2016-2017 provincial & club sevens

[Stargazer]

And the rest of the draw:

[Bovidae]

Taranaki beats Auckland in QF2 for the first upset of the day.

Waikato beat Northland in a close game in QF1.

[Bovidae]

No surprises for the finals matchups:

Women's Cup Final: Manawatu v Counties Manukau
Men's Cup Final: Waikato v Counties Manukau

[Stargazer]

I have been enjoying the tournament this weekend, with some great talent on display. It will be interesting to see which players will get a call-up for the All Blacks 7s and Black Ferns 7s.

One thing I've been wondering about all weekend. How come there are suddenly so many Fijian players at this tournament (and also at the regionals earlier)? It's great to watch them play, but you don't see many of them in Mitre 10 Cup (although there have been a few) and suddenly there are so many playing 7s. They must all be playing club or college rugby in NZ, don't they? For sure, several of them will make the Fiji or NZ 7s team in the near future!

[Wurzel]

You kinda hope they're all eligible for New Zealand. I'm all about helping our cousins in the islands but at the same time 7s rugby in New Zealand needs all the help it can get so NZ-eligible players should be on display in this period of transition.

Hope that giant Fijian from Taranaki is legit Kiwi. He's like Seta Mk II.

[mikedogz]

Awesome from counties, double champions.

[Crucial]

@mikedogz said in 2016-2017 provincial & club sevens:

Awesome from counties, double champions.

We hold three national titles now. The women hold the Farrer Palmer as well.
With a top four from the men in the NPC it's been a pretty good run and arguably laying claim to the strongest overall province.

[antipodean]

[Stargazer]

@antipodean The commentators talked about common sense in that video. IMO that common sense was lacking with respect to the majority of those yellow cards. If Super Rugby is going to be like this, it's going to be a long, annoying season.

[Stargazer]

The Sir Gordon Tietjens Sevens tournament takes place on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 March at the Sport & Rugby Institute in Palmerston-North. This is an invitational 7s tournament for school teams (boys, girls and boys U15s).

Draw:

Most or all games will be livestreamed. I'll post the link as soon as I've found it.

[Stargazer]

Sir Gordon Tietjens Sevens tournament. Here is the link to the livestream. It's not great, but at least they tried.

[Stargazer]

Taranaki Rugby is to establish the country’s first dedicated sevens academy as it looks to strengthen the game in the region and New Zealand.

Media release: http://trfu.co.nz/news/news/taranaki-rugby-to-set-up-national-sevens-academy/