@Yeetyaah said in 2024 School Rugby:
We aren't a "rugby school"
Not a rugby school, he says. For your second try in the game against RTA, your backline executes a beautiful midfield switch, your loosehead throws a perfect 10-metre cut-out pass, and to top it off, you have a conversion-kicking hooker. Reads like a rugby school to me!
Congrats on the victory, awesome to see the joy of the players at the end of the game.
@JK said in 2024 School Rugby:
WBHS won that festival last year too I think?
They did.
New Zealand continue their winning streak in the World School's Festival as Westlake take the spoils
New Zealand continue their winning streak in the World School's Festival as Westlake take the spoils.
I watched the Kelston game. Really like Aio Keith's game, just into everything, with the added benefit of polished lineout work. Baleinaikasakasa looks a real handful in the carry as well. Scrummaging might need a little work, though.
The cup finals
This Japanese U18 Girls team is a very impressive side: they are suffocating on defence and on attack they play really well together, running great lines with plenty of support around them. The Australian School Girls tried hard but were constantly frustrated by the Japan team’s disruption of the ruck.
Personal team of the tournament:
Leilani Naiyaga (JP) – Hazuki Ouchida (JP) – Suzuha Saito (JP) – Amelia Whitaker (AU) – Tahlia O’Brien (AU) – Braxton Sorensen-McGee (NZ) – Maia Davis (NZ)
The boys’ final was a rather one-sided affair, as the Australia U18s were patient on defence and clinical on attack. New Edition made a few too many mistakes and failed to strike when they had some of their rare opportunities. When Pahulu made a break up the field, for example, he was caught by the Aussie scramble defence, with only McQuoid in support on attack. The Australians, a rare Grover blunder notwithstanding, finished their opportunities, Wallace Charlie, the tournament MVP, a level above everyone else as he ran, passed and kicked magisterially.
This Australian side share something with their XVs counterpart, which also came to NZ earlier in the year to defeat both the NZ Barbarians and NZ Schools. Both sides are calm, patient and do the basics very well. Whereas the different NZ sides very rarely kicked, the Aussie sevens, if they saw an opportunity, did turn to the kick, often to very good effect. It is a sign of a team that is both well-coached as it is confident in its own abilities, all players seemingly always on the same page.
Personal team of the tournament:
Wallace Charlie (AU) – Angus Grover (AU) – Declan Minto (AU) – Jay McQuoid (NE) – Kele Lasaqa (NZ) – David Bryenton (NZ Cavs) – Miguel Tiatia (Auckland Bucks)
NZ U18 Girls versus Japan U18 Girls
The Japanese team had an incredible start to the game. After 4 minutes it was 21-0. First score, exploit a NZ dogleg in their defensive set-up through a practiced strike-move off the restart. Second score, a quick snipe off the ruck after Blyde and Davis didn’t properly set-up their pillar defence. Third score, quick tap off the penalty and a nifty show-and-go by the Japanese 5 flummoxes the NZ defender, leaving the 5 free to score.
It's clear that the Japanese did their homework after the ease with which they sliced through the NZ defence, probably noting the loosely organized pillar defence and the way the NZ defensive numbering works when shooting up. Impressive stuff.
Sorensen-McGee was instrumental in the fightback, first by swerving around the Japanese defence and setting up Blyde for the try. Then, a minute later, scoring herself, cutting back against the grain and breaking the Japanese line through the middle. She also converted both tries, 21-14 at half-time.
After a good defensive set early in the second, NZ turn the ball over and get the ball to the edge, where Charlotte Va’afusuaga beats her defender to race away and score under the sticks. 21-19 after 9 minutes, after Sorensen-McGee fails to convert from in front of the posts. NZ U18 had several chances to win the game, two different put-ins to the scrum near the Japan 22 but in both instances, NZ were unable to properly set up their attack, giving away early penalties. Instead of an NZ score, the Japanese scored on the other end, the 14, Uchida, slicing through a tired NZ defence to seal the game and earn a great victory.
