Annual Report 2020 The Annual Report of the Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Incorporating Annual Accounts & Audit Report 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 Thanks to Victoria University of Wellington for printing the hard copies of this report 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents Contents Click on Report Title to go to Page No. Report Title Page 1. Club Directory 4 Office Holders’ Reports 2. President’s Report 5 3. From the Patrons 6 4. Chair’s Report 7 5. Annual Accounts 10 6. Hon Auditor’s Report 25 7. Hon Solicitor’s Report 27 8. WRFU Delegate’s Report 28 9. Junior Club Convenor’s Report 29 10. NZ Universities Delegate's Report 30 11. Club Captain’s Report 31 12. Reserve Grade Convenor's Report 31 13. Wellington College Liaison’s Report 32 14. Capricorn Club Captain’s Report 34 15. OBU / VUW Academy 35 Team Reports 38 16. Premier 39 17. Women’s 43 18. Premier Reserve 48 19. First Grade 51 2 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents Contents (continued) 20. Under 21 Green 52 21. Under 21 Black 55 22. 85 kg Scallywags 57 23. Sixty-Niners 59 24. Pink Ginners AFASF 61 25. Righteous Pack 63 26. Teddy Bears 64 27. Under 12 Conrad Smiths 66 28. Under 9 Steinmetz 68 29. Under 7 Preston Wilsons 70 Miscellaneous Reports 30. Team Statistics 2020 72 31. Prize Winners 2020 73 32. Directory of Office Holders 2020 83 33. Representative Players 2020 84 34. Club Sponsors 86 35. Registered Players 2020 88 36. OBU Virtual Clubrooms & SG Bremner’s 90th 90 37. Obituaries 93 38. Directory of Financial Members 2020 95 3 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents 1. Club Directory Legal Name: Wellington College Old Boys and Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club (Inc) Nature of Club: Rugby Football Union Club Incorporated Societies Number: 217783 Registered Address: Waiteata Road Kelburn Wellington 6012 IRD Number: 16-724-533 Clubrooms: OBU Function Room, Cambridge Hotel 28 Cambridge Terrace Wellington 6011 Postal Address: Post Box 710 Wellington 6011 Designated Home Ground: Basin Reserve Rugby St Wellington Patrons: Grant Guilford (Victoria University of Wellington) Gregor Fountain (Wellington College) President: Murray Anderson Chairman: Jaesen Sumner Treasurer: BDO New Zealand Ltd Secretary: Richard Boag Club Captain: Bankers: TSB Bank Limited Honorary Solicitors: Ford Sumner Lawyers Honorary Auditors: BDO New Zealand Ltd (Refer also Directory of Office Holders 2019, Section 33) Return to Contents Page 4 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents 2. President’s Report Looking back to when the under 21 team played Wellington College for the Steve Letica cup at the start of the season I was looking forward to a full season of rugby. Then along came covid- 19 and rugby was put on hold and we all wondered if there would be a rugby season in 2020. Full credit must go to the Wellington Rugby Union for the season we finally were able to compete in. What a great season it turned out to be for OBU. The premier team had a very good first round and, in my opinion, although they lost 3 games, all of them could have gone either way. Them they made the finals and played two brilliant games against Marist and Norths to win the Jubilee Cup. Both under 21 sides performed well, with the Green side winning the championship and the Black team making the finals. Our Premier Reserve team also did well to make & win their final. Everyone who was at the club rooms on finals night will tell you that being part of a winning club is something to be proud of. Your committee was very active throughout the year taking care of the day to day running of the club and I thank Jaesen Sumner who is stepping down this year as Chairman for his many years chairing the committee. Marie Chivers has also worked hard for a number of years as Club Captain and is stepping down as she has moved out of Wellington. Thank you, Marie. There was one highlight to come out of covid though, with a great job being done during lockdown to have Zoom meetings in our ‘virtual club rooms’ every Saturday night during the lockdown. It was incredible the list of guest speakers able to give up their time and join us, you will see the list later in the report. To every one of them I say thank you. The Premiers were able to play some of their games at Wellington College and we are hopeful we will again play there this coming season. Doug Catley made a superb contribution to Wellington College that enabled them to turn the ground around and we benefited. We are looking