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Mixture of youth of experience in Wellington Sevens squad

Club Rugby | 05 November 2013 | Steven White

?Above: Two of the players selected in the Wellington Sevens training squad in action at Wakefield Park on Saturday, Hutt Old Boys Marist’s Tomasi Alosio (left) and MSP’s Matt Peni (right)

The 23-player Wellington Men’s Sevens squad features some exciting talent, such as Scots College speedster and NZ Barbarians XVs player Malo Tuitama and four players from the Upper Hutt team that won Saturday’s American Ambassador’s Sevens at Wakefield Park.

Wellington Lions halfback Kayne Hammington is joined by Upper Hutt teammates Murphy Taramai, Hayden Schrijvers?and Colin Leilua-Tuilolo?who burst through to score a hat trick of tries in the Saturday’s Cup final against Wainuiomata.

Players from 12 clubs, plus Tuitama from Scots College, have been selected in the team that also features All Blacks Sevens player Ambrose Curtis and Lions Hammington, Afa Fa’atau, Genesis Mamea, Api Naikatini, Sinoti Sinoti, Vaea Fafita and Andrew Wells.

Representative newcomers include players such as Avalon’s Tiwi Davies, MSP’s Matt Peni, Johnsonville’s Jack Talapapa and HOBM’s Tomasio Alosio.

Former Avalon and All Blacks Sevens player Scott Waldrom and current Poneke Premiers assistant coach and Premier first five-eighth Sam Rasch are the new coaching duo.

Waldrom said there was a huge focus on giving Wellington Sevens a fresh start this year.

“Sam and I have worked together for a long time and we’re both excited about the potential we have to work with in this year’s squad.

“We’re very impressed with the calibre of players we have, so we’ve got some pretty high expectations in terms of what we’d like to achieve with those players this year.”

Waldrom said Tuitama was also a player to look out for this season.“Although he’s in the squad as a development player at the moment, he’s a real talent, and we could certainly see him step up throughout the season.”

Along with Sevens development manager, Clark Laidlaw, Waldrom and Rasch are putting a lot of effort into developing sevens rugby in the Wellington region.

“We’re really looking at turning the sport around in Wellington, and making ourselves a real powerhouse when it comes to Sevens rugby,” he said.

The first of four tournaments that the Wellington team will contest this summer is the Auckland Sevens on the weekend of 23 and 24 November.

It is expected that they will also play at home in the Piri Weepu Sevens tournament at Wainuiomata soon after that.

The big one is the National Sevens tournament at Rotorua on 11 and 12 January.