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Secondary schools tournaments to kick off Sevens season

Club Rugby | 18 September 2013 | Steven White

The Sevens rugby season kicks off over the next two weekends with three secondary school Sevens tournaments being played.

Wellington Men’s Sevens co-coach Scott Waldrom hosts the inaugural Hutt Valley Secondary Schools Sevens tournament this coming Sunday, while there are two tournaments next weekend.

These are the Western Schools Sevens Derek Wootton Memorial Trust tournament at Porirua Park and the College Sport Wellington Sevens festival at Wakefield Artificial, featuring? open teams from all other schools.

These tournaments lead up to the Wellington and Wairarapa qualifying leg of the national Condor Sevens tournament at Naenae College on 28 October. Last year Scots College represented Wellington region in the tournament that was won by Auckland’s Kelston Boys’ High School for the third consecutive year.

A desire to give young local players a pathway into Sevens rugby prompted Waldrom to organise this Sunday’s Hutt Valley Secondary Schools tournament, which is being held at Riverside Park near Fraser Park.

“It’s an initiative to try and build a Sevens system for young players,” said Waldrom. “The more we can help in getting the schools playing the better. It’s going to help develop the game in the clubs and then in turn at representative level.”

“It's fair to say that Wellington has underperformed at the national Sevens level for quite a few years now, so I see this as a first step to building the game locally.”

Waldrom said that all the local schools are involved on Sunday. “All nine boys colleges in the Hutt Valley have entered teams, as well as two girls teams who will play each other three times.”

All schools competing are mixed entry teams, with no age or weight restrictions. The 21-match? tournament kicks off at 9.00 am, with quarterfinals starting just after midday and boys Bowl, Shield, Plate and Cup finals and the third girls match all running from just after 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm.

The schools competing in the inaugural Hutt Valley Secondary Schools Sevens tournament are: Heretaunga College, Hutt International Boys’ School, Hutt Valley High School,? Naenae College (boys and girls), St Bernard’s College, St Pat’s Silverstream, Taita College, Upper Hutt College and Wainuiomata High School (boys and girls).

Sponsors include Hydr8 ZERO, who are donating every team a box of their sports drinks, Tradestaff, the Hutt News, who are sponsoring the trophies, and Avalon RFC, who are sponsoring the Player of the Tournament trophies. ?

Meanwhile, Waldrom and Poneke Premiers assistant coach and former first five-eighth Sam Rasch have jointly taken over the reins this year as Wellington Men’s representative Sevens coaches.

In another initiative to help strengthen the short format game in Wellington, there is a change in structure in the upcoming club Sevens programme.

Whereas last year there were three tournaments as part of the American Ambassadors series, this year there are just two tournaments and the dates have been pushed back so as not to clash with the representative fifteens season.

The first of these is an open tournament on 19 October at Evans Bay Park and the second is the American Ambassador Sevens Wellington club rugby Sevens on 2 November at the Wakefield Artificial.

Waldrom said a key reason for the change is to the best players playing, many of whom are currently involved with the various Wellington Development, U20s, Maori and Samoans representative teams.

“It is to give those representative players the opportunity to play Sevens and for the clubs to field their best teams and actually put a bit of emphasis on this tournament and try raise its profile.”

“It gives us selectors the opportunity to see the best players playing Sevens and not trying to pick them from the fifteens programme.”

These tournaments lead into the representative programme, culminating in the National Sevens, which are being played in Rotorua in early January 2014.

Upcoming Sevens tournaments at a glance:

Community Sevens Programme

22 September: Hutt Valley Secondary Schools tournament, Riverside Park, Lower Hutt

28 September: Western Schools Derek Wootton Memorial Trust tournament at Porirua Park and College Sport Wellington Invitational tournament at the Wakefield Artificial.