Wellington schools through to Cup quarter-finals at Condors

Above: St Pat’s Silverstream’s Salesi Rayasi away on a run today on the opening day of the Natonal Condor Sevens. Photo courtesy of?https://www.facebook.com/condorsevens/?and @CondorSevens

All three Wellington schools, Scots College, St Pat’s Silverstream and Wellington East Girls’ College, have qualified for the Cup quarter-finals of the National Secondary Schools Condor Sevens tournament, after a super-competitive opening day of matches today at Auckland’s Kelston Boys’ High School.

All three will be in action in the main draw tomorrow in top eight matches, with Scots College playing Manawatu’s Feilding High School and St Pat’s Silverstream meeting Hamilton Boys’ High School in the Boys quarter-finals from 12.40 pm and Wellington East meeting Bay of Plenty’s Opotiki College in their Girls Cup quarter-final appearance.

The other two Boys Cup quarter-final matches are Taranaki’s Francis Douglas Memorial College v Auckland’s Otahuhu College and Rotorua Boys’ High School v Otago Boys’ High School.?

Tournament favourites Hamilton Girls’ High School will play fellow Waikato school Fairfield College, Southland Girls’ High School will be up against Northland’s Kaipara College and Canterbury’s Lincoln High School meets Manawatu’s Feilding High School.

All three schools have a chance of progressing through to the Cup semi-finals; selecting tomorrow afternoon’s finalists would be a bold prediction.

Scots College opened today’s matches, beating Whangarei High School 31-0, after leading 12-0 at halftime and then running away with the match in the second half. Tries were scored by Peter and Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Michael Findlay, Jarimar Schuster and Connor Garden-Bachop.

St Pat’s Silverstream opened their account against Wesley College with a 28-12 win in a physical match. Jarrod Adams, captain Daniel Schrijvers, Kaide McCashin and Salesi Rayasi scored tries.

Scots then got beaten by Hamilton Boys’ High School 19-7. Hamilton, who Scots shared the national fifteens title with earlier in the year, went into this match needing to win after they had been upset 17-12 in their first match. Scots scored one try to Peter Umaga-Jensen, converted by TJ Va’a.

Silverstream then lost their second match, to Feilding High School, 17-5. Salesi Rayasi scored Silverstream’s try in this fixture, but he also dropped the ball over the line after making a 50-metre break when the game was on a knife-edge.

Scots topped their group on points differential and Silverstream finished second in theirs.

They then had the crossover games, with Scots playing Christchurch’s St Bede’s and Siverstream meeting Auckland’s Mt Albert Grammar School (MAGS).

Scots beat St Bede’s 26-24, with Peter Umaga-Jensen scoring two tries. His first was a 75-metre runaway and the second came after making a big left foot step and running 30 metres to the whitewash. The other tries for Scots in this game were to Alex Fidow and TJ Va’a, who also kicked three conversions. St Bede’s scored four tries and kicked two conversions. Their best player was Zac McKay who scored two tries.

Silverstream also enjoyed a win in their third match of the day, beating MAGS 14-5. Lewis Kingi scored the first try and Asafo Aumua scored a 40-metre stunner which won them the game. Of note, Joey Keresoma who is the younger brother of current Canterbury ITM Cup wing and former NZ Sevens player Milford, scored a try for MAGS.

In the girls section, Wellington East Girls’ College opened their tournament with a well-taken 24-19 win over New Plymouth Girls’ High School. Their second game was against Lincoln High School and they lost that by 14-5.

Wellington East then played Northland’s Ruawai College, winning 34-0 and putting themselves into the Cup quarterfinals.

Day 2 of the Condor Sevens is Live on the Rugby Channel.