Central Region Sevens in Palmerston North on Saturday

Above: Hawke’s Bay playmaker Ihaia West was the star of this tournament last year, here making a break in the final against Taranaki.

The representative Sevens season proceeds in earnest on Saturday in Palmerston North with the Men’s and Women’s Central Region Qualifying tournament for the Sevens Nationals in the New Year.

All eight Hurricanes region sides plus Taranaki will contest the Men’s side of the draw, with five spots for the Nationals up for grabs, while Wellington, Wairarapa-Bush, Manawatu and Taranaki will be chasing three places available for the Women’s Nationals.

The Men’s competition will operate with three pools of three teams. Defending National champions Wellington, Taranaki and Manawatu are top seeds of each of these pools, while last year’s winners of this tournament Hawke’s Bay are grouped with Manawatu.

Hawke’s Bay knocked Wellington out of this tournament at the semi-final stage last year, winning 26-24, and went on to beat Taranaki 24-19 in the final.

The four Women’s teams square off in a one-pool round-robin before a straight 1 v 2 final and 3 v 4 playoff. Manawatu beat Taranaki 40-14 in the Women’s final last year.

All provinces have been fine tuning their preperations with appearances in various local tournaments over the past few weeks.

The Wellington Men’s and Women’s and the Horowhenua-Kapiti Men’s sides competed at last Saturday’s Piri Weepu 7s in Wainuiomata. The Wellington Men beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 30-15 in their final and the Wellington Women overcame Hawke’s Bay club side Havelock North 41-0 in winning their section.

Saturday’s tournament is one of three qualifying events for the National Tournament on the weekend of 17-18 January, with the Northern Region qualifiers in Hamilton on Saturday and the South Island tournament in Timaru next weekend.

The Wellington Men’s and Women’s teams are expected to be named later today.

The tournament at Massey University is live on Sky TV from 12.20 pm.

Pools:

Men’s

Pool A: Wellington, Horowhenua-Kapiti, East Coast

Pool B: Taranaki, Poverty Bay, Wanganui

Pool C: Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa-Bush

Women’s

Pool D: Manawatu, Wellington,Taranaki, Wairarapa-Bush

Schedule:

Men’s Pool matches:

10.00 am Manawatu v Wairarapa-Bush

10.20 am Taranaki v Wanganui

10.40 am Wellington v East Coast

11.40 am Poverty Bay v Wanganui and Hawke’sBay v Wairarapa-Bush

12.00 pm Horowhenua-Kapiti v East Coast

12.40 pm Manawatu v Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki v Poverty Bay

Women’s Pool matches:

11.00 am Manawatu v Wairarapa-Bush

11.20 am Wellington v Taranaki

1.20 pm Wellington v Wairarapa-Bush

1.40 pm Manawatu v Taranaki

2.40 pm Taranaki v Wairarapa-Bush

3.00 pm Manawatu v Wellington

Men’s Crossover matches:

2.00 pm Highest Rank Pool C v Bottom Pool A and Highest Rank Pool B v Bottom Pool C

2.20 pm Highest Rank Pool A v Bottom Pool B and 2^nd?Remaining Pool v 2^nd?Remaining Pool

3.20 pm Men’s Cup semi-final 1 v 4 and 5^th?v 8^th?playoff

3.40 pm Men’s Cup semi-final 2 v 3 and 6^th?v 7^th?playoff

5.00 pm Men’s 5^th?& 6^th?Winner SF3 v Winner SF4 and Men 3^rd?& 4^th?Loser 1 SF1 v Loser SF2

5.20 pm Men’s Cup final Winner SF1 v Winner SF2

Women’s Crossover matches:

4.00 pm Women’s 3^rd?& 4^th?playoff

4.20 pm 1 v 2 Women’s final