Sevens: Top finish despite injury toll

Northland's Jevon Halvorson. Photo / Tania Whyte

The Northland sevens team have backed up their fourth-place finish at the Auckland 7s tournament with another top-four finish, this time at the Provincial Union Sevens tournament in Cambridge.

Despite facing several injuries Northland fronted up well, putting in some stirring performances .

Fielding a strong team for the trip to Memorial Park in Cambridge, Northland were narrowly pipped 5-0 in their opening match, then went down 17-12 in another close encounter to North Harbour.

Finding their stride as the tournament progressed, Northland finally made bank with a convincing 39-19 win over Shangdong.

Making the quarter-finals stage, Northland met Waikato again in their first knockout match and managed to win this 19-14 to get even with the mooloo side.

Progressing to a semifinal, Northland played another Waikato side, but eventually went down 26-21.

Rounding off their tournament with a playoff for 3rd and 4th, Northland took on North Harbour, but due to losing a good portion of players to injury, they were beaten 20-5.

"We went down with 14 players and in the end we had 10 players left standing," head coach Peter Nock said. "Tough playing six games in five hours. Boys are working really hard and learning what it takes to win sevens at this level."

Northland will now contest the regional competition to determine whether they can qualify for the nationals.

Northland Sevens Team:

Adam Simpson, Alex Barnsley, Bram Egli, Cory Evers, Issac Ogrady, Jaydenn Bentley-Hape, Jevon Halvorson, Nacaniel Batina, Oneal Rongo, Sean Rawiri, Taniela Manu, Tyler Lansdowne, Waisea Lawbuka, Warren Dunn.