Norths And Upper Hutt Set For Round Five Shield Showdown

Round 5 Preview It will be a top-of-the-table showdown at Maidstone Park on Saturday as the two unbeaten teams Northern United and Upper Hutt meet in round five Swindale Shield action. Norths lead Upper Hutt on the points table by one point and whoever wins this game will be setting their sights on some silverware six weeks later.

In other round five encounters, Johnsonville has had an encouraging start to the season, and their clash with Petone looms as a defining game for them. In stark contrast to this time last year, when they only had a solitary point after four rounds, Johnsonville enjoyed three first up wins over Tawa, Hutt Old Boys Marist and Old Boys-University, before losing only narrowly to the more fancied Marist St. Pats last weekend.

In losing to MSP, Johnsonville dropped from third to sixth on the points table, to be seven points behind Norths, but if they can beat Petone they should be on track to avoid a tryst with the Hardham Cup later this season. They are packing a formidable forward pack this year, with former representative prop Bill Cavubati leading their resurgence and stalwarts such as the Ta?ala brothers, Laifa and Sene, in good form. Then there?s the reliable Corey Burt at first five-eighth. Burt is strong on both attack and defence and is a prolific points scorer with his boot.

Petone will see this clash as vitally important to harbour hopes of defending the Shield. The Villagers have had a shaky start so far, losing to Upper Hutt (30-27) in round one and to Poneke (35-13) in round two, beating Oriental-Rongotai (39-19) in round three, before succumbing to Norths last week (28-3). Despite the score, they competed well against Norths though and will fancy their chances against Johnsonville. More so if they have the services of Riki Flutey. If Flutey combines with electric wing Willie Moala then they will be dangerous.

Head to head, Petone won this clash 40-33 in 2002 and again 50-13 last year, while Johnsonville were 25-23 victors in 2003.

Meanwhile, third placed Avalon ventures to Rugby League Park to play fourth placed MSP. If Upper Hutt loses to Norths then the winners of this game could find themselves above Upper Hutt in second place after this round. Western Suburbs should beat HOBM at the Hutt Recreation Ground and also move into contention at the top end of the ladder. Elsewhere Ories could face a Poneke backlash at Kilbirnie Park and Tawa will be favourites to beat OBU at the Basin Reserve and move towards the middle of the points table.