Wellington Gold win Rongotai Sevens tournament

Sevens Rugby | 10 November 2018 | Steven White

With two sides entered in today’s eight-team Rongotai College representative sevens tournament, Wellington had a one in four chance of taking the spoils.

The Wellington Gold team took those odds and ran away to win with the final play of the tournament, Scots College player Epi Sailo flashing in out wide to give the team a 21-17 win over Manawatu Green.

Manawatu Green had leapt to a 17-0 lead by halftime, dominating possession in the first five minutes and creating two clinical tries. Wellington counterattacked, but the play broke down and Manawatu scooped up a loose ball to scamper 40 metres to score their third try.

It took Wellington a couple of minutes into the second half to cross for their first reply, Junior Time-Taotua having too much gas out wide. This was followed by a second Wellington try to the industrious Dan Schrijvers to close the gap to 14-17, before a late flurry went rewarded with the winning try.

The format of the tournament was a three-match round-robin series across two pools followed by one crossover round in which the 4th placed finishers from each pool met, followed by 3 v 3, 2 v 2 and then 1 v 1 in a straight final.

Pool B winners Wellington Gold had beaten the other Manawatu team (White) 24-12, Horowhenua-Kapiti 50-0 and Canterbury 24-12 in their three pool games.

Pool A winners Manawatu Green had defeated Wanganui 38-7, Wellington’s other team (Black) 31-12 and been held to a 19-19 draw by Hawke’s Bay – but progressed through as pool winners with an extra try-scoring bonus point.

Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay were the two pool runners-up and they met for third place, with Canterbury winning 26-19.

Both sides scored two first half tries and Canterbury led 14-12 at halftime. Hawke’s Bay struck first after the interval to take a 19-14 lead. Hawke’s Bay’s next re-start failed to go 10m and that was the opening Canterbury needed to work their way up field and score another 7-pointer to lead 21-19 with a minute to play. The red and blacks then sealed it with a try on fulltime.

The Wellington Black team defeated Manawatu White 24-21 in their 3 v 3 encounter, also winning with a try at the end.

Wanganui and Horowhenua-Kapiti contested a thrilling 19-19 draw in the 4 v 4 crossover pool match. Wanganui took a two tries to one lead into halftime and then scored a third try early in the second spell. But Horowhenua-Kapiti stormed home with two more tries to lock the scores up. The conversion near the uprights was missed at the end, although that end was tough for the kickers being into the teeth of a cool southerly breeze.

There was a bonus fixture at the end of the tournament for the fans, with Canterbury playing a friendly game against the composite Wellington teams for an additional hit-out.

Match practice for all squads and players involved was very much the theme of this tournament, with large squads and rolling substitutions the order of the day.

The temperature warmed up as the day wore on, and so did the rugby.

As always, the tournament was well refereed by WRRA officials and ran smoothly, although the WRFU tournament organiser was seen sleeping in the back of his van at one point.

The six unions involved now go their separate ways prior to participating in the Central and Southern Sevens regional tournaments on 1 December, which are qualifiers for the national tournament on 15/16 December.

Next weekend a Wellington squad heads to Pukekohe for the Counties-Manukau Sevens tournament, and will also enter the Piri Weepu Sevens on 24 November at Wise Park.