Lower grade finals and semi-finals this weekend

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Knockout club rugby continues in earnest around Wellington on Saturday.

Semi-finals are being contested in three more Wellington club rugby grades, in the Senior 2 HD Morgan Memorial and Colts Division 2 Vic Calcinai Memorial Cups and Reserve Grade Division 1 grades, while its finals day in the U85 kg Division 2 and 3 competitions.

Senior 2 HD Morgan Cup

The Senior 2 grade is running a week behind owing to the earlier round that was washed away in the storm in June, but has now reached the semi-finals stage. Top-qualifiers the Wests Roosters will want to rebound after looking all out of sorts last week when soundly beaten by Avalon after winning seven of their nine round-robin encounters and averaging over 30 points per game. They face a Johnsonville side that by their own admission were treading water just a few weeks ago and at the bottom of the ladder before winning three games in succession and then collecting three points from last week’s abandoned match with MSP. Johnsonville supporters will fancy their team causing an upset in The Cage at Ian Galloway Park, though Wests did win the round-robin clash convincingly 46-6.

The second match is between OBU and Avalon at Nairnville Park. The two sides fought out a tight 17-12 result for OBU in the round-robin and the likelihood is that it will be another tight game this time around.
Both games are 2.30 pm kickoffs

Under 85kg Restricted

The Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield enters its last week of round-robin play before the two weeks of finals play ahead.

In the three matches, the MSP Reds and Wellington meet at the St Pats artificial at 1.00 pm though both sides are out of semi-finals contention, while Eastbourne and the OBU Spartans meet at HW Shortt at 3.00 pm in a virtual quarter-final as the loser of this game will not make the playoffs. The OBU Bunnies have the bye, but are guaranteed a semi-finals place already.

The feature game is the table-topping clash between the Tawa Titans and MSP Blues at Lyndhurst Park at 3.00 pm. The Blues bring their long unbeaten streak into this game, while Tawa got as close as anyone has since the days of the Poneke Dogs of War when going down 12-16 earlier in the year. It would be a surprise if these two teams weren’t contesting the final in two weeks’ time.

Its finals however in Divisions 2 and 3 this weekend. The Division 2 final is at Delaney Park between hosts Stokes Valley and visitors Hutt Old Boys-Marist after both sides won away last weekend. In the match between the sides at the start of the second round Stokes Valley prevailed 22-17.

The Division 3 final is at Fraser Park where Avalon take on Johnsonville. Both sides had convincing semi-final wins last week, but expecting a scoreline closer to the 13-7 win to Avalon from the round-robin seems more realistic.

Both games are 3.00 pm kickoffs

Other club rugby grades

The Colts Division 2 reaches the playoffs stage for the Vic Calcinai Memorial Cup. OBU Black host HOBM Red at Prince of Wales Park at 1.00 pm in the first semi, while top qualifiers Upper Hutt host Tawa at Maidstone at 3.00 pm.

Reserve Division 1 is at the semi-finals stage. In a pair of 3.00 pm kickoffs in close proximity to each other the MSP Internationals host the OBU Bergs at Evans Bay, while a couple of hundred metres away on Kilbirnie Park the Poneke Ruffnuts take on the Johnsonville Cripples.

Division 2 is still in the round-robin stage with five games on the slate. Three of these are at Te Whaea with 1.00 pm, 3.00 pm, and 5.00 pm kickoffs.

Senior 3 is also still in round-robin play, with matches between the HOBM Barbarians and Wellington, Oriental-Rongotai and Rimutaka, and Upper Hutt and the HOBM Originals all scheduled.

There are also four President’s grade matches scheduled making up for games postponed from earlier in the year.

College grades

Although the Premier 1 title was decided last Sunday, most of the other grades are in semi-finals action ahead of the finals day at St Patrick’s Silverstream next Saturday, with other grades in the last week of round-robin play before a straight final.

In some of the grades that are in playoff action, the Premier 2 semi-finals have top-qualifiers Wairarapa College hosting Aotea College, while the other semi-final is a Lower Hutt derby between Hutt Valley High School and St Bernards College. In Premier 3 there are a pair of local derby’s as Paraparaumu College and Kapiti College face off, as do the Rongotai and St Pats Town 2nd XV’s.

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