Foundations laid for Wainuiomata?s National Sevens success

Swindale Shield Premier | 19 February 2015 | Steven White

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After a week of doing the rounds, the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup will soon take pride of place at the Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club’s clubrooms at William Jones Park.

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Wainuiomata has been celebrating the club’s recent win at the New Zealand Sevens Championship title for the first time, beating the current Waikato, Auckland and Wellington Sevens champions along the way.?

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Most of the team is off to Samoa shortly to compete in the 27th Marist Samoa Sevens tournament that kicks off at the end of next week. This is a tournament that they went to last year and which the recently selected New Zealand Marist Federation Sevens side is also attending.?

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The team’s success last weekend in Tauranga was something that the club and most of the players involved have been working on for several years.?

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Manager Nick Domonkos - himself a key part of the club’s current Sevens programme – said that Wainuiomata’s win last weekend is a triumph of patience, dedication and commitment by a stable group of players, coaches and supporters.?

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Domonkos tells the story: “Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club has always been active in Sevens; however from 2006 we started to take a more serious attitude to the club Sevens in the off-season, using it as a vehicle to keep players fit and involved in club activities.

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“It started with just entering the local tournaments, and then in 2007 we started entering other tournaments such as the Mount 7s held on Auckland anniversary weekend and the Central Hawke’s Bay and Greytown tournaments held in February.”

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“All the players and coaches from throughout the years are part of the success of February 2015 as?

they all had a part in building this team into what we have now.”

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Previous Wainuiomata Sevens coaches include Phil Marshall and Ati Aaifou-Olive, who were the coaches at the start, Yogi Rogers between 2007-2010, and the team’s current player-coach, Uale Mai who came on board last year.?

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Mai is a World Rugby Sevens legend, appearing in 79 World Series tournaments for Samoa and scoring 142 tries and 1320 points – the third most behind England’s Ben Gollings and New Zealand’s Tomasi Cama.

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Domonkos said that a trip to Australia in 2008 was a catalyst.?

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“In 2008 we decided to try something a little different and entered the Byron Bay NSW tournament, winning the plate. In 2009 we returned to Byron Bay, getting knocked out of the Cup semi-finals.

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“The Wainuiomata Sevens team also won the American Ambassador’s Cup, which is the premier trophy for Wellington Club sevens.”

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Wainuiomata only entered local tournaments in 2011 and 2012 and with mixed success, but were beaten finalists to Upper Hutt and Hutt Old Boys Marist respectively in the 2013 and 2014 American Ambassador’s tournaments.?

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At the 2014 American Ambassador’s tournament at Evans Bay Park last November, Wainuiomata defeated defended champions the Upper Hutt Rams 7-0 in their semi-final, before losing to Hutt Old Boys Marist 21-35 in the final.

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All three Wellington teams received invites to last weekend’s National Club Sevens tournament, hosted by the Rangataua Club in Tauranga.?

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All three Wellington teams reached the Cup semi-finals; Wainuiomata knocking over Auckland champions Manukau Rovers 27-0 in one semi-final and Hutt Old Boys Marist 12-7 beating the Upper Hutt Rams 12-5 in the other.?

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Wainuiomata’s captain Greg Lealofi scored the match winning try in his team’s 7-0 win over the Rams in the American Ambassador’s semi-final. In making the final of the Wellington club Sevens, Wainuiomata became eligible to compete in Tauranga last week.

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Lealofi played down the significance of his try that day on the Evans Bay Park artificial ground, saying it was a period of two to three minutes of defence in the second half and the collective heart of all the players when the Rams were hammering their try line that won them that game.

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He also said it was the team’s defence that was a key theme in Tauranga last week, especially in the quarterfinal win. “We didn’t start the best in our first game against Rangataua, but our defence won the quarter-final for us against Hamilton Marist and was also big in our very good win over Manukau Rovers.”

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This booked them a berth in the final over near-neighbours Hutt Old Boys Marist. “After losing to them in both the Jubilee Cup and the American Ambassador’s final when we knew we were meeting Hutt Old Boys Marist in the final the boys got ?a bit excited as it was a chance to get one back on them.”

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“Against HOBM we jumped out a big lead [19-0 by halftime] and it just felt like everything was going right for us.”?

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Lealofi also said the national tournament win is a result of all the hard work put in by a number of people over several years.

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“My first trip with the team was the trip to Australia in 2008, and from that team we’ve probably got about eight or nine guys who are still in the squad.”

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He added that Uale Mai’s influence has also been significant.?

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“The experience he brings is huge for us. For example, he has changed up our training’s and drills and he’s brought in a new game-plan. For example, we don’t do much running for Sevens trainings, it’s more conditioning games.

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“He also gives us a lot of confidence on the field, and he is always positive when the boys are a bit down. Immediately following last weekend’s opening loss against defending champions Rangataua when he told us that we can’t be down about it because we have got a quarterfinal to play. But we knew that we still had a chance in the Cup and he always told us to keep positive and prepare well for the quarterfinal against Hamilton Marist.”?

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Next week’s tournament in Samoa is over three days. The squad from last week, minus Marvin Karawana, Tau Mamea and Eden Monu, are going.

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Other Wellington players travelling to the Marist Samoa tournament next week with the New Zealand Marist side are Lise Soloa and Ope Peleseuma (both Hutt Old Boys Marist), Caleb Hilbron (Marist St Pat’s) and Asafo Aumua ?(St Pat’s Silverstream).?

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Several leading teams from Samoa and further afield in Fiji are also attending this tournament. Wainuiomata lost their Shield quarterfinal last year, while the New Zealand Marist side reached the Bowl semi-finals.?