National Club Sevens tournament on Waitangi weekend

Many of New Zealand’s leading sevens rugby clubs are entered in this coming Waitangi weekend’s New Zealand Club Sevens tournament at William Jones Park, Wainuiomata, including 16 clubs in the men’s division and a small group in the inaugural women’s competition.

As defending champions of the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup, Wainuiomata are hosting the tournament. Last year they won the tournament at the tournament hosted by 2014 winners Rangataua, who are entered this year along with leading Bay of Plenty fifteens sides Mount Maunganui and Tauranga Sports.

As per the tradition of this tournament, all the country’s 2015 club sevens champions received automatic invitations, and many accepted the offer.

Entries*

Pools and draws and some key information about the tournament will be published later this week.

Men’s (by region):
Northland: Awanui
Auckland: Suburbs
Counties Manukau: Karaka
Waikato: Hamilton Marist, Melville
Bay of Plenty: Rangataua, Mount Manganui , Tauranga Sports
Hawke’s Bay: Napier Pirates
Manawatu: Feilding Old Boys-Oroua
Tasman: Nelson Wanderers
Wellington: Wainuiomata, Upper Hutt Rams, Marist St Pat’s, Old Boys University, Poneke

Women’s:
Bay of Plenty: Tauranga Sports
Wellington: Wainuiomata, Marist St Pat’s

*Entries are subject to change over the next few days.

Last year’s tournament at Rangataua saw an all-Wellington final, with Wainuiomata defeating Hutt Old Boys Marist 24-7 in the Cup final. Wainuiomata had defeated then Auckland champions the Manukau Rovers 27-0 in one Cup semi-final and HOBM had edged out current Wellington champions the Upper Hutt Rams 12-7 in the other.

Wainuiomata became just the second Wellington club after Petone in 1973 to win the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup.

Some of the clubs to look out for this year include current Auckland champions Suburbs, 2015 Counties Manukau Vic Hinton Cup Sevens winners Karaka and the 2015 Waikato club Sevens winners Melville and the runners-up Hamilton Marist. The Hamilton Marist Ravens will be primed, having skipped this past weekend’s New Zealand Marist tournament in favour of this one.

The Napier Pirates struck their banner at November’s Piri Weepu tournament at this same venue, finishing runners-up to Wanganui club Ngamatapouri, while Feilding Old Boys-Oroua recently captured the Manawatu club Sevens Anzac Trophy title for the first time in five years. Tasman champions Nelson Wanderers will be flying the flag for the South Island clubs.

Local teams entered in the men’s division include host club Wainuiomata, the Upper Hutt Rams, Old Boys University, Marist St Pat’s and Poneke. Wellington American Ambassador's 2015 champions the Rams are expected to be close to full strength, whilst a sharp MSP have tasted sevens success two weekends in a row, at the Ulalei Sevens and at the New Zealand Marist Sevens.

The inaugural women’s tournament sees three teams entered, these being Wellington clubs Wainuiomata and Marist St Pat’s and Bay of Plenty visitors Tauranga Sports.

About the tournament

The tournament was started in Dunedin in 1951 and first won by local club Zingari-Richmond. It fell away in the 1990s and wasn’t contested for a decade up to its revival in 2006.

In 65 years of competition, it has been held by 25 individual winners - eight from the North Island and 17 from the South Island. It had been held by South Island clubs continuously for more than three decades before Auckland’s Pakuranga won in 2013 to became the first North Island team to prevail since Hamilton Old Boys in 1976.

The men’s trophies have a military flavour – the championship finalists will play for both the Middlesex Cup and the Bosnian AK 74 Bayonet.

Recent winners have been (not played for in 2012):

2006 Green Island (Dunedin)
2007 Green Island (Dunedin)
2008 Alhambra-Union (Dunedin)
2009 Alhambra-Union (Dunedin)
2010 Otago University (Dunedin)
2011 Burnham (Canterbury)
2013 Pakuranga (Auckland)
2014 Rangataua (Bay of Plenty)
2015: Wainuiomata (Wellington)

View the 2016 tournament’s Facebook Events page at https://www.facebook.com/events/956556401095962/