Waikato side Melville claimed the spoils at the 2016 New Zealand Club Sevens Championship over the long weekend, beating Wellington side the Upper Hutt Rams 34-24 to claim the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup. By claiming the title, the club win the right to host the event in 2017 which was a great reward at the end of two hot and dusty days played at William Jones Park in Wainuiomata, Wellington.
With four players who featured in the successful 2015 Hamilton Boys High’s national Condor Sevens secondary school side, the victors overcame an inauspicious start, in losing their opening match to the tournament hosts, before rebounding to see off Wellington side Poneke and 2014 winners Rangataua (Bay of Plenty) in pool play to qualify for the Cup. On day two they accounted for another Wellington club, Marist St Pats, 31-5 in the quarter-final. A fine win, they were then forced to hang-on against Karaka in the semi-final; after vaulting to a 19-0 lead, Karaka closed it to 19-14 with a minute left, but the Counties-Manukau side couldn’t score against the committed Melville team.
Melville triumph at New Zealand Club Sevens Championship
DAY ONE
The final was a quality affair, with the sides exchanging scores in the first 10 minutes as Rams Wellington representatives Murphy Taramai (a former national sevens member, in his last outing for his club before moving to North Harbour) Jackson Garden-Bachop (an ‘invite’ player from the Norths club) and brothers Hayden and Daniel Schrijvers were all prominent. Melville however broke the game open after the break in scoring three unanswered tries, with the third being a terrific solo effort by Sake Ale to take a 34-17 lead.
The Rams scored a late consolation, but the trophy was heading north. Yet another bitter end to this national tournament for the Rams, who have now made at the Cup final/semi finals the last three years running without lifting the trophy; though they indicated they will head to Hamilton next year to try yet again.
The tournament had kicked off a day earlier with 14 teams attending–nine visiting regional sides and five Wellington clubs. The late withdrawals of Manawatu’s Feilding Old Boys–Oroua and Hawkes Bays’ Napier Pirates reducing two of the pools to just the three teams. Melville in fact were another side who almost withdrew, having only 10 players committed as late as Wednesday night, and to their credit made the journey down late on Friday and spending that night sleeping ‘on the floor’ of Wainuiomata’s clubrooms.
The action on the field though was top quality, with several former national representatives and provincial players on show. There was also the usual slate of upsets and surprises. Two sides that came in with strong reputations were Hamilton Marist and Mount Maunganui; they were each in the one of the three-team pools and each surprisingly lost both their opening day matches. Marist were shorn of several of their best players and went down to Marist St Pats and Karaka, while the Mount–featuring the star of the national schoolboys fifteens final in Isaac Te Aute in the playmaking role–fell to Awanui and Upper Hutt Rams.
Another side that missed the Cup side of the draw was the defending champions, despite the presence of Samoan sevens legend Uale Mai; Wainuiomata managed to beat Melville first up, but then blew their next game against Rangataua. Dropping the ball over the line on one occasion and then having another try ruled out for a double-movement, before n invigorated Rangataua team went the length of the field to win it. Well played, but they then ‘didn’t show up’ for their must-win game against Poneke, conceding a big deficit that they were unable to run down.
Arguably, the form side of Day One was Auckland champions Suburbs, who accounted for Wellington’s Old Boys-University, Tauranga’s Sports side and the Nelson Wanderers. The West Auckland team had former New Zealand Sevens player Rocky Khan and Auckland rep Gareth William-Speirs leading their charge. Beside the big-city team, Wanderers; the only South Island team playing, impressed many, as did the Karaka men.
DAY TWO
The day started off with the Bowl quarter finals, where Hamilton Marist and Mount Maunganui finally opened their accounts with wins over Old Boys-University and Poneke respectively.
Quickly into the Cup quarters, Melville overran a slow Marist St Pats team 31-5 with Condors MVP Sevu Reece scoring two of their five tries, Karaka prevailed over Rangataua 15-12 in a tight, hard fought contest while the Upper Hutt Rams overran Wanderers 29-0. The fourth contest pitched highly favoured Suburbs against Northlands Awanui; top guns Khan and Williams-Speirs each scored for their Auckland club, but the contest was settled at the death when Tsemeli Tagea broke, turned the covering sweeper inside-out and ran away to score the winner for the unheralded side from the Far North to win 14-17 in what was probably the biggest upset of the weekend.
Suburbs would rebound to beat Wanderers 22-12 in their Plate semi, while Marist St Pats ended Rangataua’s weekend with a 19-14 win in their last match. Old Boys-University ensured that no team went home winless this weekend, in winning the Shield final over Poneke 31-17.
The Cup semi finals were contrasting affairs. As mentioned at top of page, Melville prevailed over Karaka while the Rams cleared out from Northland’s Awanui, who had perhaps understandably played their ‘game of the weekend’ earlier on. The Upper Hutt boys would win 28-5, with Garden-Bachop scoring a brace and kicking all four conversions–two from the sideline.
In the Bowl final, that was fought out between Mount Maunganui and Hamilton Marist. The Hamilton men ended the hosts miserable weekend in winning 14-7, with Wainuiomata dropping the ball ‘with the line open’ against a side defending with only six players on the park. The Mount accounted for cross-bridge rivals Tauranga Sports 19-17 in the other qualifying game. Mount would make-up for earlier losses by running away with the Bowl final, prevailing 31-10 over Marist.
Suburbs and Marist St Pats (MSP) met in the Plate final, where Suburbs leaped out to an early lead. The match changed though when Khan was knocked-out when attempting to tackle MSPs big man Nemani Waka. Sadly, without their general, Suburbs were forced onto the defensive and couldn’t hold out the stronger Wellington side as they scored twice. However, despite being outscored three tries to four, Suburbs managed to win the match 21-20 because Khan had converted all their tries, with MSP missing all of theirs–the last from a very handy position and with time up.
That set the stage for the finale, where Melville ran out very deserved winners 34-24 to claim the National Club title.
The tournament also saw a one-day Womens tournament, where Marist St Pats beat Wainuiomata in the final, following a three-team round robin that also included Tauranga Sports’ ladies side. Great to see the ladies playing beside the men. A great weekend of Sevens action.
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Photo courtesy of Club Rugby facebook page.
