Sevens: Northland battle well but lose final

Northland's Hamish Pomare was in the side who were second at the inaugural Provincial Union U19 Sevens Tournament. Photo / Tania Whyte

Northland's Under-19 sevens team fell one game short of winning the inaugural Provincial Union Age Group Sevens tournament held at Mt Maunganui's Arataki Park.

Meeting a fierce foe in the form of Auckland in the final, Northland went down 31-5 to finish the tournament on a high and second overall.

"For the majority of the game we were in it, we fought pretty hard," Northland head coach Harry Darkins said of the final.

"We had our opportunities to score... we dropped the ball on the line when it was nil-all. They scored before halftime to take it to 19-5 at halftime. They then scored quickly after the restart."

Captained by rising talent Levi Clark, Northland enjoyed some well-earned wins during the competition.

Enjoying a hefty 29-0 win over Waikato in their opening match of pool play, they then went down to Auckland 29-7 before beating the hosts, Bay of Plenty, 19-12 in their last round robin match.

Though the whole team fronted up well, Darkins mentioned Oneal Rongo had a good tournament, halfback Kane Pomare "was really nippy and created lots of opportunities," and Euan Sapwell "was really fast on the wing and ended up scoring a lot of tries".

Teams from Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Northland and Waikato took part in the event, which was devised to fill a gap between secondary school and senior club and provincial events.

Bay of Plenty Rugby's operations manager Neil Alton came up with the idea and, with support from the Waikato union, the format was put together.

Bay of Plenty Rugby's player development manager, Kyle McLean, said there were multiple purposes behind holding an under-19 rep tournament.

"From the girls' side, a lot of the players will overlap into the women's team. The main objective was about experience and development and learning, but we know a lot of these girls will transition to the senior team," McLean said.

"For the boys it was about the next crop coming through, not for this year because of the physicality of the men's sevens. Hopefully over the next year or two we will see a few of them go forward. It is also a chance for us to get to know some of the boys better for next year's under-19 fifteen aside programme as well."

McLean expected the tournament would grow rapidly and the goal was for it to be played alongside the Bayleys National Sevens.