Sevens: Northland coach quietly confident as nationals loom

Northland enter the National tournament seeded eighth, and have drawn Auckland, Bay of Plenty and South Canterbury in Pool A.

The pinnacle tournament of New Zealand provincial sevens can prove a hurdle for even the best regional sides.

Therefore, Northland's Sevens team aren't letting themselves become too complacent ahead of the annual two-day Bayleys National Sevens tournament in Rotorua this weekend.

"This is the one that counts now," Northland coach Peter Nock said.

Fresh off a superb runners-up finish at the recent Bay of Plenty Rugby Provincial Men's Sevens tournament, Northland are ready to better their 2015 National sevens Plate final appearance but aren't getting ahead of themselves just yet.

A training run last night, followed by a cook-up at coach Nock's place this morning were the finishing touches before the trip to Rotorua.

Boosted by a hit-out against sevens legend Eric Rush's junior team on Tuesday night, Nock said the last pieces of the puzzle had come together nicely.

"I asked Eric Rush to throw an attack against them [and] we just covered our kick-offs and our defence patterns really," Nock said.

"He was quite impressed [but] just concentrated on his boys throwing everything at us."

Northland enter the National tournament seeded eighth, and have drawn Auckland, Bay of Plenty and South Canterbury in Pool A.

Racking-up oodles of valuable playing time against Bay of Plenty in the build-up to the Nationals, beating Auckland in pool play has remained a core-focus of the Northland side's preparation, analysis, and intent.

Noting the absence of All Blacks Sevens star Ben Lam, Nock added that six new players had been brought into the Auckland camp as they faced somewhat of a crisis.

"We know that Auckland are going to be bringing another six players that didn't play at Mt Maunganui.

"We've beaten them before so we know we can do it."

South Canterbury could throw a spanner in the works if they make good use of their nifty Fijians, however, Nock reiterates that defence is central to Northland's gameplan, and perfect execution should allow three wins from three on Day One.

"People know what we're like, they know what Northland can bring so we're not taking anything as a given.

"Our defence was really good at the Mount, not many teams could score against us.

"We know we can score tries."

Northland play Bay of Plenty first tomorrow at 12.05pm, followed by Auckland at 3.35pm and South Canterbury at 6.15pm.

- The Bayleys National Sevens will be screened live on SKY Sport 3 tomorrow from 10am.

Northland Sevens Team:

- Waisea Lawebuka (Mid Northern), Isaac O'Grady (C) (Kamo), Adam Simpson (Kerikeri), Jevon Halvorson (Kerikeri), Matt Tuatagaloa (Awanui), Warren Dunn (Hora Hora), Taniela Manu (OBM), Levi Clark (Kerikeri), Cory Evers (Mid Northern), Isimeli Taqea (Awanui), Alex Barnsley (Dargaville), Bram Egli (OBM).

- Unavailable due to injury: Tyler Lansdowne and Kurt Davies.