Mid Western favourites in annual tournament

After claiming the 2010 Moerewa Sevens Tournament title, all eyes will be on Mid Western to take out the annual Whangarei and Districts Sevens Tournament at Hora Hora Rugby Club tomorrow.
Mid Western won the final at Moerewa's Simson Park last weekend in the top three section playoffs, with a 28-0 defeat over Hikurangi, and then beating Kerikeri.
Hosts Moerewa were probably the next best performing side of the depleted nine team line up at Simson Park, but were in the same pool as the eventual winners. Moerewa made Mid Western work hard to earn a late draw during pool play but the Whangarei club got the nod to the top final by virtue of points for and against, coach Mid Western Simon Cauty said.
"We are pretty confident about this weekend but there will be stronger teams playing at this tournament ... apart from Moerewa and Wellsford the competition was not that hard up in Moerewa," he said.
Already a strong sevens side with the likes of Dan McCully and Northland Development players Brooke Gilmore and Saxon Samuels, Cauty said his side would be boosted with the addition of Northland's Adam Clarke and Development player Brent Murray who were unavailable last weekend.
Mid Western will play in Pool D, along with Wellsford, Whangaruru and Otamatea. "Only one team from each pool go through to quarter finals ... we play Wellsford first up and I think if we can beat them we should progress," the coach said.
Sixteen teams in four pools are playing in this weekend's tournament. Hikurangi, Kamo, Dargaville Old Boys and Waipu make up Pool A, while Pool B will prove difficult to pick a winner from, with traditionally strong sevens teams Hora Hora, Marist, Western Sharks and Mangakahia going up against each other. Meanwhile, Mid Northern, Whangarei Old Boys, Muriwhenua and Tomorata make up Pool C.
Originally the Moerewa Sevens was meant to be run as a build up to the Whangarei Sevens, but Far North teams were disappointed to discover later that the latter tournament was only open to Whangarei clubs. The exception was Muriwhenua, who registered early for the event and got a pass in on the back of another team's withdrawal.
Many of the Far North team's players may head to clubs like Mid Northern to make sure they have a chance of being seen by Northland Sevens team selectors.
The selectors were present at Moerewa and will be at Hora Hora tomorrow, looking to pick a squad for the upcoming tournaments at Mount Maunganui and Queenstown's Pub Charity Rugby Sevens during January.
Games kick off at 10am tomorrow at Hora Hora Rugby Club, with finals set for 3.34pm.