News

The inaugural Wider Auckland Club Knock Out competition concludes this weekend as Counties Manukau’s Patumahoe and North Shore from North Harbour battle it out for the John Spiers Trophy.

Meanwhile Pukekohe, Papakura and Bombay will battle it out over the final weekend to decide the inaugural BCITO Te Pukenga Trophy – with for and against quite likely to determine the outcome.

In all, 14 clubs across three provinces have taken part in the first edition of the competition.

“The competition has been a huge success and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” competition driver Craig Carter told Counties Sports Hub.

“There has been some great rugby played and the teams have got what they needed heading into their respective provincial club competitions.

“It has been great for players and supporters to visit clubs they wouldn’t normally get to see and to experience a different kind of rugby.

“The future is bright and we will get together and start the discussion around what next season and beyond looks like now that we have one year under our belts.”

North Shore have been impressive – beating Ponsonby and Pakuranga on their way to qualifying for the final.

Patumahoe accounted for Gallaher Shield champions Manukau and got past Grammar TEC in a tie-breaker last week.

The final pits two proud clubs from the far ends of the Auckland Super City in a contest the legendary John Spiers would be proud of.

Spiers played 402 Premier club games for Pukekohe as well as playing 153 matches for Counties and 28 games for the All Blacks, including five test matches.