Summer of 7s rugby set to heat up

Thinking of participating in a summer sport?

Think again. The rugby continues unabated throughout the warmer months with a host of Sevens tournaments, both locally and elsewhere, for players and fans alike to set their calendars to.

On the club scene, there are several tournaments coming up in Wellington and further afield throughout the Lower North Island this month and in November, January and February, highlighted by the National Club Championships in the Hutt Valley in the New Year.

Local college Sevens is in full swing throughout October and November, leading up to the annual National Condor Sevens in Auckland in early December.

In representative Sevens, at least the top two sides from the American Ambassador's tournament will earn tickets to compete in the Middlesex 7s, the National club Sevens championships, hosted by Wainuiomata in February, while the Wellington Men's team crosses the ditch for a tournament later this month.

The opening shots of the secondary school Sevens season were launched last weekend at Naenae College with a practice tournament. The secondary school Sevens gets underway in earnest on 17 October with three zone tournaments across the Wellington region and a Hurricanes schools tournament in Palmerston North.

The three tournaments in Wellington are the Wellington Zone 7s Tournament (city schools), the Hutt 7s (Hutt Valley schools) and the Derek Wotton Memorial 7s (Western Suburbs schools).

The second annual Hurricanes Youth Council Sevens tournament is being played in at the Rugby Institute in Palmerston North that same day.

These events are leading up to the Wellington and Wairarapa Secondary Schools Condor qualifying tournament at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday, 26 October.

The following weekend, 24 and 25 October, the Wellington Men’s team heads across to Australia to compete in the Central Coast tournament north of Sydney. Wellington finished runners-up to a strong Fijian team last year in what was a quality tournament. The New Zealand Development team is also competing in the Central Coast Sevens and that squad is expected to include a handful of Wellington and lower North Island provincial union players.

The annual Village Kings tournament is being played at Porirua Park on 24 October, hosted by the Wellington Samoan Rugby Union.

Other representative Sevens tournaments coming up before the end of this year include the Auckland 7s on the weekend of 21 and 22 November, featuring the Wellington Men’s and Women’s teams and several other leading provincial teams using this this as a lead-in to the Regional qualifying tournaments.

This year’s Central Region National Sevens qualifying Men’s and Women’s tournament is at Playford Park in Levin on 12 December.

In the New Year the Mt Maunganui 7s tournament is on 9 January, ahead of the National Provincial 7s tournament at Rotorua on 16 and 17 January.

On the club scene, there are at least six tournaments in Wellington between the end of October and mid-October to look forward to.

The two official WRFU Sevens tournaments are the Open Invitational tournament on Saturday 31 October at Porirua Park and the American Ambassador’s Wellington Club Championship tournament at Trentham memorial Park on 7 November.

Both tournaments will feature three grades, a Senior Men’s Grade, a Senior Women and College Girls combined grade and a Colts and College Boys combined grade.

The first of these tournaments is open to any team or club side, whilst the American Ambassador’s (AA) tournament is strictly a club-based tournament. Hutt Old Boys Marist (Men’s), Oriental-Rongotai (Women’s) and Scots College (Colts) are the defending AA champions.

The other club tournament of note is the Piri Weepu Invitational 7s at William Jones and Mary Crowther Parks, Wainuiomata at the end of November.

The Wainuiomata club will be using this event as a dry run to the big one, the hosting of the 2016 Middlesex National Club 7s Championship. Defending champions Wainuiomata haven’t set a date yet, but indications are that this could be staged on Waitangi weekend.

This is expected to be preceded by the New Zealand Marist 7s, which is traditionally being played on the weekend of the international Wellington Sevens tournament (brought forward to 30 and 31 January this year).

The Tawa 7s return to Lyndhurst Park on 13 February, while other events on the radar that need to be confirmed include the Hawke’s Bay 7s, the Shannon 7s and the Greytown 7s.

Fans can take a breather the following weekend, before the start of the 2016 Super Rugby season on Friday 26 February (Blues v Highlanders and Brumbies v Highlanders) and the build-up to the 15s club season starts in earnest.

Some Sevens tournaments coming up include (please email editor@clubrugby.co.nz or leave in the comments below to let us more to add to the list):

Club Sevens

• 31 October WRFU Open Invitational 7s Tournament, Porirua Park 3 & 4
• 7 November WRFU American Ambassador 7s Tournament, Trentham Memoria Park
• 28 November Piri Weepu 7s, William Jones Park, Wainuiomata
• End of January (TBC) Middlesex National Club 7s Championship, hosted by Wainuiomata
• End of January (TBC) Ulalei 7s (Venue TBC)
• Early February (TBC) NZ Marist Club 7s Championship, hosted by the NZ Marist Rugby Federation, venue TBC.
• 13 February Tawa 7s, Lyndhurst Park, Tawa

College Sevens

• 17 October Wellington Zone College 7s Tournament (Wakefield Park); Western Zone College 7s – Derek Wootton Memorial 7s – (Porirua Park); Hutt Valley Zone College 7s (Fraser Park)
• 17 October Hurricanes Youth Council Secondary Schools 7s Tournament, Massey University, Palmerston North
• 26 October Wellington and Wairarapa Secondary Schools Condor Qualifying Tournament, Naenae College
• 21 November U15 7S Tournament, Naenae College
• 2 December Condor National 7s Tournament, Kelston Boys’ College, Auckland

Representative Sevens

• 24/25 October Central Coast 7s, Australia (WRFU Men, NZ Development teams)
• 24 October WSRU Village Kings 7s Tournament, Porirua Park
• 21/22 November Auckland 7s Tournament, Northcote Birkenhead RFC, Auckland (WRFU Men and Women)
• 12 December Central Region Representative Qualifying 7s Tournament, Levin (WRFU Men and Women)
• 9 January Mt Maunganui 7s, Mt Maunganui (WRFU Men and Women)
• 16/17 January National Provincal 7s, Rotorua (WRFU Men and Women)