Weekly Newsletter

Published: Wed, 05/27/26

Updated: Wed, 05/27/26

Kia ora ,

Another awesome weekend of sport.

Congratulations to Auckland FC for winning the A League in just their second year. Outstanding effort. The Wahs keep rolling on and the Canes, well can we start to believe?

The highlight for the club was the outstanding win by the Ducks who just keep on winning. They played the other unbeaten team Pōneke Wanderers and won 45 - 29 at Kilbirnie Park.

The Colts lost to Pōneke 31 - 24 in the early game which was the clash between third and fourth.

We sent out our roaming reporter Vice President Ricky Stonnell to Kilbirnie Park who sent in the below report:

The Colts travelled to Kilbirnie Park to play their sixth round game for the Tank Paris Memorial Cup.

In fine conditions but with a stiff southerly at their backs, they competed well from set piece play, particularly from our English import Oli's lineout ball. Cliff Jr was in command in the mid-field, unselfishly putting his outsides away with some classy cut out passes and taking it hard to the line when needed. Although chasing the scoreline for most of the game, skip Evan Paenga earned his man of match by leading from the front with some hard carries and brutal defense.

After 80 mins they were only seven points adrift from a good Pōneke outfit, going down 31 - 24 and still looking healthy at third on the points table.

The Mighty Ducks played the first round JC Bowl final v Pōneke at Kilbirnie Park. Coaches George Bloomfield and George McEnaney were keenly anticipating the clash between the two unbeaten teams. They were given a guard of honour onto the field by the Colts and some old bearded bloke with a funny hat.

These two teams were definitely worthy of main game status, playing high energy, up-tempo footy for the full 80 minutes. Pōneke looked formidable and with home ground advantage scored an impressive running try only a couple minutes after kickoff. Not to be deterred, a few minutes later Adam P broke out of our 22 and linked up with the flying right winger J-Rod for his first of four tries!

This was to set the scene for the first half score and counter scoring with the Ducks just ahead 24 - 12 at half time.

The Ducks got off to a flyer in the second half with skip Troy Howe earning his man of match with impressive carries and leadership. He was supported well by Ash Harris with committed defense, snuffing out a certain try in the corner (just like his old uncle Judd). The Ducks put together another three good tries but Pōneke kept replying with two more of their own to make it a memorable final and a three-peat for the Mighty Tawa Ducks!

Final score 45 - 29.

The WRFU Vice President Alan aka. Harley Davidson was on hand to award the JC Cup to the Ducks and gave an interesting insight as to the origins of the award. The JC Bowl was named to honour John Booth and Chris Tchernegovski who coached Upper Hutt 80/80s when the grade first began in 1996 (another 30th anniversary).

The Reserves lost to OBU, but with all the casualties in the teams above them it was commendable they even played the match as they only had 11 men! I hear Jon Masaga is looking for some more recruits.

The Premier 2s went into the match against Avalon with a lot of new combinations due to a number of Premiers players being rested or unavailable due to judicial matters. Tawa played into a slight breeze and found themselves trailing by two points with time up when they received a penalty wide out on the 20 meter mark. Up stepped Eden Govind to kick the pressure penalty and win the match 25 - 24, much to the delight of his players and supporters.

The Premiers scored their seventh consecutive win against Avalon, who have struggled to get a win this season. Avalon started well and had a noticeable size advantage right across the paddock. Tawa played into the breeze in the first half and moved the ball around to tire the big Avalon team and lead 19 - nil at the break. At one stage it looked as though Tawa would run away with it, but Avalon to their credit kept at it and scored a consolation try as Tawa wrapped it up 47 - 7, Hadley Vaoliko and Matolu Petaia both getting a brace.

There appeared to be a noticeable improvement in Tawa’s discipline, although they did receive a yellow card for what appeared to be repeated penalties. What do they say, `Rome wasn’t built in a day’?

Next week we are off across the hill to play Wainuiomata on their Old Timers Day. This should be a great day as our clubs were both established in the late 40s with this being Wainui’s 80th anniversary. We play for the Chris Stirling Cup, a trophy donated by a stalwart of the Tawa Club who played over 200 matches for the Premiers in Chris Stirling who also coached Tawa. Stirls was also the coaching coordinator for Wainui between 2005 - 2007.

It's a bit of a journey, but the occasion will be worth it.

Steve Rogers

President

JUNIOR SPOTLIGHT

UPCOMING GAMES | SATURDAY 30 MAY

Grade	Home Team	Away Team	Location	Time
Premier	Wainuiomata	Tawa	William Jones Park 1	2.45pm
Premier 2	Wainuiomata	Tawa	William Jones Park 1	1.00pm

Thank you,

Tawa Rugby Football Club

23A Lyndhurst Road, Tawa 5028, NEW ZEALAND

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