While Northland didn't fare as well as hoped at the Provincial 7s Rugby Festival at Blake Park in Mount Maunganui last Saturday, manager Kyal Collins said selectors took an extended squad of 14 to the Bay of Plenty to help finalise 12 players for the 2014 Bailey's National Sevens in Rotorua this coming weekend.
With games being seven minutes each way, Northland lost to Auckland 17-5, and drew with Bay of Plenty 12-12 in pool play to advance through to the quarters (ahead of BOP on points differential) where it played and lost to Taranaki 17-5.
The result saw Northland relegated to the plate semi-final, where it met Manawatu. Collins said a "fantastic" Whiria Meltzer try off a planned move saw Northland make it 12-all at full time, forcing the game into five minutes' extra time. From there, Northland won the kick-off and went on the offensive but turned the ball over, Manawatu scoring from the subsequent counter-attack to win on golden point. Auckland eventually won the Mount sevens with a convincing win over Taranaki.
While Northland's form was regarded as disappointing, Collins said the over-riding priority going into the event was to prepare players for the upcoming nationals. He emphasised the extended squad had - pleasingly - become a tightly knit unit over the past few weeks and expected the side to go into the Rotorua tournament under the radar and hoping to build on its various other achievements so far this summer, including winning the Auckland Sevens, finishing runners-up at the Hamilton Sevens last month, and taking several major scalps at international sevens events in Singapore and Fiji.
Another positive to come out of the Mount tournament was having Jone Macilai and Warren Dunn named in the tournament side by Gordon Tietjans. Collins said if those players "back up" at the nationals, they could merit a call up for Tietjans' wider New Zealand Sevens training squad. Collins said selectors were pleased with everyone's performances at the Mount, although this also equated to having to make some very tough decisions yesterday morning in culling the team back to 12 players.
