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Ngamatapouri wins third WRFU Club Sevens title

Ngamatapouri’s Troy Brown looks for the gap in the Kaierau Gold defence during the final of the WRFU Club Sevens at the Kaierau Country Club on Saturday afternoon.

The Ngamatapouri Green squad held off a late flourish by Kaierau Gold to reclaim their place as the Wanganui Club Sevens supreme side with their club’s third championship, 33-15 in the final at the Kaierau Country Club this afternoon.

However, the best team at the tournament were already packing up their van as the playoff got underway, after Feilding High School blitzed through the adult sides in what became a slightly farcical Pool 2, given the schoolboys were ineligible to win the tournament.

Coached by former WRFU development officer Justin Lock, Feilding High were using the WRFU Sevens as warmup for the Condor Sevens, and accounted for Pirates and Kaierau Maroon by comfortable margins, before also narrowly beating eventual champions Ngamatapouri Green 17-12.

Ngamatapouri Green still ended up in the championship final with Pool 1’s undefeated side Kaierau Gold, with Green having made it through on points differential despite a 1-2 record after a controversial start to the day.

Down 19-0 at halftime as Pascoe came back, Kaierau Gold need to score first after the break, but a loose ball at the break down was snatched up by Epeli Delasau to take off for the posts and a try he quickly converted.

Ngamatapouri got their kickoffs pinpoint for most of the match, winning another one, and Seruwalu threw a looping pass wide to Brown, who linked with Tikoisolomone to step back inside and take off for the posts – Parkinga-Manhire slotting a third conversion.

Ngamatapouri Green’s Vereniki Tikoisolomone kisses the ball as he scores his second try in the final.

The die was cast at 33-0, but Kaierau finished strong after Seruwalu was sinbinned for a high tackle and both teams began running on their bench players, with Kaierau’s regular representative winger CJ Stowers taking the field.

Vodosese scored immediately after Seruwalu’s departure as he fended his way through the defensive line and dashed 50m to the posts, although unlike Parkinga-Manhire, Kaierau would find their drop kick conversions difficult in the wind.

After Ngamatapouri were pinged for not releasing, Pascoe took a quick tap and probed for an opening, and after good cleanout by the support players, the ball was freed for Stowers to sprint through the overlap and score.

Seruwalu returned with the rest of Ngamatapouri’s starting lineup subbed, as Kaierau defended their tryline and then got their third five-pointer after Stowers again went wide and pulled the in-and-out swerve to beat the cover and score on fulltime.

The Ngamatapouri Green team got to pull on the victory shirts this year for their club’s third championship from the last five WRFU Club Sevens tournaments.

Pool 1:
Kaierau Gold bt Marist 31-0; Taihape bt Metro 20-16; Taihape bt Marist 12-7; Ngamatapouri Black bt Metro 34-5; Ngamatapouri Black bt Marist 38-17; Kaierau Gold bt Taihape 24-12; Kaierau Gold bt Ngamatapouri Black 26-10; Metro bt Marist 12-5; Kaierau Gold bt Metro 33-7; Taihape bt Ngamatapouri Black 19-7.

Pool 2: Kaierau Maroon bt Ngamatapouri Green by default; Feilding High bt Pirates 21-12; Feilding High bt Kaierau Maroon 33-0; Ngamatapouri Green bt Pirates 22-7; Feilding High bt Ngamatapouri Green 17-12; Pirates bt Kaierau Maroon 19-10;

Playoff pool runnersup: Feilding High bt Taihape 34-0.

By: Jared Smith
Jared Smith is sports editor of the Whanganui Chronicle
jared.smith@whanganuichronicle.co.nz

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