Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments
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This past week, the Hong Kong Tens tournament took place.
The tournament was won by Biarritz Gavekal for the third consecutive time. It's a French team, but without any French players. There were 8 Kiwis in the team, mostly unknow to me, but one of them was Blake Barrett*. Apparently, Penikolo Latu also played for them, although his name wasn't on the team list.
(*Barrett's name featured also on another team's list, so I don't know for which team he actually played)
Silver was one by Samurai International, again with plenty of Kiwis, including Jeff Thwaites, Tom Florence, Luke Campbell, Matt Garland, Dan Hollinshead and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black.
Japan based team YCAC won Plate. YCAC had an almost entirely Kiwi squad, including Hayden and Daniel Schrijvers, James Lash, Warwick Lahmert, Jacob Kneepkens, Mason Emerson, Te Puoho Stephens, Mark Atkins and Kylem O'Donnell.
There were a few Kiwis in other teams as well, such as Anthony Tuitavake and Frank Halai.
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RED BULL IGNITE7 ATHLETES ANNOUNCED
New Zealand Rugby’s (NZR) search for sevens superstars has once again unearthed an impressive crop of diverse and talented athletes for the second edition of Red Bull Ignite7. Teams Inferno, Bolt, Surge and Power will be back in action next month, with NZR today unveiling the 96 athletes (48 males and 48 females) who will compete at Red Bull Ignite7 2019 from November 20 to 23 at Trusts Arena in Waitakere. Representative netballers, nationally ranked Surf Life Savers, and New Zealand Secondary Schools water polo and rugby players are among those named to compete for six guaranteed places at the 2020 New Zealand Sevens Development Camps. Among the athletes classified by the selectors as ‘new to rugby’ in 2019 are NZ Youth Water Polo player Ronan Gogarty-Watson, World Rowing Championship silver medalist Ben Taylor, and national sprint sensation Edward Osei-Nketia. Osei-Nketia will attend Red Bull Ignite7 in a non-playing capacity after returning from the World Athletics Championships in Doha, as he continues to keep his rugby options open alongside his athletics career. The women’s squads include 2019 Northern Mystics netballer Grace Kukutai, 2019 Bay of Plenty and Coromandel Surf Life Saving Under 19 female Sportsperson of the Year Alicia Wilson, and Under 21 New Zealand women’s hockey representative Kiriana Wairau-Hunter.More than 500 applicants from around New Zealand registered their interest in this year’s event, which NZR High Performance Sevens Talent Development Manager, Chad Tuoro, said was a testament to the success of the inaugural event in 2018 and the growing popularity of sevens. “From a high-performance point of view we were thrilled with the success of last year’s event and it has been exciting to see a number of players from 2018 make significant progress in their sevens careers.” That success included newly-contracted All Blacks Sevens player, Jacob Kneepkens, who was one of the six players at Red Bull Ignite7 2018 to claim a place at the 2019 New Zealand Sevens Development Camps.Viewers will also recognise some familiar faces as a number of last year’s participants re-join their teams in the hope of securing a spot in the 2020 New Zealand Sevens Development Camps, including Mitre 10 Cup Magpies player Tyrone Dodd-Edwards and Auckland Storm representative Isla Norman-Bell.
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https://www.allblacks.com/news/red-bull-ignite7-athletes-announced
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Unfortunately, they haven't added the players' provinces, and I don't recognise the majority of the names.
From Hawke's Bay, I recognise Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong (Hasting BHS 1st XV), Tyrone Dodd-Edwards (Magpies) and Ethyn Martin (Napier BHS 1st XV).
There are more names that I've heard before, either from Mitre 10 Cup, Farah Palmer Cup or 1st XV rugby.
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The Oceania 7s are this weekend. It's not part of the World Sevens Series, so New Zealand is sending an All Blacks 7s squad that includes several debutants (and other relative rookies) and the Black Ferns Development team with only a few senior players, including Portia Woodman returning from injury.
This tournament has a separate draw for countries that are trying to qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
Last year, the games were livestreamed on the Oceania Rugby's Facebook page. I don't know whether it will be streamed again, this year.
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All Blacks 7s squad (* denotes debut):
Kurt Baker ( Manawatu)
Dylan Collier (Waikato)
Scott Curry (Bay of Plenty)
Taylor Haugh (Otago)
Trael Joass ( Ta$man)
Niko Jones* (Auckland)
Ngarohi McGarvey-Black (Bay of Plenty)
Tim Mikkelson (Waikato)
Amanaki Nicole (Canterbury)
Akuila Rokolisoa (Counties Manukau)
Jamie Spowart* ( Ta$man)
Te Rangatira Waitokia* (Manawatu)
William Warbrick* (Bay of Plenty).
Black Ferns 7s squad (* denotes debut):
Shakira Baker (Waikato)
Amy Du Plessis* (Otago)
Tysha Ikenasio* (Auckland)
Rhiarna Ferris (Manawatu)
Theresa Fitzpatrick (Auckland)
Jazmin Hotham* (Waikato)
Huia Harding (Waikato)
Mahina Paul* (Bay of Plenty)
Cheyelle Robins-Reti (Waikato)
Alena Saili (Southland)
Montessa Tairakena (Waikato)
Tenika Willison (Waikato)
Portia Woodman (Counties Manukau).
Pool games
Thursday 7 November (NZ times)
2.12pm All Blacks Sevens v New Caledonia
3.18pm Black Ferns Sevens v Japan SDS
5.02pm All Blacks Sevens v NiueFriday 8 November
1.06pm Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
3.40pm All Blacks Sevens v Japan SDS
5.30pm Black Ferns Sevens v Canada
8.26pm All Blacks Sevens v FijiSaturday 9 November
Finals Dayhttps://www.allblacks.com/news/new-talent-selected-for-oceania-sevens/
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Would it be within order to make a decree to refuse to call the NZ Mens team taking part the name attached to it in Stargazer's post above? I abhor the name All Blacks being attached to anything other than the genuine article and will make my protest by simply calling them the NZ 7s team on this forum.
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hmm. Just saw the end of NZ v Japan. Bit perplexed by some of the calls in the last 2 or 3 minutes. Take a look at where the kick got taken compared to where the 'high' tackle occured. (5 metres?) Bit careless by Haugh (I think), but the player was falling. Sloppy display by NZ, but that was a rough way to lose it. I thought the ref should have penalised the delayed feeds by the halfback....
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@Machpants See my post with the team naming above.
Also, see @ARHS post about the loss to Japan.
The loss to Fiji was to be expected. Whoever is in our team and their team, we seem unable to beat them. Although, it was 3 tries for and against. The difference was made by missed conversions. Kurt Baker managed to miss the easiest of easy attempts, right in front of the posts.
Particularly for the men, this is not more than a pre-season tournament. The result means zilch for the Series, just like preseason games don't mean anything for the SR or Mitre 10 Cup season.
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