It was a great game, both sides showing their unique qualities in equal measure: the Japanese displaying tremendous organization and smart attacking play, the NZ U18 Girls showing incredible character to come back, with great offloading skills and fantastic athleticism to finish their scores.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
I see two New Edition players made the Boys tournament team, but only one from NZ (Lasaqa?).
Yeah, that's Kele Lasaqa on the right. The rest are, I think, Zebby Uini-Faiva from NZ Cavaliers, Jack Riley and Mason Verster from New Edition, and Wallace Charlie from Australia, all the way to the left. Next to him is, I think, Tom Hartman. I'm not sure who the Australian player next to him is. Did they give any names?
The NZ U18 Boys games
Discipline was an issue early in the NZ U18 Boys’ game against Aotearoa Māori. This led to another long period without possession. For a side that struggles to get the ball back, they don’t put enough value on retaining possession, I would say. Their first attack, for example, resulted in Tocker being tackled into touch rather meekly (to be fair to him, he redeemed himself a minute later by making a try-saving tackle on the try-line). Their second attack was much of the same, Lasaqa making an incisive break and offloading to Raviyawa, only nobody was there to clean-out after the latter was put to ground leading to a Māori turnover. The third attack, same story: Raviyawa makes a half-break and offloads to Tocker, who can’t hold on. Aotearoa Māori go on the counter-attack and after a fancy behind-the-back flick-pass from Aaron Riley, they score on the other end of the field.
When they did score it was mostly an individual effort from Kele Lasaqa, beating his man on the outside and racing away to the try-line. In the second half, more of the same: handling errors and ill-discipline, leading to more stop-start play. In the end, the difference was one bit of great play, a one-two between Pyrenees Boyle-Tiatia and Kele Lasaqa, allowing the former to break away for the score and the winning try. 12-5, a very unconvincing win for the NZ U18.
And then, they faced Australia in the semi’s. The NZ U18’s start was much better in this game, retaining possession across multiple phases in the face of a very strong Australian defence. But where NZ found it very difficult to make any sort of break, Australia, in their first possession, kick long through Wallace Charlie, who is fast enough to dot down his own kick in the end-goal. The NZ U18s were able to strike back through, again, an individual effort by Kele Lasaqa, who stepped Grover and burst through the Aussie defence. Shortly after that followed the best piece of play that the NZ U18s produced in this tournament, plenty of offloads and fluid ball-movement allowing Raviyawa to score.
The NZ U18s probably played their best rugby in this game, still in a (deserved) winning position around the 10-minute mark. A failed intercept by Lasaqa, however, saw him yellow-carded, the Australians immediately benefitting from their numerical advantage through Grover. A minute later, they are in again, with tired NZ defenders falling, a bit too easily off tackles. Stuck in their own half with time running out, NZ U18s attempt to get a winning score but get turned over, leading to another try to future sevens star Wallace Charlie.
All in all, a decent showing from the NZ U18s in this game, but a deserved victory to Australia U18s nonetheless.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
Both the NZ Boys and Girls U18s lose their SFs, to Aust and Japan, respectively. I will await the report...
Ha, I haven't been able to watch the games yet, just seen the results. Can't say I'm completely surprised but amazing result especially for the Japanese.
As for the Gold Medal games:
I'll try watching some games now, and see if anything stands out.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
The Aussie girls are usually very strong at this level.
Watching both NZ U18s and Australia School Girls (A) play NZ Cavs, I'd probably have NZ U18s as marginally ahead in terms of being favourites, due to NZ having multiple players who can create (Maia Davis, Braxton Sorensen-McGee) as well as finish (Arlia MacCarthy, Asha Taumoepeau-Williams). AU seem slightly more dependent on Amelia Whitaker and Waiaria Ellis to create something.
But it should be a close contest should they both reach the final.
