Plenty to play for in seventh round

Above: MSP openside flanker Issac O'Connor confronts his opposite, Dean Brunsdon, in MSP's 22-13 win over Norths on Sunday. MSP host Wainuiomata on their Old Timers' Day on Saturday, while Norths return home to play the Wests Roosters.

The recent run of three games in the space of eight days has made for a whirlwind first half to the Swindale Shield, Harper Lock Shield and National Mutual Cup competitions.

Round seven of 11 this Saturday promises to be just as exciting, as the leading contenders across all three competitions jostle to be crowned first round title winners and those sides lower down the tables fight for their places in higher grades in the second round.

This Saturday's action also features the first two club Old Timers' Days of the year and five more interclub trophies played across the Premier and Senior 2 grades.

In the Swindale Shield the leading seven teams are separated by just eight points, while the battle to finish inside the top eight and make the Jubilee Cup round is intensifying. Just winless Rimutaka can be considered to be officially out of contention at this stage.

All six Swindale Shield matches in round seven are hugely important.

Tawa (on 25 points) currently hold a two-point buffer at the top of the table to their nearest challenger.

With big games to come in round eight against Oriental Rongotai (on 22 points ) and in round nine against Hutt Old Boys Marist (on 23 points), Tawa will need to ?remain focused this Saturday in their away match against Old Boys University at Nairnville Park.

It's also a hugely important match for OBU (on 18 points), coming off two wins and a draw from their recent three-game stretch.? They went desperately close to winning a difficult assignment against Ories at the Polo Ground on Sunday without their five players currently away in Japan with the NZ Universities team. Unfortunately these players aren't back until Sunday after this round, so they will have to dig deep again.

Petone and MSP are the two clubs to hold their Old Timers' Days on Saturday.

Petone are two of the oldest club rugby rivals in the country, and they meet for the F.J. (Fred) Tilyard Shield and Bill Brien Cup at the Petone Recreation Ground.

Both these teams are still in the mix for the first round title, with Petone (on 21 points) coming off a narrow win over Upper Hutt on Sunday and Poneke (on 18 points) coming off a tight loss to HOBM at the Hutt Rec.

After six matches, Petone have piled on 252 points playing an expansive style of rugby. Poneke have also been playing attacking ball-in-hand rugby when possible so this could be a exciting match between the old foes.

The F. J. Tilyard Shield was first contested in 1958. The Tilyards were a famous Poneke family. There were four brothers. Fred and Jimmy were All Blacks while the other two, Harry and Brun, played for Wellington. Fred played for four club championship winning teams, was a Wellington Representative for seven years, was an All Black in 1923 and was a club administrator for 20 years.

Poneke will be attempting to win the Tilyard Shield back off Petone for the first time since 2007. Since then Petone's last five consecutive Swindale Shield wins over Poneke have been: 51-20 in 2008, 38-14 in 2009, 28-21 in 2010, 24-20 in 2011 and 21-13 in 2012.

The Bill Brien Memorial Shield is also on the line in this match, which Petone won off Upper Hutt on Sunday.

MSP's Old Timers' Day clash is against Wainuiomata at Evans Bay Park

The two teams enter this clash in seventh and eighth place respectively. MSP (on 17 points) will jump two places to fifth if they beat an improving Wainuiomata (on 14 points), while Wainuiomata would finish the weekend safely mid-table should they win.

MSP return to Evans Bay Park having beaten Norths on Sunday, while Wainuiomata earned a bonus point win over Rimutaka last start. After this MSP have just one more home match, against Rimutaka, so want to make the most of home ground advantage ahead of tough games to come against Poneke, Petone and finally Tawa.

MSP beat Wainuiomata twice last year, 21-16 in the first round and 26-14 in the Jubilee Cup, but in their first Premier win over MSP, Wainuiomata beat MSP 44-27 in this corresponding match in 2011.

