Sevens: Bay teams using provincial tournaments to try out combinations and give young players field time

Bay of Plenty's Paea Lavaka during a provincial sevens tournament last year. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty sevens teams have been able to make the most of the weekend's Counties-Manukau Provincial Union Sevens pre-season tournament to try out combinations and give young players field-time.

Two Bay of Plenty men's teams and two Bay of Plenty women's teams were represented at Saturday's tournament, held at Karaka Rugby Club, Counties Manukau, the first step on the journey to the national sevens in Tauranga next month.

Bay of Plenty's men's coach Sean Horan said the tournament went well for his teams, taking 21 players, who played nine games, resulting in six wins, one draw and two losses between both the Bay of Plenty Gold and Blue sides.

"It was a really good actually, it was just an opportunity for them to see how they go against other opposition and as a pre-season for us, to see how we're going and a bit of a barometer against the other opposition," Horan says.

He said at some point of the tournament every player put their hand up to show what they could do, some mistakes were made but overall they played to their strengths despite a heavy workload of five games in four hours for one of the sides.

"We have got a younger and more inexperienced group than there has been in the last couple of years, it was probably just pleasing that they had the courage to play the game they wanted to play ... and they learnt a lot and they were receptive to the way we wanted them to play, and it was a great platform for them to show their skills."

Horan says their focus coming out of the weekend is "around making smart decisions when the opportunity arises".

"We're looking at how the players fit into a system that we're trying to establish and some of the players, they did really well, some struggled a little bit but overall most players really put their hand up and it was really pleasing to see."

Next up for the Bay men's team is the Thames Valley sevens tournament this coming Saturday, providing another opportunity to test combinations and skills ahead of nationals in Tauranga in December.

One squad of 14 will play this weekend, with Horan saying they'll look at new combinations with a couple of new players to see how they fit in.

It will be another stepping stone towards the nationals, he says.

Coming tournaments:

Thames Valley Sevens
Date: Saturday, November 24
Location: Thames Valley

Northern Region qualification tournament
Date: Saturday, December 1
Location: Memorial Park, Cambridge

National Sevens
Date: Saturday, December 15 and Sunday, December 16
Location: Tauranga Domain, Tauranga