forward to increasing OBU’s use on this full-sized ground for a lot of OBU team to experience it. The season would not have been what it was without the hard work of all the coaches, mangers and volunteers. Thank you to every one of you. Next year is looking good and hopefully will be COVID-19 free. I trust you have all had an enjoyable Christmas with family and friends. Murray Anderson President Return to Contents Page 5 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents 3. From the Patrons Thank you for the ongoing opportunity to be a patron of OBU. It is a privilege to hold this role. Congratulations to the whole club for your success during the 2020 season. It was a challenging year with COVID-19 having an impact on community and school sports programmes but we were delighted to host two OBU Premier matches on the ‘Quad Tournament’ configured Wellington College Number 1 Field, with excellent results for the home team. We are very grateful to Doug Catley for his financial support of this initiative. Wellington College looks forward to continuing to extend these opportunities for OBU in the years to come & to continue to build on our historic partnership Gregor Fountain Principal, Wellington College 2020 was a unique and challenging year, with most aspects of our lives affected by the COVID 19 global pandemic. It was pleasing that the lockdown we experienced was relatively brief and we were able to enjoy a degree of normality for much of the year, especially on the sports fields. Congratulations to the club for another excellent year on and off the field. It was great to see students from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington at the forefront of these achievements and gratifying to see the Academy continuing to function strongly under adverse circumstances. I particularly enjoyed the ‘virtual clubrooms’ and appreciated the way in which video conferencing technology ensured students and club members remained connected. Of course, 2021 will bring its own set of challenges but I am sure OBU and the University will take them in their stride as we continue to strengthen our bonds and deliver our respective programmes to all members. Grant Guilford Vice Chancellor Victoria University of Wellington Return to Contents Page 6 2020 Annual Report: Wellington College Old Boys & Victoria University of Wellington Rugby Football Club Inc Click Here to Return to Contents 4. Chair’s Report 2020 was a successful year for Wellington College Old Boys and Victoria University of Wellington Football Club Incorporated (“OBU”). The season was scheduled to commence on 23 March 2020, however the start date was delayed indefinitely due to Covid-19. While we were uncertain on what impact Covid-19 would have on our community game we soon grappled with several significant issues from whether we would have any rugby competition during 2020 at all to the financial impact a “no game season” would have on OBU, our fellow Wellington Clubs and WRFU. We are grateful that our rugby community, local and central Government collaborated and worked together to ensure one of the most competitive rugby seasons was held in 2020. The Covid-19 outbreak also had an impact in terms of gathering at our club rooms, the Cambridge Hotel, but that was ameliorated with our virtual club rooms which took place during lockdown at 5.00 pm on Saturday evenings. Richard Boag arranged several fantastic speakers for the virtual club rooms, resulting in many enjoyable Saturday evenings on Zoom with beers, wine and nibbles to hand. Speakers included: - The right Honourable Grant Robertson, Minister of Finance; - Nick Farr-Jones, former Wallaby Captain; - Winston Peters the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; and - Mark Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of NZRU. - All parties involved were happy to give back to the community game during the lockdown period. You can see the full list of the fantastic guests later in the report. Once the season got underway, OBU enjoyed one of its most successful seasons on record. Regarding the men’s premier team, the Jubilee Cup was secured once again, with a dominant performance against Norths in the Jubilee Cup final. During the regular season, the premiers retained the Marc Verhoeven Memorial Trophy (Petone), The Beet Algar Rosebowl (Poneke), Dean Gifford Memorial Cup (Wellington), Ken Douglas Trophy (Norths), and the Peter Dunford Cup (Wainuiomata). Representative Honours again went Wes Goosen and Ben May in the Hurricanes while Teariki Ben-Nicholas joined the Highlanders.