UPDATED Central 7s tournament in Levin on Saturday

UPDATED Friday:

The East Coast Men's team has withdrawn from the tournament.

Updated information:

· 2 pools of 4 teams
· Round Robin pool play within own pool - 3 games each
· 1st in Pool A will play 2nd in Pool B and 2nd Pool A will play 1st in Pool B in the Cup Semi Finals (1st – 4th).
· 3rd in Pool A will play 4th Pool B and 4th Pool A will play 3rd Pool B in 5th v 6th Playoff Semi-Finals. Winners of these two games will play off for 5th & 6th
· Semi-final losers play off for 3rd & 4th; Semi-final winners play off for 1st & 2nd (the Cup Final)
· Top 5 teams qualify for the 2017 National Sevens

The representative sevens season gets serious on Saturday, with the Central Zone 7s Tournament in Levin doubling as the qualifying round for the Sevens Nationals in the New Year.

Barring a major shock, at stake for the four Men’s NPC provincial union sides is seeding for the Nationals, with Wellington, Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki all out to finish on top and secure a favourable draw for the Nationals in Rotorua on the weekend of 14 and 15 January.

For the men’s Heartland union sides, Wanganui, Horowhenua-Kapiti, Wairarapa-Bush and Poverty Bay, it’s likely that the four of them will be vying for one extra spot between them for Nationals. If one of the four big guns crash out – as Taranaki nearly did last year – then two of them will be in the running for Rotorua.

The men’s competition will be operating two pools of four, based on seedings from last year’s Nationals. Wellington are the top seeds and headline Pool A, while Manawatu (second) and Taranaki (third) will attempt to come through Pool Bunchecked. Men’s Pool play runs from 10.40am through to 2.30pm approximately.

The all-important men’s crossover matches start at 3.20pm, leading up to the Cup Final at 6.30pm. Perhaps the most important men’s match of the afternoon is the playoff for fifth and sixth on field 2 at 6.10pm.

On the Women’s side of the draw, six teams (up from four last year) will be chasing three spots up for grabs in the Nationals. Defending Central region and National champions Manawatu lead out Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay in Pool A, while runners-up to them in both outings, Wellington, will meet Taranaki and Wanganui in Pool B.

Women’s Pool play runs from 10.00am to 1.30pm approximately, heading into the afternoon session and the final slated for 5.40pm. The playoff for third and fourth immediately before the final will have more riding on it, with the loser of that match missing out on Nationals.

It’s been an eventful last three years in this tournament for the Hawke’s Bay men’s side. The Magpies won in 2013, were dumped out of the tournament by Horowhenua-Kapiti and missed Nationals qualification in 2014 and returned last year to win again, beating Manawatu 26-17 in the final. Their roller-coaster continued at this year's Nationals as they were beaten by Northland in the Bowl final.

Youth will be a feature of this tournament, with several squads blooding new players at this level for the first time. For instance, Wellington’s women’s squad will include some of the girls that won the Condor 7s for St Mary’s College on Sunday, while the immediate future of Manawatu men’s sevens appears sound with Feilding High School making the boys final.

Both Manawatu and Wellington will be going into the tournament with new men’s coaches, with Tomasi Cama and Scott Waldrom currently caretaker coaches of the All Black 7s side.

The only non-Hurricanes region side in this tournament, Taranaki, promise to be a handful with a seasoned group of sevens players and some new blood coming through. Down the road, Wanganui would cap a successful representative year for the union with qualification for the National tournament.

All provinces have been slowly ramping up their preparations with appearances in various local tournaments over the past few weeks and some reported recent hard training sessions.

Saturday’s tournament is one of three qualifying events for the National Tournament, with the Northern Region qualifiers in Cambridge on Sunday and the South Island tournament in Timaru a fortnight ago. Tasman (Men’s) and Canterbury (women’s) won the Southern Sevens qualifiers.

This Saturday’s Central tournament at Playford Park is live on Sky TV all afternoon.

For more live coverage, follow the tournaments Facebook page  

Pools

Men’s:

POOL A: Wellington (1), Hawkes Bay (4), Wanganui (5), Horowhenua Kapiti (8) 

POOL B: Manawatu (2),  Taranaki (3), Poverty Bay (6), Wairarapa Bush (7)

Women’s:

Pool A: Manawatu (1), Poverty Bay (4), Hawke’s Bay (5)
Pool B: Wellington (2), Taranaki (3), Wanganui (6)

Schedule

Men’s Pool matches:
10.40am: Hawke's Bay v Horowhenua-Kapiti
11.00am: Wellington v Wanganui
11.20am: Manawatu v Wairarapa Bush and Taranaki v Poverty Bay
12.20pm: Wellington v Hawke's Bay
12.40pm: Wanganui v Horowhenua-Kapiti
1.00pm: Manawatu v Taranaki and Poverty Bay v Wairarapa Bush
2.00pm: Wellington v Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wanganui v Hawke's Bay
2.20pm: Manawatu v Poverty Bay and Taranaki v Wairarapa Bush

Women’s Pool matches:
10.00am: Wellington v Taranaki
10.20am: Manawatu v Poverty Bay
11.40am: Taranaki v Wanganui
12.00pm: Hawke’s Bay v Poverty Bay
1.00pm: Wanganui v Wellington
1.20pm: Manawatu v Hawke’s Bay

Men’s crossover matches:
Round One: 3.20pm and 3.40pm
Cup semi-finals and playoff matches: 4.40pm and 5.00pm
Playoff for third and fourth and fifth and sixth matches: 6.10pm
Final: 6.30pm

Women’s crossover matches:
Round One: 2.40pm and 3.00pm
Cup semi-finals: 4.00pm and 4.20pm
Playoff for third and fourth: 5.20pm
Final: 5.40pm