The results from the male Top 16 playoffs were:
NZ U18-RSA Barbarians 38-12
Australia-Egg Chasers 78-0
NZ Cavaliers-USA 24-5
New Edition-Tonga Barbarians 31-15
Auckland Bucks-NZ Fijians 22-12
Wasps-Roache Global Academy 7s 24-24
Asian Dragons-Australian Raptors 10-24
Aotearoa Māori-Tama Uli 7s 28-14
From the NZ U18 game, Kele Lasaqa was an influential returnee, as he hadn’t been available/played in the previous two games. He has a lot of x-factor and pace, so he’s a great player to have. In terms of general play, the NZ U18s still are wasteful with scoring opportunities because they can be too individualistic, trying to go alone rather than make use of the space and their teammates around them. It’s clear that they have really good athletes throughout – Saunderson-Rurawhe scoring another great try from his own half through a great step and acceleration was a good example of this – but I’m not quite sure they’re a great team at the moment.
I’d say the main difference between NZ U18 and Australia U18 right now is that, when the Aussies make a line-break, their first instinct is to look for their teammates and run their lines accordingly. Egg Chasers were poor, obviously, but this is a good Australian team. They even execute their strike plays from set-piece properly when they’re already up 50-0. They also make very few mistakes and do the basics very well. Other players to look out for, beyond those I’ve mentioned before, are Cooper Watters on the right wing and Wallace Charlie, with the latter especially being a very good decision-maker around the park with the skills to back it up.
The NZ Cavaliers have used Cohen Norrie more around the edges than in the middle of the park in their past two games, including their playoff against the USA, and it is working a lot better. Norrie is excellent at isolating a defender alongside a fellow attacker, after which he can use his footwork or good passing skills to produce the line-break. If his primary focus is just attacking the line rather than organize the attack, it’s clear that he can be an exceptional 7s player. This was a good win for the NZ Cavs, as this USA team is a solid side who convincingly beat a very decent Northland team earlier in the day. Liston Vakauta and Zebby Uini-Faiva also deserve a mention, both showing great footwork in this game. Hutchings also had a good game, the try-scoring move where he fended the USA player’s face a great highlight. Cruiz Simpson made an appearance late in the game, so it appears that his injury yesterday wasn’t that serious.
Setaleki Mafileo scored another outstanding individual try for the New Edition team in their game against Tonga Barbarians, which, I’m pretty sure, he has done for every game that he’s played. He’s very good at manipulating the space between himself and his defender, only stepping or accelerating when the defender has overcommitted. Jay McQuoid has consistently impressed me as well, he’s a very direct yet elusive runner. But I’m not yet completely sold on this New Edition team: whereas the NZ Cavs are making changes which are working, the NE team hasn’t been able to do the same. They haven’t really found the best use for someone like Pahulu – who, to be fair, looks a bit too heavy to really keep up with the pace – as he isn’t involved enough in the attack. So long as they’re not able to do this, it’s hard to see them as genuine front-runners.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
Did you see any of the NZ U18 girls play? The Aussie girls are usually very strong at this level.
Yeah, I watched their quarter-final against the Australian Schools Girls. This was a very one-sided game (46-0). I hadn’t watched much of the girls’ competition so far but I happened to have seen NZ U18 take on Jasper Williams HS – which the commentators referred to as “Fiji”, so I’m guessing they’re kind of the national representative at the tournament – and the NZ U18s were far from convincing in that game. They struggled with the size of the Fijians and they made poor use of what was their obviously superior speed.
This game against Australian Schools Girls (the Australian B rep team) was very different, though. The Australians were constantly handing over possession – they had multiple penalties in their favour which they wasted by not tapping the ball properly – and NZ were basically scoring at will. The Aussies struggled to shut down Braxton Sorensen-Mcgee’s space and she went both through and around them, pretty much at will.
I haven’t seen the Australia U18 Girls yet, but judging on their quarter-final result – 34-19 against what looked to me to be a pretty decent NZ Cavaliers team – you’d think they’re the two likely finalists again, if they don’t match up in the semi’s (I haven’t properly checked the schedule for the final day). When I saw the Japanese team play, i thought they played some good rugby as well, but they might lack a bit of speed to really go all the way.
