Wellington trio gain national Sevens contracts

Sevens Rugby | 20 November 2014 | Steven White & NZRU

Wellington and Upper Hutt Rams loose forward Murphy Taramai (pictured above) is one of six new faces in the All Blacks Sevens squad contracted for the 2014/15 IRB HSBC Sevens World Series.

Taramai also joins Wellington teammates Lote Raikabula and last year’s World Series Rookie of the Year Ambrose Curtis in the squad.

The squad is anchored by a core of experienced players who have been the mainstay of the All Blacks Sevens through recent seasons including long serving captain DJ Forbes, 2013 IRB Sevens Player of the Year Tim Mikkelson, 2014 IRB Sevens Dream Team member Scott Curry and Curtis.?

Coach Gordon Tiejtens will finalise the full contracted squad following the National Sevens in January in Rotorua.

“It’s a competitive squad and it will be quite challenging for me to take the right 12 away for any given tournament. When you have competition, particularly from the younger players, it will put pressure on the experienced players and that's healthy for sevens.”

Taramai, a former Penrith Panthers rugby league trialist, came to Tietjen’s attention during the recent Central Coast Sevens tournament north of Sydney in which Wellington finished runners-up to Fijian side Daveta, and was a member of the Wellington Sevens team that took out the National Sevens title in January. He also made his Wellington Lions debut off the bench recently in the ITM Cup.

“I thought he was outstanding in Sydney playing for Wellington in the semi and final. He has all the attributes; strong, very physical, and of course has the pace factor on top of being a good defender so he really impressed me.”

The contracted players are:

The contracted players are: ?

Jordan Bunce* (Manawatu)

Tomasi Cama (Manawatu)

Scott Curry (Bay of Plenty)

Ambrose Curtis (Wellington)

Sam Dickson (Canterbury)

Tony Ensor* (Otago)

DJ Forbes (Counties Manukau)

Fa'asiu Fuatai* (Otago)

Gillies Kaka (Hawke’s Bay)

Tim Mikkelson (Waikato)