Condor 7s Qualifiers at Naenae College on Monday

Naenae College will once again play host to the Wellington Regional Condor 7’s Qualifying Tournament this coming Labour Day Monday.

At stake are three places in the national Condors tournament in early December at Kelston Boys’ High in Auckland – two places in the 24-team Boys competition and one in the 16-team Girls event.

Last year Wellington’s three qualifiers performed with distinction; Scots College were runners-up for the second year in succession, losing out to Rotorua Boys’ High School in the final, while St Patricks College, Silverstream and Wellington East Girls College both made it to the Cup rounds where they lost their respective quarter-finals before both winning their last two matches to wind up 5th overall.

Twenty three teams will take to the fields this year, with 12 in the Boys and 11 in the Girls competitions. Of note, St Patrick’s Town have entered a second team in the Boys division and non-Wellington competition affiliated school Paraparaumu College have joined the Girls competition, but neither of these two teams are eligible to qualify for the national tournament.

As usual, for a number of players it will be the last time they wear their school jersey on the field.

Boys:

The major question will be can anyone knock off Silverstream and Scots and claim one of those two berths.

St Pats Silverstream are the defending regional titleholders, having beaten Scots at the death in last year’s final, and come into this having defeated their arch-rivals in the final of a warm-up event in the Hutt Valley last weekend, after Scots had beaten them earlier in the day. Their two NZ Schools players, Losi Filipo and Asafo Aumua, will be a handful for most sides alone, let alone with the addition of several other leading players making them one of the teams to beat.

Scots will be keen to win back their title, and then go one further at the National level. Should they all play, their core will be their NZ Schools trio of Peter and Thomas Umaga-Jensen and Alex Fidow - whose athleticism belies his 140kg frame - while Connor Garden-Bachop and Malo Manuao will likely fill the directional roles and Caleb Cavubati adds speed. One loss for them though is the aerial work of Jarimar Schuster who misses this year with a leg injury.

For Premier 1 winners St Patricks College, Wellington the challenge their A team at this tournament faces is translating their forwards-based 15’s winning formula into a 7’s strategy, but they seemed to find something that worked in last week’s Hurricanes Secondary Schools tournament at Palmerston North where they lost out in the final to Hastings Boys’ High School. They have somewhat underachieved at this event, having failed to progress beyond the quarters the last two years and will be looking to address that in a big way. Two players that could be key to their success are Xavier Numia and Billy Procter. 

Wellington College present something of an unknown quality, having had a topsy-turvy year in the 15’s game. But one thing for certain, they will bounce back to their usual dominant force at some point and all sides will be wary of them and what they can do. If he plays, New Zealand Schools halfback Kemara Hauiti-Parapara will be a key player for them.

Upsets can and do happen and those four are likely to face some stern challenges however, evidenced last year by St Bernard’s College getting within moments of toppling Silverstream at the semi-final stage. Rongotai, led by Denny To’o and Karl Brownlie, are one side that will fancy their chances, while fellow Premier 1 schools Tawa College and Hutt International Boys’ School haven’t entered teams.

The dark horses could be Premier 2 winners Bishop Viard College, who won their third consecutive Derek Wootton title last weekend. They have a pacey team that will be guided by Wellington U18’s pivot Foaliga Va’alepu-Austin and will also include leading try-scorer Roy Maiava, while one of his representative team mates, Viliamu Fine, will lead St Bernards’ effort.

Porirua College, Wainuiomata High School, Taita College and host school Naenae College are the other schools to have entered teams.

Girls:

The growth of the girls game is evidenced by the fact that 11 teams will compete this year, up from eight last year. With only one place up for grabs, the Girls competition will be hard fought. Just who will wear the favourites tag is anyone’s guess and Wellington East Girls’ College will face a challenge if they are to retain their title.

East warmed up by claiming the Girls section at the Derek Wootton event in Porirua last week, and will be led by Georgia Broughton as they seek to book a repeat trip to Auckland. In that final they beat St Mary’s; with the Premier 2 winners showing that they’ll be a factor on Monday.

Two sides that perhaps unexpectedly missed that final were local schools Porirua College and Aotea College. Porirua rolled through the Premier Girls season until they were upset by Wainuiomata HS at the semi-final stage, and may be able to boast two full Wellington Pride members in their squad in utility Tina Paulo and flying winger Aysha Leti-Liga.

Aotea will be looking to claim the double of the regional Premier 1 and Condor 7’s titles, which has proven to be an elusive achievement so far, and will lean on the experience of Northern United club player Phoenix Collins, who will herself be looking for a hat-trick of titles by adding this to the college and WRFU Women’s medals she has already claimed this season.

Wainuiomata came within a whisker of snatching the Premier title two months ago and are certainly capable of winning this. Taita took the Hutt title, beating Upper Hutt in a series of matches across the day.

Non 15-a-side school Newlands College has entered a team also. Of note in their squad is Year 9 student Milly Mackey who was the ball girl for the Wellington Pride and should she play in their pool match against Porirua College she will likely be lining up against Pride players Paulo and Leti-Liga.

Another school that will be a factor on the day is Paraparaumu, who are competing and eligible for the regional title, but cannot take the place at the nationals as their qualification path is through the Horowhenua/Manawatu/Wairarapa qualifier.

The field is filled out by host school Naenae, plus Premier 2 runners-up Mana, local school Hutt Valley High, and newcomers Newlands.

Format: 

The format for the day has the pool matches from 9am and the knockout stages from 1.20pm. In the Boys the top two from each pool will proceed to the Cup knockout, with the bottom sides playing off for the Bowl and the losing quarterfinalists into the Plate. In the Girls the top team from the three pools (one pool of three and two of four) also go through to the Cup. The Girls Cup final is at 4.00pm and the Boys cup final is at 4.30pm.

Pools:

Boys
Pool A: St Pat’s Silverstream, Porirua College, St Pat’s Town B
Pool B: Scots College, St Bernard’s College, Wainuiomata High School
Pool C: St Pat’s Town A, Bishop Viard College, Taita College
Pool D: Wellington College, Rongotai College, Naenae College

Girls:
Pool A: Wellington East Girls’ College, Taita College, Naenae College
Pool B: St Mary’s College, Porirua College, Paraparaumu College, Newlands College
Pool C: Aotea College, Wainuiomata High School, Mana College, Upper Hutt College

Pool Play Draw:

Boys

9.00am Porirua v St Pat’s Town B (field 1), Naenae v Wellington College (field 2)
9.20am Scots College v St Bernard’s (field 1) and Taita v St Pat’s Town A (field 2)
10.20am Rongotai v Naenae (field 1) and Silverstream v St Pat’s Town B (field 2)
10.40am Bishop Viard v Taita (field 1) and Wainuiomata v St Bernard’s (field 2)
11.40am Silversteam v Porirua (field 1) and Wellington College v Rongotai (field 2)
12.00pm St Pat’s Town A v Bishop Viard (field 1) and Scots v Wainuiomata (field 2)

Girls

9.40am Newlands College v Porirua (field 1) and St Mary’s v Paraparaumu (field 2)
10.00am Wellington East v Naenae (field 1) and Upper Hutt v Wainuiomata (field 2)
11.00am Newlands v St Mary’s (field 1) and Porirua v Paraparaumu (field 2)
11.20am Mana College v Wainuiomata (field 1) and Upper Hutt v Aotea (field 2)
12.20pm Newlands v Paraparaumu (field 1) and St Mary’s v Porirua (field 2)
12.40pm Upper Hutt v Mana (field 1) and Aotea v Wainuiomata (field 2)