Toitū Pōneke Hub

Your Thursday throwback for the week.

Recently, we had the privilege of hosting the memorial service for former Pōneke player Malcolm Beardsley. Afterwards, his family shared this treasured photo with us.

Malcolm is pictured at the back, second from the left, wearing the sweatband, alongside his lifelong mate Kevin Beams, who spoke so beautifully at his service. The photo is believed to have been taken around 1971–72, capturing not just a team, but friendships that stood the test of time.

Thank you to Malcolm's whānau for allowing us to share this piece of Pōneke history. It was an honour to provide a place where family, friends, and the wider Pōneke community could come together to celebrate a life well lived.

Once a Pōneke player, always part of the Pōneke whānau. ❤️🖤🏉

𝙒𝙍𝙍𝘼 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝘼𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙚:

The President and Chair of the Wellington Rugby Referees Association (WRRA), Ben Van Berkel, confirms that the Executive Committee of the WRRA has decided to not appoint referees to any grade for a weekend of 10-12 July. We had previously advised the WRFU of our intent to not appoint referees if referee abuse continued to occur and following three more referee abuse incidents on Saturday, no referees will be appointed next weekend.

Van Berkel noted that this season already, we have had 19 reported incidents of verbal abuse towards referees, which is not acceptable to his association. He also pointed out that the abuse has occurred across junior club rugby, secondary schools’ rugby and senior club rugby, not all reports have come from within the referees, with some being submitted by members of the public and the abuse has
come from players, club and school volunteers and spectators.

“The WRRA continues, and will continue, to support Wellington Rugby but we have a duty and obligation to support and protect our members first and foremost” Van Berkel says. He reiterates that this decision by the Executive Committee was not made lightly, but given the widespread nature of this continued abuse, we believe all reasonable options have been exhausted and need to take this stand to support and protect our members.

The WRRA has advised Tony Giles, CEO of the Wellington Rugby Football Union, of their decision and looks forward to working closely with him regarding this issue.

Thehub will be open from 1.30pm so get down and support the boys in the comfort of the club and then get ready to party for red and black night! ❤️🖤.

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History has been made! For the first time ever, our Pōneke Women's Rugby team is competing in Division 1!

Huge congratulations to the team and the community that built this pathway. There are 4 games to push for the semi-finals, starting this weekend.