Watching some of the other games, I’ve been really impressed with the Auckland Bucks, lots of good sevens athletes in that side. They won both of their games on Day 1 with a scoreline of 38-0, versus Niue Nukututaha and Eggchasers (the 7s side from the UK).
I haven’t found a team list with their players, but two players which really stood out were their number 11, Tiatia, and the number 2, Lam (or Lamb?). Both have a great burst of speed on the wing and a good fend. It’ll be interesting to see them come up against some of the more-fancied sides.
A recap of some of the games at the Global Youth Sevens, Day 1
Australia U18-NZ Fijians 33-7
The Australian U18 7s look well-organized, their defence especially being impressive against the NZ Fijians. Angus Grover runs things well, and Declan Minto and Tom Hartman look to be good finishers. I don’t know how Australia keeps producing these tall, fast athletes – with AFL and basketball being pretty popular as well – but they keep finding these players like Minto (that being said, he also seems to be connected to the Rabbitohs). For the NZ Fijians, Judah Draiva was always looking dangerous, but was contained pretty well.
Australia U18 7s also played a game against BC Bears earlier, which ended up 56-0, but I didn’t watch that game. They seem to have a very strong side this year, and should be real title contenders.
NZ Cavaliers-Iron Armour Academy 33-14
Standouts for the NZ Cavs to me were Cruiz Simpson, Noah Gregory and David Bryenton, with Rata-Makene having some good moments as well. Cohen Norrie is obviously a talented player but I felt he needed to straighten the attack more and cut back on some of those long, looping cut-out passes. The Cavalier defence also fell off quite a few tackles so they’ll need to tidy that up if they want to reach the final again.
New Edition-Australian Raptors 22-17
This was a terrible game, not helped by a pedant of a referee but also a poor inability from both teams to adjust to his calls. I think I counted about four or five penalties for not putting the ball in straight for the scrum. Yeah. Anyway.
New Edition were pretty lucky to get away with the win here, as they made a lot of mistakes and weren’t particularly good on defence. Jay McQuoid from Tauranga Boys’ had a double and Setaleki Mafileo scored a nice individual try. Caswell and Farr-Jones were both good for the Australian Raptors, both players showing really quick feet and an ability to step of both. But as the game was so stop-start for its entire duration, there wasn’t a whole lot to be noted.
I was looking forward to seeing more of Guerin but he didn’t seem to be in the team for the game. Fale started on the bench. He has considerably bulked up, though, so it’s still to be seen whether he’s still as effective in the 7s game as he was in the previous two editions of the Global Youth Sevens.
New Zealand U18-Roache Global 7s 46-0
Pretty easy victory for the NZ U18s in this game, mostly aided by the fact that the Roache Global 7s team doesn’t seem to be very good.
I wasn’t always convinced by the effectiveness of players like Bradley Tocker and Aidan Spratley in the XVs game but their playing styles seem to really suit 7s. Tocker is a bit of a weapon at restarts and lineouts, and his explosive pace out wide is, obviously, really useful as well. Spratley was great at attacking the breakdown and straightening through the middle. He even started kicking the conversions.
Both Saunderson-Rurawhe and Brayden Neilson had doubles, both showing an ability to beat their defenders and accelerate through the gap. Lewai and Boyle-Tiatia were solid coming off the bench.
New Zealand U18-Saracens 22-15
Much better and much more closely contested game than the one against Roache Global 7s, with Saracens having some solid 7s players of their own like Carter Pirie, Triumph Voice and Angus Lovitz. Their first try was well-worked, after a long period of pressure and possession. Their second was a smart bit of play as well: after a poor kick by Brailey, Lovitz put in a kick of his own which found the space and allowed him to score.
