Over the last two weekend’s, some of our Northland clubs have competed in the Northland Club 7’s Series.

Saturday 28^th October saw the first tournament take place in cloudy conditions at the Kerikeri Sports Complex.

8 Men’s teams, 2 Women’s teams and 2 U18 Boys teams took the field.

A great day of rugby saw home team Kerikeri open the day for the open men’s grade versus southern rivals Wellsford, going down 17-12 in an exciting game to get the day started.

The open men’s finalists for day one also met In their first round, with Mid Northern winning 38-12 over Kamo.

The Open Women’s division had some teams pull out late in the piece leaving Moerewa and Hokianga Wahine as the only two to battle it out. Moerewa took the win first up 19-10 in an exciting clash. Game two saw Moerewa win again 21-17 and game three was a clean sweep for Moerewa winning 26-19. A great display of Women’s rugby and players put their hand up to represent Northland in the Northern Region’s Tournaments.

The U18 Boys grade was also reduced to two teams for this tournament. Local team Kerikeri HS are preparing for Condor’s 7’s and it showed with a strong outing in game one to defeat Hora Hora 42-15. Game two was another win for Kerikeri HS but a good fight from Hora Hora reduced the margin to 22-12. Game three saw Hora Hora continue to build momentum with a 29-27 win. Kerikeri HS crowned round one champions.

In the Open Men’s division a three team tie in Pool A saw Waipu narrowly miss out to Western Sharks and Wellsford on countback to make the cup semi’s. On the other side of the draw Mid Northern and Kamo progressed through to the cup semi’s.

This set up some exciting games with Wellsford going down to Kamo 27-14 and Mid Northern besting Western Sharks 34-0 to make it to the showcase game. In the bowl playoffs, Waipu beat Motukohu 28-21 and Kerikeri got up over Hora Hora 17-12 to set up a pool rematch.

In the bowl final Waipu showed their class to dispatch Kerikeri 33-5. In the plate final Wellsford claimed third place over Western Sharks with a 19-17 win.

In the cup final Mid Northern turned on the heat against Kamo to 42-14 to claim top honours in round one.

Moving to the 4^th November the sun came out at Pioneer Park. Due to some unexpected circumstances teams were reduced from the week before with 6 open men’s teams, and 4 U18 boys teams.

Home team Western Sharks opened the day with a 20-10 win over round one champions Mid Northern.

In the U18 boys City, Whangaruru and Otamatea were new teams to the competition joining round one runners up Hora Hora to create an exciting day of age grade 7’s. Whangaruru looked sharp besting Otamatea 19-10 in game one, followed by City beating Hora Hora 31-12.

The day was running well and the sun was not going away. A fiery encounter between home team Western Sharks and rivals Waipu was one of the matches of the day with Waipu claiming victory 27-26 to set up another countback in Pool A.

Kaitaia and Kerikeri closed out the Open Men’s round robin with an exciting encounter, with Kaitaia claiming victory 31-12 to claim their spot in the cup finals.

Men’s Cup Finals were set with a round one final rematch between Mid Northern and Kamo (Mid Northern had three wins over Kamo over the two weeks – 38-12, 42-14, 26-7). This wasn’t putting off the local rivals with Kamo playing with energy and finesse to smother Mid Northern and claim an exciting 29-14.

In semi final two, home team Western Sharks took on Kaitaia, with the home side claiming a clinical 40-12 victory to move on the showcase match.

The U18 cup semis saw Otamatea best City 29-22 and Hora Hora beat Whangaruru 19-14 to progress to the showcase match.

Mens Bowl final saw Waipu take on Kerikeri with Waipu again expressing their frustration of missing out on the Cup Semis via countback with a 47-0 win.

U18 Boys Bowl Final saw City beat Whangaruru 29-22.

In the Open Men’s Plate final, Mid Northern showed their class with a 37-15 win over Kaitaia.

U18 Boys final saw eventual series champions Hora Hora scored 5 fantastic tries against Otamatea to win 33-19 to claim the trophy.

The Cup final set up an interesting scenario for the division with a second place finish for Kamo leaving them even on points with Mid Northern for the series championship.

A back and forth game saw multiple lead changes but the cut throat attitude that an undermanned Kamo brought to the tournament saw them do enough to take down the home side 24-17 to not only claim the tournament championship but also the overall series champions.

Thanks goes to the Whangaruru Rugby Club and Gerrard Martin for the donation of two paddles for the Players of the Tournament for Saturday 4^th.

The Northland Rugby Referees Association were tasked with deciding the winners based upon their experiences and what they saw on the day. Congratulations goes to the winners:

U18 – Bosco Jessop – City

Open Men – Blake Hohaia – Kamo.

Congratulations to all teams that participated over the two weekends, we look forward to going again next year.

See full points and results from the 2023 7s series here 👇

Good luck to the Men’s and Women’s Northland sides for their three tournament series for the Northern Regions 7’s Series.

11^th November – Thames Valley Invitational – Whangamata

18^th November – Counties Manukau Invitational – Navigation Homes Stadium

25^th November – Northern Regions Seven’s Championship – Pohe Island, Whangarei

Article added: Monday 06 November 2023