Another Swindale Shield is behind us, and congratulations to Petone who were worthy winners of the trophy for 2026.

For us it was a real mixture. At times we were outstanding in creating space for our backs by using our big ball runners upfront to create forward momentum, and our desperation defence in some of our close victoroies was commendable. The big downside was our discipline which clearly got the attention of a lot of the referees.

Saturday was no different. In what was slippery underfoot conditions with a strong southerly dictating play, we failed to use this to our advantage and were level five - all at the break, facing the wind in the second half. A few personnel changes saw us play more to our strengths by using players like George Risale (playing in his blazer game) and Hemi Fermanis hammering away in close. Although Wellington scored first to take the lead 10 - 5, Tawa then exerted control and went ahead 19 - 10 with time nearly up. However no one told Wellington, who got good field posiion and forced their way over with time up. Fortunately the conversion missed from a handy position, and we were the victors 19 - 18 to retain the Murray & Alan Mexted Trophy.

Credit has to go to Wellington who appeared a well-connected team and played for the full 80 mins.

The result saw us finish third equal with HOBM, and due to our victory over them in regular season, we took third spot.