La Dolfina/Scone

If your surname is Cambiaso and you’re not playing for your father’s team, people are going to talk about it. Poroto Cambiaso carries a 10-goal rating — the highest mark in polo — and he’s on the opposite side of Bracket I from Adolfo’s La Dolfina/Tamera. Father versus son is a genuine possibility in the knockout rounds, and everyone in Wellington knows it.

Scone’s 23-goal roster pairs Poroto with Jesse Bray (7) and Rufino Merlos (6) as the professional core. The remaining three spots — David Paradice, Max Torokvei, and Bruce Gottwald, all rated 0 — rotate through the fourth position. This is how high-goal polo works: team owners and patrons play alongside professionals, funding the operation and competing on the field. The professionals carry the tactical burden; the patrons bring the horses, the organisation, and real playing minutes.

At 23 goals, Scone is outrated by most of Bracket I on paper. But this is a team built around a single transcendent talent, and in polo, one 10-goal player who’s peaking can drag any roster past its rating.