Sevens: Bay pushed as home of sevens

Bay of Plenty sevens player Teddy Stanaway in the foreground with teammate Mason Walker in the background at this year's Bayleys National Rugby Sevens Tournament at International Stadium in Rotorua. Photo / Rick Moran

Fresh from hosting the Bayleys National Rugby Sevens in Rotorua for the third consecutive year, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union is charging ahead with plans to raise the profile of the region as the home of rugby sevens.

Bay of Plenty Rugby Union (BOPRU) said securing more rugby sevens events, along with international promotion of training, development and education opportunities in the region, are some of the key tactics being used to help raise the profile of the region as a leading service provider in rugby sevens.

With the fourth highest rugby participation rate in the country and with the growing popularity of the sport internationally since the inclusion of the event in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, the BOPRU is capitalising on this through a range of national and international marketing activities to promote the Bay of Plenty as the ideal base for training and knowledge development of the game.

BOPRU chief executive Mike Rogers said they had positive results from hosting a premier club from Japan last year, as well as individual players from Japan and the United States. BOPRU is hoping to develop more of these opportunities to help grow the rugby sevens profile of the region as well as the tourism and education opportunities available.

"We have a range of programme options to suit teams, individual players and coaches who want to access our leading edge training facilities, rugby knowledge and our elite coaching skills.

"Having national sevens experts Sir Gordon Tietjens and Sean Horan living in the Bay of Plenty and using the same high performance training facility as their national team's training base further helps build our profile in the game nationally and internationally."

Building the profile of the region as the home of rugby sevens links to the Bay of Connections regional growth plan, which works in partnerships with sectors to develop strategies to grow the region's economy, said Bay of Connections portfolio manager Cheryl Lewis. "With the growing popularity of the game over the last few years, there have been economic benefits for our region through event hosting. Now with increased promotion of rugby training development opportunities coupled with education, there will be further economic spinoffs for the Bay of Plenty."