Southern to defend sevens title as Taranaki sevens season starts

Above photo: Jackson Ormond, left, played a key part in Southern's campaign

Southern will head into this weekend’s Dewar Shield club sevens campaign as defending champions looking to defend their title from last year.  

The Hawera based club smashed Tukapa 46-0 in the final at Yarrow Stadium last year and will be keen to do the same again at the stadium.  

Southern had the help of national sevens representative Kurt Baker and Taranaki wing Jackson Ormond and Development players Brent Landers and Jesse Parete who played their part in the final.  

Held a few weeks earlier than usual, the Taranaki club sevens is a popular tournament which has attracted some visiting teams. It has grown since last year having a senior mens, senior thirds, colts and women’s division spread across four fields at Yarrow Stadium.  

Six teams have been added in the senior men’s division with Spotswood and Inglewood joining Southern in Pool A and Tukapa, New Plymouth Old Boys and Clifton competing in Pool B.    

The senior thirds division will comprise of Tukapa, Spotswood United 1, Bell Block and Clifton in Pool A and Southern, Spotswood 2, Hauraki North and Kaponga in Pool B.  

There are also eight teams in the colt’s division and in Pool A Stratford/Eltham, Clifton, Bell Block and Southern will compete in round robin play, Tukapa, Spotswood, Inglewood and Coastal will play in Pool B.  

For the first time in a number of years a women’s division has been entered with New Plymouth Girls High School playing Patea, Rongataua and Stratford in Pool A and New Plymouth Old Boys, Spotswood, Clifton and Taihape battling it out in Pool B.  

The tournament is an important one for the Taranaki sevens side with most of the player selected from this tournament and will compete in the regional qualifying tournament in Levin in early December.  

All teams will play in round robin matches before the qualifying matches with play getting underway at 9:30am on Saturday.