HOBM and Ories win Men?s and Women?s Sevens titles

Sevens Rugby | 01 November 2014 | Steven White

Hutt Old Boys Marist and Oriental-Rongotai have emerged victorious at the end of a long and exciting day at Evans Bay Park as the 2014 WRFU Men’s and Women’s American Ambassador’s Sevens champions.

HOBM won the American Ambassador’s trophy after beating Wainuiomata in the Men’s Cup final and Ories won the Eleanor Roosevelt Cup in defeating Northern United in the Women’s Cup final.

Both Cup finals couldn’t have been any different, Ories edging out Norths 24-17 in a golden point Women’s final nail-biter after scores had been locked up at 17-17 after regulation 20 minutes and HOBM careening to a 35-0 lead on their way to winning the Men’s final 35-21.

The Men’s and Women’s winners were a repeat of the 15s winners earlier in the season, with Ories doing the Fleurs Trophy-Victoria Tavern Trophy-Eleanor Roosevelt Cup triple and HOBM doing the Jubilee Cup-American Ambassador’s Cup double.

Both beaten finalists also lost the Men’s and Women’s 15s championship finals in August.?

Scots College, minus Malo Tuitama who is out for several months with an Achilles injury and TJ Va’a for this tournament, effortlessly defended their David Huebner Cup Colts title after beating an MSP Colts team that included several St Pat’s Town players, winning 31-21.

Ories defeated Old Boys University 19-17 in the Men’s Plate final and Ories beat OBU 15-12 to win the Colts Plate final.

Lizzie Goulden, who last night picked up the WRFU Women’s Player of the Year award, was the star at the end of a pulsating final, racing clear from halfway to score the match winning try in extra time against Norths.?

Ories had led 12-5 at halftime, but Norths scored two runaway tries to take a 17-12 lead late into regulation time – this despite two yellow cards to the same player resulting in a mandatory red card in the second half. After mounting a strong assault, Ories finally scored against the six-women Norths to lock the game up to take it to a golden point.

Goulden was stoked with the win afterwards. “Winning this is the best way to finish the season,” she said. “I missed a conversion that could have put us over the line at the end of regulation time, so was pleased to score the try at the end and win it for us.”

“It was a good day for us all-round, we went through our Pool undefeated with wins over Wainuiomata [19-5], MSP [45-0] and Tawa [31-0], came up against a hard OBU team in the semis [winning 36-0] and then beat Norths in the final - so this is pretty special for us.”

Goulden thanked the Ories coaching staff as well. “Credit to our coaches, who originally got our team together and put a three-year plan in place to build towards what we’ve achieved this year in winning the 15s and now the 7s.”

In the Colts final that followed, Scots College scored four tries in the first half to lead 26-7. MSP came back to outscore them in the second half but the damage had been done.

Both Men’s Cup finalists had come off tough semi-final wins.?

On the Artificial field, Wainuiomata had knocked out defending champions the Upper Hutt Rams 7-0. Wainuiomata’s sole try came from their captain Greg Lealofi and they successfully disrupted the Rams all match and forced them into making several handling errors.

On the main ground, HOBM scraped home over Marist St Pat’s 19-17, with Tamati Samuels crossing with time just about up. This came only moments after MSP had scored to put themselves ahead. MSP, with Wellington rep Issac O’Connor a late scratching for the tournament as he was away celebrating his birthday, were also left hanging on a first half conversion that they thought had gone over that ultimately would have forced this semi-final into extra time.

The final was a one-sided affair, with HOBM getting their tails up early in the contest and breaking through to score four converted tries to lead 28-0 at halftime.

They then added a fifth try after the interval, before Wainuiomata came back with three straight tries to close the result up.

HOBM captain Lise Soloa was also pleased for his team: “We’re really happy to have won this today. We had some tough games out here today but the guys showed a lot of determination to get through them all and win this for the club.”

“All our players really stepped up for us today, so we are going to go away and celebrate this win amongst ourselves and with our club mates and supporters.”

HOBM players to play well all day included Wellington 7s reps Sheridan Rangihuna and Tamati Samuels (on loan for the day from Petone who didn’t field a Men’s team), and playmakers out wide such as Chase Tiatia, Ope Peleaseuma, Fereti Soloa and James Kusel, returning to competitive rugby after a knee injury.?

The Eagles enjoyed wins over Avalon (21-0) and OBU (19-12) in Pool Play and then beat Poneke in their quarterfinal (17-12). HOBM also fielded a second Men’s side, who reached the Cup quarter-finals before being beaten by the Upper Hutt Rams (7-43).?

