Ruffnuts and Pirates to meet in club rugby Reserve Grade final

ThePoneke Ruffnuts and the Upper Hutt Rams Pirates will contest the Division 1 Reserve Grade John Davies Cup competition final next weekend.

The Poneke Ruffnuts beat the Petone Brotherhood 27-17 in the 2 vs 3 semi-final at Kilbirnie Park, while the Upper Hutt Rams Pirates beat the top qualifiers, the Johnsonville Cripples 22-17 at Helston Park.

The Division 2 competition still has a week to run before the semi-finals, where the OBU Pink Ginners beat the OBU 69ers 31-5, the Paremata-Plimmerton Punters beat the Upper Hutt Thirsty Rams 8-0 and the MSP Internationals took down the OBU Teddy Bears 24-10. The Wests Mixed Veges met the OBU Righteous Brothers in the other match with OBU coming out on top 40-0, while leaders the Upper Hutt Rams J8s had the bye.

The Rams J8s side will qualify first next week, while the Paremata-Plimmerton Punters should seal the second qualifiers berth ahead of the already qualified OBU Pink Ginners and a further three teams still alive for the semi-finals.

In representative rugby, there were three matches in Wellington on Saturday.

At the Hutt Recreation Ground, the Wellington Development team opened their season with a 29-21 win over the Wairarapa-Bush Heartland side.

At Porirua Park, the Wellington Maori and Samoan sides warmed up for their seasons with the Maori prevailing 31-19 in a game played over three sets of 30 minutes. The Maori took an early 14-0 lead before the Samoan side hit back with three tries to take the lead, though the Maori closed it out with three more of their own.

The early match saw the Centurions Development and the Wellington U19s play a 70-minute match with the Centurions taking a 32-26 win with both teams also using their full squads.