Read more: Basketball: Event a chance for Maori players
"It is certainly a really, really good opportunity for the Mount Maunganui club to express themselves going down to Wainuiomata and I guess puts us on a stage against the best club rugby players in New Zealand," he said.
"I think you will find there will be a lot of provincial players down there with their respective clubs. We went over to Matamata in mid-December and we lost in the final to the Waikato provincial side that played at the nationals, after leading at halftime. So it has been a pretty successful year and the boys have been putting in the right effort which is very pleasing.
"It makes selection lot harder but as a coach it also makes it a lot easier when you have players of that calibre and a side keen to learn and build within the club."
Tietjens is son of All Blacks Sevens maestro Sir Gordon and one of the best young sevens coaches in the country.
"I learn a lot and get mentored by Dad a lot. I pick his brain and ask him lots of questions and I guess we play a similar style to what they play," Paul said.
"I take on board what he is doing with the New Zealand side and modify it to suit. I don't replicate it but make it similar with the players that I've got.
"It would be silly not to as it has been a successful formula for the last few years."
Mount Maunganui will be up against 15 other clubs from around New Zealand.
Most have won their provincial tournaments to qualify, plus invited teams including 2014 champions and Bay of Plenty runners-up Rangataua and Tauranga Sports, who have also entered a team in the inaugural women's competition.
The Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup was first contested in Dunedin in 1951.
South Island clubs won it continuously for more than three decades before Auckland's Pakuranga won in 2013.
Rangataua took it off them in a memorable final in 2014 and Wainuiomata triumphed at Maungatapu last summer.
