HOBM clinch Swindale Shield title; relief for Petone and heartbreak for OBU

Above members of the HOBM Premiers celebrating with the Swindale Shield on Saturday after they earned their 10th win from 11 games to take out the first round Premier title, six points clear at the top of the standings to second placed Marist St Pat's.

Hutt Old Boys Marist are the 2012 Wellington Swindale Shield champions, holding off a stern challenge at home in the last round from Wainuiomata to win 24-11 and capturing their second first round title and their third overall Premier title after previously winning the Swindale Shield in 1997 and the Jubilee Cup in 2007.

In a tight contest, HOBM clinched their win with fullback and the competition's leading points scorer Glen Walters diving over to score under the posts with about 15 minutes to play.

At the same time high drama was unfolding in the two matches upstream and downstream of the Hutt River, where Upper Hutt fullback Jason Woodward kicked a very late penalty to break Old Boys University hearts and give his team a 20-19 win and Petone dug deep to defeat MSP 22-16 on the back of a 75th minute try to veteran prop Tui Hunt and then a Jared Kahu penalty at the end.

These two results left Petone and OBU level pegging in eighth place on 22 competition points, so which of these teams that qualified for the Jubilee Cup fell back in the first instance on who beat whom during the round-robin. But since that meeting was an 18-18 draw, it fell back on who had the superior points differential. After 11 rounds, OBU's points for and points against record was -21 and Petone's +17 so the Villagers have snuck into the Jubilee Cup and for the second successive year the students have finished ninth and must play in the Hardham Cup.

Other last round results saw Norths breeze past Rimutaka 75-0, Tawa defeat the Wests Roosters 46-25 and Ories beat a 14-man Poneke 31-13 after Poneke flanker Sam Tui was red carded early in the match for alleged foul play.

The eight teams that are contesting the Jubilee Cup, starting next week, are: HOBM, MSP, Upper Hutt, Wainuiomata, Norths, Ories, Tawa and Petone.

From the Swindale Shield OBU, Poneke, Wests and Rimutaka will be joined in the Premier 2 Hardham Cup by the top four qualifying sides from the Senior 1 competition, won by Marist St. Pats' second XV. The other three teams are Johnsonville, Norths B and Wainuiomata B.

In a close final round of Harper Lock Shield Senior 1 last round results, five of the six matches went down to the wire with winning margins of under a converted try in all five of these tight games.

The Wainuiomata second XV was the biggest benefactor of the day, finishing sixth but earning the eighth placed qualifier's position for the Hardham Cup due to both OBU's second XV (who finished second) and Poneke's second XV (fourth) who are both ineligible for promotion due to their top teams staying down.

Wainuiomata scored a four-try bonus point against the HOBM second XV as part of their 24-19 victory in the curtain raiser at the Hutt Rec. But it was touch and go at the end as HOBM came storming back after trailing 19-0 at halftime and then 24-0 when the visitors scored straight after halftime into a dying wind.

Johnsonville, whose Hardham Cup aspirations were on shaky ground just a few weeks ago, clinched their berth with a hard fought 24-18 win over bottom placed Tawa at Helston Park. Johnsonville retained the Carman Cup as well.

Norths beat western bays neighbours Paremata-Plimmerton 22-10 in the early game at Porirua Park in the widest Senior 1 winning margin of the day, retaining the Ivan Hargreaves Trophy.

OBU's hard luck extended to their second XV squad, who won the battle against Avalon 25-22 at Fraser Park but the events that unfolded with their top team at the same time up the road at Maidstone Park conspired to lock them out of the Hardham Cup.

Poneke's second XV were already out of contention for the Hardham Cup, but they ended the first round on a high by beating Ories 27-21 in the early game at Kilbirnie Park.

The Wellington Axemen won the Senior 2 National Mutual Cup, beating the Wests Roosters' second XV in their last match at Ian Galloway Park and playing through the first round unbeaten. They did so in style, running up a ton in winning 102-14.

Wellington finished the first round with 53 competition points out of a possible 55 - equaling the points accumulated by the all-conquering 2010 Norths Swindale Shield side. As a comparison the 2010 Norths Premier team scored 546 points and conceded 197 and the Wellington Axemen have just scored 506 points and let in 136.

Second placed Upper Hutt ended their first round campaign with a 46-8 win over midtable OBU - their only loss of the first round coming at the hands of Wellington.

Other Senior 2 results saw Norths beat Stokes Valley 70-15 to consolidate third, Ories upset third placed Poneke 8-3, MSP defeat Petone 27-16 and HOBM overcome Avalon 30-20.

There were also upsets in women's Premier rugby. In round three matches, Ories defeated OBU 17-10 and Wainuiomata beat Eketahuna 38-0 - becoming the second team ever to beat Eketahuna at their Wairarapa fortress. Elsewhere, Norths overcame Stokes Valley 58-10.

In Premier 1 College first XV results, HIBS caused the boilover of the round, defeating St Bernard's 18-10. In the two other matches played to complete the third round, St Pat's defeated Rongotai College 40-5 and Scots College outplayed Aotea College to win 50-12. Wellington College had beaten St Pat's Silverstream 24-11 on Wednesday.

The MSP Blues took home the first round JC Bowl in the final match of the U85kg restricted first round competition.

Around the Premier grounds, HOBM knew they just had to beat Wainuiomata to take the Swindale Shield title. But as expected, the Wainuiomata visitors made them work extremely hard.

