Upper Hutt Rams preparing for busy Sevens season

Upper Hutt Rams flanker and Sevens squad member Taniela Manu makes a break on the Basin Reserve earlier this season.

The Upper Hutt Rams' Sevens campaign is well and truly underway.

Coached by Nathan Williams, Tiny Graham and Filipe Rayasi, the club has been training for a month, although there have been some disruptions with plenty of players involved with representative rugby. Just last weekend, key player Murphy Taramai made his Wellington Lions debut off the bench against Taranaki.

Upper Hutt, who subsequently merged with Rimutaka to form the Upper Hutt Rams club, won the American Ambassador's Wellington club Sevens title at Wakefield Park last November, pulling clear in the second half to beat Wainuiomata 40-17 in the final.

The Upper Hutt Rams' goal is the New Zealand National Sevens title in 2015, said Head Coach Nathan Williams this week.? "With players such as Hayden Schrijvers, Murphy Taramai, Kayne Hammington, Taniela Manu, Tupeni Kamakorewa, Josh Hunt, Sam and Richard Wasley, Jordon Simpson Hefft, Jason Henry and Joyner Key all committed to the cause we have the belief that this is our year," said Williams. Colin Leilua-Toilolo, who scored a hat-trick in the Wellington final last year, is an outside chance of recovering from knee surgery to make the nationals.

It all starts for the Upper Hutt Rams this Friday night when they have a hit-out against the Wellington Men's team, along with Avalon and the St Pat's Silverstream college side. This is mainly to give the Wellington Men's team some game time before they head off to Australia in a fortnight for their first tournament of the year. Williams says it is also beneficial for their fringe players - guys not still involved with representative rugby - to play against quality opposition and push for a position in their team for the defence of the American Ambassadors tournament on 1 November at Evans Bay Park.

"The first tournament we will be entering is the Invitational Open at Naenae College on 18 October where we will field at least one men's team and one colts team - but we already have over 30 players training, and with the Wellington U19s, Wellington Samoans, Wellington Development and Wellington Lions seasons coming to a close we are only going to add to those numbers.

"We have to make the final of the American Ambassador's tournament to get entry into the national finals, and with the usual suspects, Wainuiomata, Marist St Pat's, Ories and Tawa all likely to field very strong teams, our work is going to be cut out for us."

Following the American Ambassador's tournament, the Upper Hutt Rams will head to Wainuiomata on Saturday 30 November for the Piri Weepu Invitational tournament and then there is a break until the New Year. The Ulalei Tournament looks set to run on 24 and 25 of January and this will be followed by the NZ Marist Sevens on 5 and 6 of February. The Rams are hoping to use one of these tournaments as our build up for the Nationals.

The National Sevens, the ‘Middlesex Sevens' is being hosted by Rangataua in Tauranga on the 14 and 15 February. "We lost to this team in the Cup Semi-final last year," Williams said. "Some bad luck in the tournament really cost us, especially with Hayden Schrijvers injured in the opening minute of our first pool game, Colin Leilua Toilolo tearing his Miniscus just weeks beforehand and with the Wellington Mens 7's programme, the unavailability of Kayne Hammington and being reduced to six men in the semi-final. This year we will just have to work harder as we really want to hold the Nationals in Upper Hutt 2016."

"Tawa are holding a tournament on 21 February at Lyndhurst Park and this will be the last tournament for us as we look to prepare for the Swindale Shield 2015."