Sevens: Ex-Hawk's driving Chinese ambitions

Shandong One's Yinghui Tan is too quick for MAC's Kresna Crouch and Dallyn Lauvao-Araia on Saturday.

Remember Jarrod Gallagher?

Yes the 1991 and '92 Hawks basketballer who was a Maddison Trophy winner with the Hastings Rugby and Sports premier rugby team in 1999. Gallagher, 46, has worked for World Rugby in Asia for the past 16 years and after a stint in Singapore moved to China.

He returned to the Bay on Saturday with two men's and two women's teams from the Shandong province for a 12-team pre-Christmas Mini-Sevens tournament run by his former club at Lindisfarne College.

"These players have helped form the No 1 provincial team in China since 2013. In development terms they are our next tier of players and many of them will be aiming to be playing Sevens at the 2020 Olympics in Japan," Gallagher said.

"We played at a tournament in Cambridge and were at a training camp in Auckland when I heard Turbo [Hastings Rugby and Sports stalwart Jeff Karika] was running the tournament in Hastings. We thought we would give it an international flavour and today we're back in Tokoroa for another training camp," Gallagher said.

His Shandong One women's team pipped MAC 17-10 in the final of the four-team women's division. Gallagher's Shandong Two men's team lost 23-17 to Havelock North in the plate final.

Magpie and Hawke's Bay Sevens rep Lewis Marshall, former Samoa World Series Sevens rep Tom Iosefo and promising Hawke's Bay age group Danny Toala were prominent for the MAC team which beat Central 31-19 in the final for the eight-team men's division. Canterbury age group rep and former Hawke's Bay Sevens player Caleb Makene joined Tomo Fogarty as the best of the Central players.

In their respective semifinals Central pipped Hastings Rugby and Sports 12-7 and MAC walloped Brothers 43-0.

"Basically we thought it would be a good opportunity for teams to have a hit out before Christmas as part of their preparation for tournaments in January and February. It was pretty relaxed with rolling subs and no prize money up for grabs," Karika said.

"It looks like it is going to become an annual event and Jarrod [Gallagher] has indicated he will return next year with teams from another Chinese province," Karika added.

Several members of the Aerospread Hawke's Bay Sevens squad, which won the Central Region title the previous weekend including Marshall, Ellery Wilson and Mason Emerson played after attending a beach-based training session for the Bay squad.