College Sevens Condor tournament on Monday

The final act of the 2013 college rugby season will be played out at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday with the College Sevens tournament.

At stake is not only local supremacy, but also a place in the national Condor Sevens? tournament in Auckland in (30 November and 1 December) and like any good theatre, there will be plenty of drama before the day is over.

Last year’s winners, Scots College (Boys) and Wainuiomata High School (Girls) both performed with credit at the national event last year. Scots narrowly lost to eventual winners Kelston Boys in the Cup quarterfinals, while Wainuiomata won the Bowl competition. However both schools face tough competition to retain their titles this year.

In all 23 teams representing most of the schools in Wellington will be on show across three fields, with it being the last time for many players that they will pull on their schools jersey.

Boys

The biggest challengers to Scots College’s crown are likely to come from Wellington College and St Pat’s Silverstream. With these teams all seeded they won’t meet until the business end of the tournament, barring any upsets along the way.

The strength of Scots 1st XV this year was in its backs and it’s expected that these players will form the core of its squad, with TJ Va’a filling the playmaker role.

Wellington College, featuring NZ Secondary Schools players Wesley Goosen and LeniApisai and Melbourne Storm-bound Nelson Asofa-Solomona, warmed up by handily winning the Colts section of the WRFU invitation 7’s last weekend playing under the Wests Roosters club banner. The Josh Robertson-Weepu-led Silverstream looked well-drilled in winning the Hutt Valley schools 7’s at a soggy Riverside Park last month and look to reclaim the title they won in 2011, and may benefit from the late withdrawal of Wainuiomata High School meaning they will play one fewer match in pool play.

The fourth seeded team is Naenae College, who despite indifferent lead-up form can count on the talents of NZ Barbarians player Fereti Soloa and will be looking to perform well on home turf.

Hutt International Boys and Bishop Viard loom as teams that present as potential dark horses. HIBS have put a lot of effort into their training and pushed Silverstream in the final of the Hutt Valley tournament, but have a tough early assignment in pool play against Wellington College. Viard won the Derek Wootton Memorial 7’s in Porirua a month ago, but are in a tricky pool with Scots, Porirua, and Taita. St Pats College will be another with a point to prove, while you can’t really ever write-off Rongotai or the Porirua schools in the shortened format.

Pools for the morning section of play are:

Pool A: Wellington College, Hutt International Boys’ School, St Bernard's College, St Pat's Wellington ( 2)

Pool B: St Pat’s Silverstream, Rongotai College, Aotea College

Pool C: Scots College, Porirua College, Bishop Viard College, Taita College

Pool D: Naenae College, St? Pat’s Wellington, Mana College, Upper Hutt College

Girls

Eight teams will contest the Girls tournament, with the two pools headed by Premier grade winners Naenae and runners-up St Catherine’s. Like their boys counterparts Naenae will be looking to make home advantage count, while St Catherine’s, who will be able to call on Pride player JoanahNga-woo, will look to claim this title to make up for the disappointment of missing out on the Premier grade title.

Of the other teams Aotea, Porirua and Sacred Heart all have the ability to upset the two seeded sides, while Wellington East maybe the dark horse, having split two meetings with St Catherine’s in a warm-up tournament at Wakefield Park last month.

Pools for the morning section of play are:

Pool A: Naenae College, Aotea College, Porirua College, Hutt Valley High School

Pool B: St Catherine’s College, Sacred Heart College, Wainuiomata High School, Wellington East

Tournament times at a glance:

The tournament commences with the first of the round-robin pool matches at 9.00 am. The Boys competition moves into playoff action from 1.20 pm, while the Girls competition does the same from 2.00 pm. The Girls final is timed for 4.20 pm, with the Boys final scheduled to follow at 4.40 pm

Scots College confident of repeat success

Scots College are confident of defending their Wellington crown, writes Jack Callender:

Scots College, the defending Wellington Sevens Champions, made it to the quarterfinals of the 2012 BNZ Condor National Sevens where they lost narrowly to eventual tournament champions Kelston Boys.

This year Scots will once again have a strong side with Eli Vole leading from the front. The loss of star backs Jackson Garden-Bachop and Samuela Netzler has been offset through a crucial gain in the rapid rise of Malo Tuitama. In his first year at Scots, the hard running centre has a bright future and with 10 tries to his name this season, he will be looking to add to his tally. And who would bet against it? He is after all the nephew of Wellington Lions and Hurricanes wing Alapati Leiua.

Michael Findlay made a star turn at last year’s tournament but expect the likes of Peter and Thomas Umaga-Jensen to make a physical impact. Varani Komosavai and TJ Va’a are classy players so expect them to add their flair.

Expect Scots to have a strong tournament with the squad at their disposal. They will initially play an up tempo, fast paced game with an emphasis on fun. A star studded line up which will go in as favourites to take out the Wellington Schools Sevens.

The Scots College squad is: Eli Vole, Alex Fidow, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Malo Tuitama, Patrick Fenika, Michael Findlay, Varani Komosavai, TJ Va’a, Malo Tuitama, Patrick Fenika, Connor Garden-Bachop, Malo Manauo

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