Oriental-Rongotai return home to the Polo Ground to host Upper Hutt for the Bob Lendrum Cup, in a crucial fixture for the fortunes of both teams and for other teams around them on the points table.

Ories are right in contention and a fifth win in seven matches would not only put pressure on the other contenders around them but would also likely seal their place inside the top eight for the second round.

After dropping their first three games, Upper Hutt (on 10 points) won their next two and narrowly lost their last one to Petone on Sunday going down 26-28, although they could rue letting slip a 20-3 halftime lead. While victory over Ories could result in no upwards movement on the points table, it would almost certainly seal the Wests Roosters' Hardham Cup fate should they lose to Norths.

In ninth, Norths are in the unfamiliar territory of being outside the Jubilee Cup zone, but their fans would expect that to change over the back half of the Swindale Shield.

Norths, who have already played four of the five current top teams, play three of their last five games at Poriua Park and the fifth is against Rimutaka at Maoribank Park.

Against the Wests Roosters in this round they play a side that stunned them 27-11 last year in this corresponding clash, beat OBU two starts ago and pushed Tawa close for much of their last match on Sunday. Norths will have to play well to win this one, just their second match at home this year.

Hutt Old Boys Marist supporters will reasonably expect their side to beat Rimutaka at the Hutt Rec and possibly take top spot should Tawa fall to OBU.

Like Tawa, Ories, Petone and Poneke, HOBM would likely seal their Jubilee Cup place should they beat struggling Rimutaka.

The top of the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield is even more tightly bunched than the Swindale Shield? - with four teams all sitting on five wins from their first six matches and five points separating the leading five teams.

Assuming the first XVs of some of these clubs make the Jubilee Cup round, the leading four sides in the Harper Lock Shield get to play in the Premier 2 Hardham Cup in the second round.

In round seven Senior 1 games on Saturday, leaders the Wellington Axemen (on 26 points) could surge ahead if they gain maximum points over winless Upper Hutt at Hataitai Park at 3.00 pm.

Other games are expected to be much closer. Second placed Johnsonville (25) play sixth placed Paremata-Plimmerton (17) at Ngatitoa Domain at 3.00 pm. Both these teams have won their last three matches.

Third placed OBU (24) play? fifth placed Tawa (21) at Nairnville Park at 1.15 pm and fourth placed Avalon (23) meet eighth placed Norths (10) at Porirua Park at 1.15 pm.

Mid-table Petone (16) will be playing for their fourth win against winless Poneke at the Petone Rec at 1.15 pm and Marist St. Pat's and Wainuiomata, both with two wins, clash in the? Swindale Shield curtain-raiser at Evans Bay Park at 1.15 pm.

There are two interclub trophies being contested in the Senior 2 National Mutual Cup.

The first is the Patterson Memorial Trophy between leaders and unbeaten Hutt Old Boys Marist (on 28 points) and Stokes Valley (6), at the Hutt Rec at 1.15 pm.

The second is the Ash Pointon Cup between second placed Oriental-Rongotai (26) and seventh placed Johnsonville (14) at the Polo Ground at 1.15 pm.

In other games, third placed Avalon (25) play eighth placed Wainuiomata (13) at Mary Crowther Park at 1.15 pm, fourth placed OBU (22) host 11^th placed MSP (2) at Prince of Wales Park at 1.15 pm, fifth placed Norths (20) entertain the ninth placed Wests Roosters (11) on the top field at Porirua at 1.15 pm and sixth placed Petone (16) do battle with strugglers Poneke on the Petone Rec at 1.15 pm.

The two unbeaten teams in the Women's Fleurs Trophy competition, Norths and Ories, clash in the third round at Porirua Park. Norths haven't conceded any points in their opening two games, so will be hoping to keep their line intact.

Avalon and OBU, with one win each from two games, play at Fraser Park, while the two winless teams so far, Wainuiomata and MSP-Poneke, play at Mary Crowther Park.

All women's matches are at 11.30 am.