Trophies Chat Volume 2 – ClubRugby.nz

Northern United and Marist St Pat’s celebrate their shared Jubilee Cup title win in 2008, the last time it was shared. The cup itself is lidless, and had been for at least 35 years. 

There are many cups and trophies that are contested each year between clubs or internally in clubs to be presented at prize givings.

Tours of clubrooms showcase a number of trophies and cups and awards behind glass cases proudly displaying these, many of which go back decades and commemorate local legends of the game from past eras.

This article below highlights a snapshot of the stories behind and associated with some of these trophies, and follows on from this article published in January:

UPDATED Club Rugby Summer Series: “The Jubilee Mystery”solved

Following on from the curious possibility that the Jubilee Cup well could well be a refurbished and reconstituted Swinson Cup, there is also the intriguing  case of the top of the Jubilee Cup and the missing lid.

Not only did the Jubilee Cup have a lid, the lid was crowned with a small statue of a man with his hands on his hips – where the ribbons of the winning team could stream down from.

The Jubilee Cup lid.

Going off team photos in the relevant club history books, the transition from the lid to no lid occurred between 1966-1973.

The last team photo showing the lid with the man on top is University in 1966, as below:

Petone won in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1971 followed by Wellington and Athletic breaking this run and jointly winning in 1972.

The Wellington Axemen photo of 1972, which is the next one we have, shows the lid still on but it looks like the man on the top has broken off or has been severed at the legs, as below:

The 1973 Petone team swept all before them with an unbeaten season, but their team photo shows the Jubilee Cup as it looks today sans lid.

So perhaps next steps could be a visit to the Petone Museum and checking their team photos between 1967-71.

+++++

The Hardham Cup was first contested in 1939 for the winner of New Zealand’s second tier Senior A championship and has been contested every year since except for 1941 owing to the second world war.

In 2025 it was restored by the New Zealand Remembrance Army (NZRA) and renamed the Hardham VC Memorial Cup. More on that HERE

It has been mooted that given its significance that the Hardham VC Memorial Cup and the Swindale (or is it Swindell, see above) Shield be swapped around. So the Hardham is awarded to the first round winner and the Swindale is presented to the second round Premier tier 2 champion. It is the position of this website that this idea carries significant merit.

For many years in Wellington club rugby there was a post-competition ‘challenge’ match, between the Senior Championship/Jubilee Cup winner and a challenger team, often a side that finished mid-table but had a disjointed season through injuries and dips in form and fancied their chances to finish the year on a high against the winner.

Prior to 1921 this was the Charity Cup, replaced in that year by the National Mutual Cup, which was donated that year by the National Mutual Life Association contested most years up to at least the 1950s (for us its trail goes cold).

This was discontinued at some point and then reconstituted as the trophy for the winner of the Senior Third Division in 1965 and subsequently played for over a number of grades up until recently.

+++++

This brings us to the Andy Leslie Trophy, which in recent years has become a victim of the restructuring of the Premier grade with a knockout series after the Swindale Shield replacing a full second round.

The Andy Leslie Trophy was first awarded in 2009 to the winner of the round-robin of the seven-week Jubilee Cup round-robin series. The winner of the Jubilee Cup and the Andy Leslie Trophy were often two teams, as in its first year when Pōneke won the Andy Leslie Trophy but Marist St Pat’s won the Jubilee Cup.

Because the new format of the Jubilee Cup is seemingly here to stay [pending a discussion document currently being circulated], perhaps the Andy Leslie Trophy could be contested as a post-season challenge cup match like the National Mutual Cup once was. It could be played as a charity match with proceeds (gold coin gate takings and also internet donations by selling virtual seats etc) going to a different cause each year?

Don’t sleep on the Presidents Grade. In 1983 Pōneke FC, in its hundredth year, put forth the Pōneke Centenniel Cup for the President’s Grade.

This was contested between 1983-94 before going into abeyance as it was decided then that the President’s Grade would carry no points and every team was a winner. This was changed in 2025 and Hutt Old Boys Marist won the President’s Grade but not the former trophy.

There are several other former trophies no longer contested, often owing to restructuring of lower grades.

The Thompson Memorial Cup was last won by Stokes Valley in 2020, after previously being in abeyance between 1993-98.

This was donated by the family of John Thompson, who had been WRFU’s first post-war President (1946) and a Vice-President over the following two years. He was also Secretary of the Junior Advisory Committee from its inception in 1923 until 1958.

The James Gilbert Memorial Trophy and the Eric Connolly Cup were both age grade trophies in the former U19s and latterly Colts grades.

The Gilbert Memorial Trophy was the U19 grade’s first round trophy from its inception in 1981. It was not awarded between 1999-03 but was from 2004-17 and again in 2020 when it became a Colts knockout or second round trophy.

James A. Gilbert was a Life Member of the WRFU, member of the Junior Advisory Committee 1940, 1959-62 and a member of the WRFU Management Committee 1963-70. He was a member of the Pōneke FC and president of the Centurions Club in 1969-70.

Eric Connolly was a member of the Hutt Valley Saturday morning Rugby Committee 1949-50, Secretary 1953-54 and member of the Junior Advisory Committee 1971-73.

The trophy was donated by his family after his death in 1991 for competition in the U19 grade and was first played for in 1992.

The JRD Cup is a pretty trophy with mysterious origins – it was found in a cupboard at Athletic Park in 1979.

The JRD Cup was first played for in 1981 and continued each year until 2014. It was last contested in 2018 in the Reserve Grade Division 2 Round 1 grade.

Like this:

Like Loading…