So Finn McLeod is pretty good. Solid unit, breaks tackles and has pace, so handy player to have. Probably didn’t get involved enough but his try was very well-taken. David Lewai had another good game, apart perhaps from his yellow-card for backchat. I really like Caleb Woodley as a flanker in the XVs game but I’m not yet convinced it really translates all that well to 7s. The New Zealand U18s look like they’re always a threat to score when they have ball in hand, but they do regularly make mistakes, leaving them for long periods without the ball.
New Zealand Cavaliers-Mangere Manix 7s 46-12
Clear example of what a difference it makes when your playmaker is willing to straighten and attack the line, with Will Haig starting this game rather than Cohen Norrie. Hutchings, another NZ Schools flanker, struggled a bit during the first half, despite scoring a try. He wasn’t able to bring down a Mangere Manix player quick enough to prevent a try and he knocked the ball on twice. Josh Peteru, on the other hand, played well, making multiple line-breaks. David Bryenton looks to be a real talent. A quick google search indicates that he’s pretty strongly entrenched within the NRL pathway – Keebra Park HS on the Gold Coast and within the Gold Coast Titans’ system – so not really sure how he ended up with the New Zealand Cavaliers. Fun player to watch though, has a great step on him, is elusive and deceptively strong for a smaller player.
Cruiz Simpson was good again in a short cameo but he seemed to get injured when dotting down on the line, a Mangere Manix player unintentionally injuring him as he tried to prevent the score from happening. Simpson would be a big loss for the NZ Cavs as he represents one of their biggest attacking threats.
New Edition-Macdowell Rugby 46-0
Well, Fale seems to still be really good at sevens. Still got a great step and acceleration on him, leading to a great try in this game. He also just seems to be bigger and stronger than most out there, with perhaps the sole exception being his teammate Siale Pahulu, who is also looking like a very sturdy athlete for a 16- or 17-year old. The players from Macdowell Rugby tried hard all game, but it wasn’t much of a contest, unfortunately.
Lautasi Etuale, Xavier Leota and Saumaki Saumaki were good off the bench. Leota seems like he’s an absolute pain to tackle. Sean Carter (from the Hutt International Boys' School) also seems to have joined the side. Perhaps as a replacement for Guerin.
General comments on the stream
I wasn’t able to watch the games live, but I just quickly checked at the time whether everything was working. They weren’t. The feed for Field 3 was incredibly choppy to the point of being unwatchable, and the audio for Field 2 contained a lot of static background sound. That being said, the static might be preferred to some of the commentating unfortunately. If NZ Rugby want to use NZR+ as a genuine streaming platform, they might want to step up their game. This was pretty amateurish. The replays seem to be working alright, although I haven’t checked whether the streams for Field 3 have been able to be recuperated.
Sorry for the long post.
Edit: just checked whether the replays from Field 3 were available but they aren't listed so apparently not. Not great.
@Bovidae said in Chiefs 2025:
NDC
Dylan Eti (Waikato)
Charlie Sinton (Bay of Plenty)
Micah Fale (Waikato)
Jayden Sa (Taranaki)REPLACEMENT
James Thompson (Waikato)
Adam Brash (Counties Manukau)
Jacob Norris (Bay of Plenty)
Joshua Gray (Counties Manukau)
Manaaki Boyle-Tiatia (Waikato)
Tai Cribb (Waikato)
Leo Ngatai-Tafau (Counties Manukau)
Oscar Koller (North Harbour)WIDER TRAINING
Benet Kumeroa (Bay of Plenty)
Taine Kolose (Bay of Plenty)
Peniasi Malimali (Counties Manukau)
Manasa Mataele (Canterbury)
Damn, I must've imagined seeing Grady Forbes in one of the pictures. Apologies to Grady!
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
Please provide score updates and comments if possible.
I won't be able to watch most games live but I'll definitely try to summarize some of the more high-profile matches when I'm able to have a look at them.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
I've just seen that Kelston BHS has departed for the World Schools Festival in Abu Dhabi, and Keith is part of that 1st XV squad. So is Jarrel Tuaimalo-Vaega.
Hamilton BHS won that when it was in Thailand.
