Clubs primed for American Ambassador?s Sevens tournament

The last official act of the Wellington club rugby season, the American Ambassador’s Club Sevens tournament (trophy pictured), is at Wakefield Park on Saturday.

Most of Wellington’s top clubs have entered multiple teams in the Men’s, Colts and Women’s divisions of the one-day tournament that takes the same format as the recent WRFU Open tournament at Evans Bay Park and Monday’s College Condor Sevens tournament at Naenae College.

The difference between this tournament and the Open tournament is that all players must be registered to the club that they are playing for.

Pool play runs from 9.00 am until approximately 4.00 pm when the semi-finals and finals kick into gear and run through until approximately 6.30 pm when the Men’s division champion is found.

It’s an action-packed day, with 33 teams taking part. There are four pools of 15 teams in the Men’s division, including two Tawa and two Oriental-Rongotai sides, four pools of 12 teams in the Colts section, including two Upper Hutt teams and the Secondary Schools Condor Sevens champions Scots College, and two pools of six women’s entries.

The new one-off American Ambassador’s (AA) tournament replaces the three-leg series last year, that was actually reduced to two owing to the first at the Polo Ground being cancelled by poor weather. Tawa, Upper Hutt and Marist St. Pat’s were tied at the top but Tawa were awarded winners based on points differential.

Old Boys University are the defending AA Colts champions and Oriental-Rongotai the Women’s title holders from last year.

The AA Trophy itself is a magnificent piece of silverware.?

Many of Wellington’s leading players will be lining up for their clubs on Saturday. A key reason why the tournament has been pushed back from recent years is to attract the best players free of representative duties. Similarly, this tournament is a chance for many school leavers to align themselves with a Senior club and most Colts teams and some Senior Men’s and Women’s teams are set to feature secondary school players who played in Monday’s Condor tournament.

American Ambassador’s Sevens tournament key information:

What: WRFU American Ambassador’s Sevens tournament
Where: Wakefield Artificial
When: Saturday 2 November, all day
Grades: Senior Men’s, Women’s and Colts

Pools and teams:

Men’s

Pool A: Tawa 1, Avalon, Northern United, Paremata-Plimmerton
Pool B: Upper Hutt, Old Boys University, Johnsonville, Oriental Rongotai 2
Pool C: Tawa 2, Hutt Old Boys Marist, Oriental Rongotai 1 UPDATE: The Wests Roosters are a late scratching. The other three teams in this pool will have a bye when they were previously drawn to play Wests.

Pool D: Wellington, Wainuiomata, Marist St. Pat’s, Petone

Colts

Pool E: Scots College, Northern United, Old Boys University
Pool F: Upper Hutt 1, Oriental-Rongotai, Poneke
Pool G: Wellington, Tawa, Hutt Old Boys Marist
Pool H: Marist St Pat’s, Upper Hutt 2, Avalon

Women’s

Pool I: Northern United, Poneke, Avalon
Pool J: Oriental-Rongotai, Wainuiomata, Old Boys University

The schedule at a glance (subject to change on the day):

Colts pool play between 9.00 am - 2.23 pm
Men’s pool play between 9.51 am - 3.31 pm
Women’s pool play between 10.59 am - 4.05 pm
Colts semi-finals at 4.22 pm
Men’s Plate semi-finals at 4.39 pm
Women’s semi-finals at 4.56 pm
Men’s Cup semi-finals at 5.13 pm
Colts Final at 5.30 pm
Men’s Plate and Women’s Final at 6.00 pm
Men’s Cup Final at 6.17 pm

American Ambassador’s Trophy - background:

The original (recently replaced by a new flashier blingy one) American Ambassador’s Trophy was presented in 1967 by John F Henning who was US Ambassador to New Zealand in the 1960s. From 1967 until 1998 this tournament was held at Trentham Memorial Park on a Sunday in February as a precursor to the Regional Sevens held in Feilding in mid March, followed by the Sevens Nationals a week or two later.

Tony Meachen took over as Wellington Sevens Coach in 1998 with John Willis as Manager at a time when Wellington had slipped to the "B" division at the Nationals. In 1999 Meachen and Willis drove the formation of The Local Point Series (named after the chain of taverns/cafes/sports bars), played over three rounds and with points awarded in each round.

The Ambassador’s Trophy was still the premier trophy and won by the winner of the either the first or last round - meaning you could win the Local Point Series but not necessarily the Ambassador’s Trophy. The final of the? Ambassador’s Trophy was played as a curtain raiser to an ITM Cup match at Westpac Stadium for a number of years. Ories have been the dominant Sevens club in Wellington over the last decade or so, winning six Ambassador’s Trophy titles and six Local Point titles in this time including the last Local Point Tournament. Hutt Old Boys Marist, Northern United, Marist St. Pat’s, Old Boys University and recently Wainuiomata and Tawa have also featured prominently in the Wellington Sevens scene.

?