Wellington club rugby team profile: MSP Blues U85kg

As reported recently, the MSP Blues won the first round JC Bowl U85kg Division 1 first round competition, beating nearest rivals the Tawa Titans 27-10 in their title decider. In winning all nine of their first round games, the Blues scored 384 points and conceded 46. They opened their second round Paul Potiki Shield defence last Friday night with a hard-fought 10-0 win over the Poneke Cavs.

Club: Marist St Pat's

Team name: MSP Blues

Home ground: The Blues have had a large number of "home" grounds over the years and enjoy playing on artificial surfaces like Te Whaea and the new St Pat's College ground as these showcase the running rugby the under 85kg grade should be about. Martin Luckie 1 was a favourite which the team affectionately nicknamed the "Graveyard" after a long winning streak on the ground in 2006 and 2007, while playing on MSP's number 1 ground Evans Bay Park (where we won the 2011 final) is a rare privilege.

Competition currently playing: The Blues play in the WRFU under 85kg division 1 competition and have won the JC Bowl division 1 first round trophy the last five seasons (2009 to 2013) and the Paul Potiki Shield second round final the last four seasons (2010 to 2013).

They are also the inaugural holders of the Centurions RFC Challenge Cup which must be defended in each round robin home match and have yet to lose this.

Team origins: The MSP Blues were formed in 1997 by a bunch of Victoria University mates to play in the 80/80 (under 80kg) grade that began in the Wellington club rugby competition in 1996. The team's slogan was and still is "Good times with good mates" as the camaraderie was just as important as the rugby played and team manager Jeff O'Sullivan was instrumental in developing the culture over those early years of the team. All Black Bob Burgess was also the Blues coach for the 2000 season.

The team had a number of "rugby antics" in those early days including: publication of a quarterly magazine "The Red Hawaiian", half time Fish ‘n Chips, red Hawaiian shirts, sideline champagne and shots.

As the original core group of players began to move overseas or retire they were replaced by a large group of friends straight out of St Pat's Silverstream and were coached by a couple of former Blues players Dan Boyle and Nick O'Reilly.

These young players went on to win the Division 3 final in both 2003 and 2004 before stepping back up into Division 1 in 2005.

In 2006 the grade changed to under 85kg in line with other provincial unions and the team's current coach Andrew Robinson took charge.

The Blues went on to be division 1 runners up in 2006 (no final played), 2007 (with the Blues only lost that year being the final) and 2009 before winning the next 4 division 1 Paul Potiki Shield finals.

Biggest Rivals: Our biggest rivals over the years were the Poneke Dogs of War side who dominated the grade for many years (and the Blues played them in three division 1 finals in 2007, 2010, and 2011). Since they finishing in 2011 our current main rival is the Tawa Titans (who have several of the Dogs of War side playing for them).

Magic Moments: The MSP Blues have had a number of huge wins over the years but their 5-0 win over the MSP "A" team in 2006 was a huge result at the time and showed the potential for a young team.

The team's greatest match though was probably its first title in 2010, defeating the Poneke Dogs of War 17-13 in an epic final where two champion sides both played a great game and a very high standard of rugby.?

The 2012 Blues winning every game that season was also a special achievement from an extremely talented side while the 2013 team, despite losing one game, had an average winning margin of over 40 points a game over 18 matches played that season (conceding only three tries all year).

Team rituals and traditions: The Blues have a number of traditions including a commitment ceremony for new players, a team naming ritual before each game along with the beer "facial" for the player of the day.

We also have a team chant after trophy winning games and a team song.

The team always does an end of season bus trip somewhere which is always great fun and very entertaining with a number of awards given out along the way (both serious and not so serious) where the Player of the Year receives "the Red Blazer" which dates back to 1997 and lists inside all the players of the year since then.

Having another MSP team in our grade we have our own alternate Blue MSP jerseys the players have all brought themselves.

Experienced players: The Blues have been fortunate to have a large number of guys with Premier experience and have had 14 players play (and several more selected but unavailable) for the Wellington Centurions under 85kg rep side the previous two years in the NZ Barbarians tournament against the official under 85kg teams from Auckland, Waikato and North Harbour (with the Blues dominated side winning in 2012).

A lot of guys would have played over 100 games for the team with vice-captain Pat Houghton, Mark Houghton, Chris Tait, Will Jurie, and James May all playing 8 of the last 10 seasons.

Captain David Rice and Jared Hammington have also played most games in the last 6 years so would be close to 100 caps.???????

The team's personalities: The Blues have had many interesting individuals play in the team over the years which always makes things fun.

Christopher "CJ" Tait is definitely one of the characters of the team who makes guys laugh no matter what the situation.

Team manager and part time player Rory "Wallace" McNicholas is also great for team morale.

In previous years Henry, Chingy, Dogg, Bones, Skux, Matty, Sakker and Dan McNicholas have all been great value in entertaining the boys off the field but also top players on it.

Of note, Blues long time fullback and goal kicker Mark Houghton is also been a first-class cricketer having represented the Wellington Firebirds cricket team for a number of seasons.

On player retention and rejuvenation: The Blues always seem to lose a big group of players each year overseas to do their OE (and only four players have started in all four winning finals) but we have been lucky to usually be able to recruit mates of current players and it makes it easier when people know the fun the team has on and off the field.