That makes sense. Completely missed that this World Schools Festival was still a thing.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
Looking at the video on Global Youth Sevens SM it's amazing how many current ABs (and a new Wallaby) played in this tournament. There will be others not highlighted.
Some players from both the 2023 NZ and Aust 18 teams are now playing on the SVNS circuit.
Throughout the NZ U18 Boys, New Edition team and NZ Cavaliers, it’s basically a who’s who of age grade loose forwards and backs. So you’d expect that trend to continue. The only NZ Schools’ flanker who isn’t there is Aio Keith. And that might be through injury or because of the fact he was part of an underperforming Kelston team at the Condor 7s.
I do hope that some players will stick with the sevens game rather than just see it as an eventual pathway to Super or an overseas contract. It’s probably a financial thing so not a lot can be done about it, but it’s still frustrating to see NZ Sevens in their current state. A more steady stream of the best sevens talent would certainly help, you’d think.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to watching the tournament (I've caved for a pass).
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
France's depth is the biggest in the world, even bigger than South Africa's, IMO.
I’d agree with this. The JIFF-rule in the Top14 seems to have worked pretty well, their academies are quite comfortably the best-resourced in the world. Looking at the France 7s over the weekend, fringe Top14 squad players like Celian Pouzelgues and Victor Hannoun have a nicely developed skillset but they aren’t required by their XVs teams at all. That’s a luxury.
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
There is a bunch of young, exciting players, who are or will probably be better than the current ones (Ollivon - Cros - Alldritt) : Castro-Ferreira, Gazotti, Matiu, Jegou, Boudehent are certainly going to form the French back row for the next RWC.
I myself am not quite as confident about the upcoming class of loose forwards as likely being better than their predecessors. Not just because I think that Ollivon, Cros and Aldritt were and are still very good (Aldritt will only be 30 in 2027!), but also because not all the U20 guys have performed as well as might be expected. I’ve watched a lot of Gazzotti these past months and I feel like he still has some way to go. It won’t have helped that he’s being played across the backrow from week-to-week but when watching him closely, to me it looks like he still struggles to impact the game without the ball. I’m sure he’ll get there eventually but I was honestly surprised he was called-up by Galthié this November.
Agree on Jégou, though, very good player. Excellent at linking play and at operating a lineout. France should be more than competitive in July.
@Bovidae said in Invitational, provincial, local & school sevens tournaments:
Now you have to buy a NZR+ tournament pass to watch it.
I've been going back and forth on it in my head for the past week. It's not cheap either. And I've got a busy week as well.
But I'll probably end up buying the pass anyway.
@dogmeat said in Nomination - Best new ferner:
TBH if you haven't put in at least a 20-year shift then you don't count
The NZ Cavaliers team also has quite a few rep players from the Schools' series a few months ago, like Cohen Norrie, Cruiz Simpson, Noah Gregory and Dallas Rata-Makene.
Should be interesting to watch. I've become a bit of a fan of players like Pyrenees Boyle-Tiatia, Caleb Woodley and Siale Pahulu, so pretty keen to watch some games.
@sparky said in NH club rugby:
Jordie Barrett made his debut for Leinster coming off the bench against Bristol to play Fullback
I watched the game. It was really scrappy, four yellow cards, strange ill discipline from Leinster especially (multiple foot trips), lots of handling errors and wayward kicking. It was especially bad in the first half, it got more open and fluid in the second.
Jordie Barrett came on in the 40th minute and played at 12 (O’Brien shifted to fullback and Ringrose to 14). He was very involved in Leinster’s attacking game, often acting as a distributor close to the line. Scored a good try as well, although the Bristol defence was badly fading in the second half. But he had a very solid game. All it really did for me was underline how under-used his playmaking ability was throughout the ABs season.
Also, best game I’ve seen Prendergast play. Those long-winded passes he throws still irk me, but his kicking game is impressive and he added some nice runs as well. Real punchable face too, so he seems destined to become a great Irish 10.