Explosion of rugby on Saturday

There’s nine hours of representative rugby to look forward in and around Wellington on Saturday, involving several Wellington representative age-grade sides, the Wellington Pride and the Ricoh Wellington Lions.

The carousel of rugby action starts at the Petone Recreation Ground, moves on to Porirua Park and finishes with a double-header at Westpac Stadium.

Games this weekend at a glance:

Petone Recreation Ground

• Women’s NPC 12.30 pm: Wellington Pride v Counties Manukau Heat, 12.30 pm
  

Porirua Park:

• No.2 field 12.30pm: Hurricanes U20 Division B competition:? Wellington Samoan U18 v Wanganui U20
• No.1 field 1.00 pm: Hurricanes U20 Division A competition: Wellington U20 v Hawke’s Bay
• No.1 field 2.30 pm Hurricanes U18 Division B Centurions U18 v Wairarapa Bush U18
  

Westpac Stadium:

• Hurricanes U18 competition 5.15 pm: Wellington U18 v Manawatu U18
• ITM Cup 7.35 pm: Ricoh Wellington Lions v Auckland

At the Petone Recreation Ground, the Wellington Pride are gunning for a second successive bonus point win in the Women’s NPC competition against the Counties Manukau Heat, to keep alive an outside chance of making the final.

With their men’s team riding high with the Ranfurly Shield, the Heat are hoping to defeat the Pride in what is a crunch match for the chances of both sides in progressing to the final on 26 October.

There’s just three rounds remaining including this, so both know that anything less than a win end their hopes. This is the Pride’s last home game of the competition, and with difficult away matches to come against Auckland and Canterbury, they will be hoping to pick up where they left off from last week’s 49-3 win over Taranaki.

Porirua Park hosts its final day of rugby of the year, with three games throughout the afternoon, headlined by a crunch Hurricanes U20 competition match between the Wellington and Hawke’s Bay sides.

Welllington U20 and Hawke’s Bay U20 line up in a re-run of last year’s final, won by Hawke’s Bay 20-17 after the Junior Magpies swooped to score the winning try in the shadows of fulltime.

Leading into next weekend’s Finals Day in Palmerston North, this match would also serve as a dress rehearsal for this year’s final if Manawatu beat Taranaki in the other competition match on Saturday.

After two rounds, the points table is: Wellington (9), Hawke’s Bay (7), Taranaki (5) Manawatu (0).

For Wellington to qualify for the 1 v 2 decider on their own accord they just need to win with or without a bonus point. Hawke’s Bay need to beat Wellington or they’ll be relying on a Taranaki win over Manawatu.

Both Wellington and Hawke’s Bay have shown they can win in all conditions. In the sunshine in week one, Wellington defeated Manawatu 36-19 and Hawke’s Bay defeated Taranaki 54-18. In turgid overhead conditions in week two, Wellington overcame Taranaki 17-10 and Hawke’s Bay edged Manawatu 31-26.

Also at Porirua Park, there are matches involving Wellington teams in the Hurricanes 18 and 20 Division B competitions.

The Wellington Samoans U18s, who open up preceedings on the top field against Wanganui U20, are ineligible to contest the final of this division in Palmerston North. But they can play a spoiling role against the side that has won its first two matches and will be in the 1 v 2 match next weekend.

Wanganui have beaten Horowhenua-Kapiti (27-20) and Poverty Bay (36-17), while the Wellington Samoans didn’t play the first round and then beat Horowhenua-Kapiti last weekend (20-16).

The Wellington U18 Centurions and Wairarapa Bush U18s are already guaranteed of places in the U18 B division final and will meet in a dress rehearsal on the main field at Porirua at 2.30 pm. Both have won their first two matches against Wanganui U18 and Horowhenua Kapiti U18.

Wairarapa Bush defeated Horowhenua Kapiti 29-13 and then beat Wanganui 33-15.? The Wellington Centurions have been particularly impressive and have yet to concede a point, beating Wanganui 65-0 and Horowhenua-Kapiti 51-0.

A fourth match on Porirua Park, between the Wellington Schoolgirls’ representative team (WSSRU) and their Canterbury counterparts has been cancelled owing to the latter’s late withdrawal. This was supposed to be the third game of their programme, following previous wins over Horowhenua-Kapiti (65-0) and Manawatu (71-0).

Moving into town, the Wellington 18s will be playing for a place in the A division final against the Manawatu U18s when their match kicks off at 5.15 pm at Westpac Stadium.

With a win and a loss, this is a straight shootout for a place in the final. But victory may not be enough and Wellington could be left hanging on the other result from the other match between Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki.

The points table after two matches is: Taranaki 8, Wellington and Hawke’s Bay 5 and Manawatu 0.

So far Wellington has beaten Hawke’s Bay (31-20) and lost to Taranaki (17-25), while Manawatu has gone down to Taranaki (8-23) and Hawke’s Bay (15-30).

The Ricoh Wellington Lions will then do battle with the Aucklanders in the ITM Cup. At stake is a home semi-final and possibly top qualifier’s position with next week’s last round to spare. The Lions welcome back several players after injury layoffs, including Cory Jane, Alapati Leiua, Tim Bateman and Api Naikatini.

The Wellington Development side has this weekend off before meeting their next target the Bay of Plenty Development team in Taupo next weekend.

Similarly, the Wellington Samoans have a game remaining coming up against the Auckland Samoans.

Some teamlists for tomorrow:

Wellington Pride:
1. Muteremoana Aiatu (Captain); 2. Sharleen Fagalilo; 3. Noeleen Nonu; 4. Jackie Patea; 5. Sanita Levave; 6. Carol Sio; 7. Kirstin Stewart; 8. Aimee Sutorius; 9. Agnes Dean; 10. Elizabeth Goulden; 11. Brenda Collins; 12. Faasua Makisi; 13. Mary-Ann Collins; 14. Lekah Leti; 15. Kauna Lopa. RESERVES: 16. Tina Kelemete; 17. Patsy Schwalger; 18. Raylene Lolo; 19. Joanah Ngan-Woo; 20. Miriam Ready; 21. Helena Lawrence; 22. Katarina Simpkins

Wellington U20s:
1. Adam Stewart; 2. James O’Reilly; 3. Etimani Sului; 4. Zac Power; 5. Nick Harrison; 6. Cameron Ross; 7. Gabe Papuni; 8. Dylan Hayes; 9. Luke Campbell; 10. Jackson Garden-Bachop; 11. Andrew Ellis; 12. Tyler Tane; 13. Aukuso Tuitavia; 14. Sosi Tuimavavae; 15. Andrew Wells. RESERVES: 16. Zeke Sopoaga; 17. Jacob Taituave; 18. Saio Salevao; 19. Taamilo Va’a; 20. James Prescott; 21. Issac Marriner; 22. Faamanatuga Mativa

Wellington U18s:
1. Joel Hintz; 2. Lewis Ngatai; 3. Anthony Mamea; 4. Vern Sosefo; 5. James Blackwell; 6. Jack Ross; 7. Jason Monton; 8. Henry Stowers (Captain); 9. Luke Coulston; 10. Chase Tiatia; 11. Jarrod Adams; 12. William Tufui; 13. Francis Tanuvasa; 14. Fereti Soloa; 15. Josh Robertson-Weepu. RESERVES: Tony Coburn; 19. Andrew Mamea; 20. Lui Okeamoa-Luamanu; 21. Aleks Noble-Campbell; 22. George Boyhan

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