Weekly Newsletter

Published: Wed, 04/29/26

Updated: Wed, 04/29/26

Kia ora ,

Should we start to believe that along with the Wahs, the Canes are the real deal this season? A good bounce-back win by the Canes against the Brumbies, but all should be revealed next Friday after we play the Crusaders.

Another week and more surprises. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season you would have seen TJ Fermanis on the bench for the Premiers? Nothing surprises me, and although he did get on the wrong side of the ref at one stage and got sin-binned, he did show once again that experience does count big time.

It was also great to see Matolu Petaia released by the Hurricanes to play his first club game for the season and Kemara Hauiti-Parapara back for his second game off the bench.

For those that didn’t travel to Kilbirnie Park or watch it on Tawa Rugby TV, it was definitely a game of two halves. Pōneke playing into a slight breeze in the first half came out strongly, dictated play by keeping the ball in hand, and just dominated the half. It didn’t help when we struggled to make our first-time tackles, and Pōneke were relentless with ball in hand.

The tide started to turn in the second half, but every time we started to make inroads, we would give away some gift points. Still we clawed our way back from a 19 point deficit to hit the lead 40-39 with time almost up, when suddenly we turned the ball over on attack and ended up desperately defending our line. A scrum penalty to Pōneke on full time in front of our sticks saw fans reconciling a last minute defeat just to see the penalty miss and Tawa walk away with a win, 5 points in the bank and the Carmichael Cup tucked away for another season.

Rugby is a funny game but you had to give credit to the never give up mentality of the team, or was it the thought of facing Hogger (aka Kevin Carmichael) if we lost his trophy!

This result saw up improve up the Swindale Shield ladder to second equal on points with HOBM.

Other good news was that the Premier 2s finally got over the line and beat Poneke 33-26 for their first win of hopefully many more this season.

Our only other team to play were the Colts, who came up against a very well organised and competent side in Petone and got on the wrong side of the game 52-17. This leaves Petone as the only undefeated team in the grade and something for our boys to build on.

This week, we are back to a full round of matches across the grades.

The Premiers are at home against OBU - this is a must-watch game as they are the only unbeaten team in the competition having beaten the only other unbeaten team last Saturday HOBM 44-17.

The Premier 2s are at home against OBU as the early game at 1.00pm. The Colts are home against OBU at 12.30pm at Redwood Park. The Ducks are away against HOBM at 2.45pm at Hutt Rec. And the Reserves are away against Pōneke at 2.45pm at Kilbirnie Park.

See you at the home of rugby this Saturday. The boys could do with your support in what should be an awesome encounter.

Steve Rogers

President

UPCOMING GAMES | SATURDAY 2 MAY

Grade	Home Team	Away Team	Location	Time
Premier	Tawa	Old Boys University	Lyndhurst Park 1	2.45pm
Premier 2	Tawa	Old Boys University	Lyndhurst Park 1	1.00pm
Colts	Tawa	Old Boys University	Redwood Park 1	12.30pm
85s	Hutt Old Boys Marist	Tawa	Hutt Rec Ground 2	2.45pm
Reserve Grade	Pōneke	Tawa	Kilbirnie Park 2	2.45pm

Thank you,

Tawa Rugby Football Club

23A Lyndhurst Road, Tawa 5028, NEW ZEALAND

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