Earlier Pool play started at 9.00 on both fields and was full of excitement.?

The early talking point was the effective disqualification of the Tawa Men’s team for fielding ineligible players. Despite this, Tawa kept playing throughout the day, missing out to Ories (15-31) at the Plate semi-final stage.

There was one draw in Pool Play (10-10 between the Poneke and Avalon Women’s teams), several close results and a couple of injuries including a badly broken leg to a OBU Colts player and an early leg muscular injury to Wainuiomata’s Marvin Karawana that ultimately proved costly for them.?

The Wellington Men’s 7s selectors were on hand during the day, ?later announcing a Wider Training Squad to prepare for their defence of the National 7s that starts with regional qualifiers in Palmerston North in early December.

?

Greg Foe (Poneke)

Hayden Schrijvers (Upper Hutt)

Murphy Taramai (Upper Hutt)

Isaac O'Connor (MSP)

Matt Peni (MSP)

Taniela Manu (Upper Hutt)

Lise Soloa (HOBM)

Vaea Fifita (Wellington)

Ambrose Curtis (Ories)

James Kusel (HOBM)

Lote Raikabula (Tawa)

Sheridan Rangihuna (HOBM)

Tamati Samuels (Petone)

Belgium Tuatagaloa ?(Petone)

Tomasi Alosio (HOBM)

Ryan Setefano (MSP)

Josh Robertson-Weepu (Wainui)

Chase Tiatia (HOBM)

Inoke Rasabale (Tawa)

Tiwi Davies (Avalon) *

Faresa Tasele (Poneke)

Jordan Simpson-Hefft (Upper Hutt) *

Tupeni Kamakorewa (Upper Hutt) *

Nick Grigg (Petone) *

Tuga Mativa (Ories) *

Pakai Turia (Poneke)*

? ? ?

* Denotes new player to training squad for 2014-2015 programme

Wainuiomata 29 – 7 Poneke

HOBM 1 21 – Avalon 0?

MSP 28 – Tawa 14

Upper Hutt Rams 24 – Johnsonville 17

MSP 24 – HOBM (2) 7

Wainuiomata 21 – Wellington 12

OBU 21 – Avalon 5

Upper Hutt Rams 31 – Ories 5

HOBM 1 19 – OBU 12

Poneke 22 – Wellington 14

Johnsonville 19 – Ories 12

Norths 37 – Avalon 0

Ories 19 – Wainuiomata 5

Old Boys University 15 – Poneke 0

Tawa 24 – Marist St Pat’s 5

Ories 45 – MSP 0

Norths 38 – Poneke 0

Wainuiomata 27 – Tawa 0

Avalon 13 – OBU 5

Norths 20 – OBU 7

Ories 31 – Tawa 0

Avalon 10 – Poneke 10

Wainuiomata 46 – MSP 0

Scots College 34 - Old Boys University- 7?

St Pat’s Town 33 - Tawa 7

Upper Hutt Rams 34 - Poneke - 10

Northern United 26 - Petone 12

St Pat’s Town 38 – Ories 2 10

HOBM 1 36 – Scots College 17

Avalon 17 – Upper Hutt Rams 12

Norths 33 –Ories 0

Ories 2 29 – Tawa 7

HOBM 1 19 – OBU 12

Petone 22 –Ories 14

Poneke 35 – Avalon 12

Men’s: HOBM 1, Wainuiomata, Upper Hutt Rams, MSP

Colts: Scots College, St Pat’s Town, Poneke

Women’s: Norths, Ories?

Ories 26 - Upper Hutt Rams 5

OBU 30 – Tawa 12

Scots College 40 ?- Ories (2) 5

Norths 33 – Avalon 0

HOBM defeated St Pat’s Town?

Petone 31 –Poneke 12

Ories 31 – Tawa 15

OBU 20 – Wellington 19

MSP 28 – Johnsonville 12

HOBM 17 – Poneke 12

Upper Hutt Rams – HOBM 2

Wainuiomata 12 – Avalon 7?

Ories 36 – OBU 0

Norths 26 – Wainuiomata 5

Scots College 26 – Norths 7

MSP 12 – Petone 7

HOBM 1 19 – MSP 17

Wainuiomata 7 – Upper Hutt Rams 0

Ories 24 – Norths 17 (decided on golden point)

Scots College 31 – MSP 21

Hutt Old Boys Marist 35 – Wainuiomata 21