Women’s Tia Paasi Memorial and Izzy Ford Trophies kicking off this weekend

With the conclusion of the first-round, the Wellington Women’s club rugby competition splits this weekend with two new trophies at stake.

In the opposite of last year, the top four finishing sides from the first round will contest the Tia Paasi Memorial Trophy (which replaced the Victoria Tavern Trophy at the start of last year) in Division 1, while the bottom five Division 2 teams will play for the Izzy Ford Trophy.

First round Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy champions Oriental-Rongotai will be joined by Northern United, Petone and Old Boys University in Division 1.

The five teams in the second-tier competition include Paremata-Plimmerton, Marist St Pats, Hutt Old Boys Marist, Wainuiomata/Avalon and Poneke.

The format in the Tia Paasi Memorial Trophy is a double round-robin over the next six weeks, while the Izzy Ford Trophy sees a single round-robin with a bye for each team and semi-finals on week six.

Both finals will once more be on Finals Day at the Petone Recreation Ground, this year on 27 July.

All teams will want to hit the ground running this coming weekend, with early wins key to progressing to contest championship matches at the end of next month.

The feature match of this coming weekend will be that between first and second placed finishers from the first round, Ories and Norths.

Owing to defaults in the first round, this will be Ories’ first match at home on the Polo Ground this year to date. The two teams met in the first round on Westpac Stadium with Ories winning 28-20.

Both are coming off comfortable wins this past weekend, with Ories beating Marist St Pats 50-17 and Norths toppling third placed first round finisher Petone 56-0 to celebrate openside flanker Leah Conley’s 150th match for Norths.

Black Ferns No. 8 Jonah Ngan-Woo is set to play her 100th match for Ories against Norths this weekend, before her, Ories teammate Ayesha Leti-I’iga and MSP flanker Marcelle Parkes join the Black Ferns squad to play Canada, USA, France and England in San Diego. These players are due back before the end of the club season.

Ories and Norths meet again in round 4 on 6 July in Porirua and will be favoured to contest the final based on first round results and last year’s form that saw Norths edge Ories 20-15 in the season ending decider.

Petone and Old Boys University meet in the other opening round Division 1 fixture this weekend at Nairnville Park. OBU clinched the fourth spot ahead of Paremata-Plimmerton and Marist St Pats after their 67-0 win over the combined Wainuiomata/Avalon team on Friday night.

The ‘Challenge Cup’ will also be on the line throughout the second round. Norths are the holders so their first defence will be against Petone in their first home game next weekend.

Paremata-Plimmerton are the top seed for Division 2 based on their fifth-placed finish in the first round, and they have the bye in the first round.

This weekend’s opening round clashes see Hutt Old Boys Marist coming off their bye to host Poneke and Wainuiomata/Avalon hosting Marist St Pats.

OBU beat HOBM 71-24 in the Division 2 final last year, so a new Tia Paasi Memorial Trophy winner will be found in 2019.

At the end of the recently completed first round, Ories and Black Ferns wing Ayeha Leti-I’iga scored the most number of tries (16), ahead of MSP’s Paige Va’auli (12) and a group of three players (10).

Leti-I’iga is also the top points scorer (80), ahead of Petone’s Sieni Mose and OBU’s Thamsyn Newton (both 78) and MSP’s Jane Bryce (64).

Like Rebecca Liua’ana, for who the first-round trophy is now named, both women whom the second-round trophies are named after have made significant contributions to the Women’s game.

Paasi – who sadly passed away in March last year – was a fixture in the Wellington club scene for more than two decades, playing more than 50 games for the representative Pride in the front row and a quartet of matches for the Black Ferns, while Ford was an ever-present in the Norths team for a lengthy period, a Black Fern from 1999-2002 and again in 2005, and is currently the Porirua City Council Deputy Mayor and a WRFU Board member.