recreation ground, Norths B, coached by former Wests coach Okeseane Moananu, host the Roosters at Porirua Park and Avalon and Tawa meet at Fraser Park in the feature clash of the round.

Tawa and Avalon are going back-to-back, having met in last week’s last round of the Swindale Shield at Lyndhurst Park. Tawa came back to win last week’s clash 27-23 by scoring a late try set up by a breakout from inside their own 22. Previously, Avalon had fought back from a 20-6 deficit at halftime to lead 23-20 and now the two team’s will have to do it all again.

In other grades this weekend, the Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup and Senior 2 HD Morgan Memorial ?kicks off with a full round of games.

In the Victoria Tavern Women’s Premier grade?list games, results aren’t in yet for the last round, but in this week’s games MSP host Eketahuna, OBU host Norths and Petone entertain Stokes Valley.

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