With a physical, abrasive style up front fleet flooted backs, Wainuiomata took the game to the Eagles and HOBM edged ahead on penalties and a whooper dropped goal on a penalty advantage to first five-eighth Brandyn Laursen to lead 9-3 late in the first half.

HOBM halfback and skipper Nick Risdon was then sinbinned and Wainuiomata hit the lead with a well-worked team try to lock Shahn Eru. Wainuiomata first five-eighth John Monu then extended their lead to 11-9 early in the second spell, and with MSP at that stage leading Petone 11-5 the title was wavering.

Wainuiomata's discipline continued to let them down and Laursen kicked his third penalty to put HOBM ahead by a point.Laursen missed another penalty, but the Eagles went one better soon after a break by left wing Leka Tupuloa led to a try from the next phase in the opposite grandstand corner to openside flanker Jason Risdon. Laursen missed his sideline conversion but Wainuiomata at least had to score another try to come back from 17-11 down.

At the same time at the Village, Petone openside flanker Mateaki Kafatolu had scored his second try and they led MSP 12-11.

Wainuiomata pivot John Monu was sin binned and soon after HOBM scored their third try and wrapped up the game when fullback Walters scorched into the backline second phase from an attacking scrum and ran through to score untouched. Laursen added the extras and Eagles fans knew their team had the game won.

At Petone, MSP Ryan Setefano regathered his own chip and chase and MSP re-took the lead at 16-12 ahead. But a desperate Petone, knowing they had to win to make the Jubilee Cup round, responded with concerted period of pressure inside MSP's territory.

Petone left wing Belgium Tutagaloa was held back in the tackle and an MSP player was sinbinned. Petone prop Tui Hunt picked and drove from a ruck on the tryline and scored to put Petone ahead 19-16. Petone regained territory from the kick off and Jared Kahu kicked the penalty with two minutes remaining retain the Bill Elvy Memorial Trophy and then rush to their radios for news of the Upper Hutt -OBU match.

To Petone's relief, the students had conceded a last-gasp penalty and Upper Hutt fullback Woodward had kicked it to knock OBU out of the Jubilee Cup.

In a see-saw match, dominated by missed chances and bombed try scoring opportunities earlier on by both sides, OBU had got themselves in front at 19-17 with under 10 minutes to go and just had to hold on. It appeared they might do it as Upper Hutt came back hard at them, but a late penalty gave Upper Hutt the win that relegated the students to the Hardham Cup and also kept their second XV in the Senior 1 grade for the second half of the season.

Earlier, Upper Hutt halfback Kayne Hammington had scored two of his side's three tries. The first was after a 50 metre run in broken play by Woodward. Paula Kinikinilau made a similar dash for OBU and scores were locked up at 7-7 midway through the first half.

Upper Hutt then regained the ascendancy and scored again in the 35th minute through second five-eighth Joyner Key to lead 12-7. They could have led by more at the break but for not taking at least one more chance on attack late in the spell.The students were then guilty of not taking chances early in the second half as they swung on to attack. They finally crossed again through Kinikinilau to lead 14-12. The pendulum swung Upper Hutt's way when Hammington crossed for his brace, putting Upper Hutt ahead 17-14. OBU regained the lead through another try but Upper Hutt had the last say through Woodward's boot.

At Porirua Park, wing Johnny Teleaga scored four tries for Norths as part of their 12-try 75-0 win over Rimutaka. Norths scored their bonus point try and led 27-0 after 25 minutes, before Rimutaka's best period of the match kept Norths scoreless until halftime.

But the floodgates then opened in the second spell, Teleaga running in his hat trick early and adding another one towards the end and No. 8 Mana Faraimo scoring two tries.

At Lyndhurst Park, Tawa pulled clear of the Wests Roosters in the second half to win comfortably and outline their status as a Jubilee Cup club to be reckoned with this year.

With the wind in their favour in the first half, Tawa's physical forwards did the business early on after Wests had scored the game's opening try and taken an 8-5 lead. It didn't last long, Tawa scoring a second consecutive try from a lineout drive in the corner and then crossing again before the interval to take a 17-11 lead into the turnaround.

Tawa's pack created their fourth and bonus point try that cemented their Jubilee Cup place through their own destiny and they led 22-11 early in the second half. From there they pulled clear, with second five-eighth Jeff Makapelu scoring a hat trick and No. 8 Stephen Sasagi crossing for a brace.

At Kilbirnie Park, Ories retained the Jim Grbich Memorial Shield against a plucky Petone side that was up against it early when flanker Sam Tui was red carded for allegedly striking an opposition player with his boot.

But the seven-man Poneke pack, with Hurricanes Reg Goodes on board, took it to their Ories opposites that included Hurricanes Motu Matu'u and Mark Reddish. Playing into the wind, Poneke Goodes scored and new Welsh first five-eighth Cameron Clements converted to put Poneke ahead 7-0 deep into the first half.

Ories hit back with a try to centre Paulo Aukuso in the corner, closing the margin to 7-5 by halftime, before two well-struck long-range penalties to Clements had Poneke in front 13-5 soon after the break.The visitors then struck through dangerman Ardie Savea. Lurking on the wing, last year's New Zealand Secondary schools captain and No. 8 Ardie Savea peeled off two successive tries. One of these was a 40-metre effort and? Ories suddenly now led 17-13.

Still, Poneke remained in the hunt as play ebbed and flowed between the 22s until Ories were awarded a penalty try to extend their lead to 24-13 and then another try at the end to fullback Simon Tevita to blow the margin of victory out somewhat.

Second round draws will be made throughout this coming week.