The WaiBOP United Gazette
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Stefan Rufer scores twice — 8.54
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Real improvement from Bill Tuiloma at WaiBOP United
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bill Tuiloma is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at WaiBOP United
Tommy Tuiloma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
6 academy graduates step up at WaiBOP United
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alex Payne falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match17 Oct 2026
WaiBOP United find a way past Hawke's Bay United
Hawke's Bay United made WaiBOP United work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
One of their own: Stefan Rufer
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market19 Oct 2026
WaiBOP United promote Joe Just from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joe Just has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market19 Oct 2026
One of our own: Sam Singh joins the WaiBOP United first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sam Singh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Tommy McCowatt joins the WaiBOP United first team
- Market James Barbarouses steps up from the WaiBOP United academy
- The dugout No hiding place for Bill Tuiloma