Paremata-Plimmerton and Petone Wellington club sevens champions

• By Steven White.
• Photos by Andy McArthur.

Paremata-Plimmerton (men’s) and Petone (women’s) are the 2024 Wellington club rugby sevens champions.

Both clubs defended their titles that they won last year at the same venue as then at Trentham Memorial Park.

Paremata-Plimmerton retained the American Ambassador’s Trophy, while Petone have stored away the Eleonor Roosevelt Cup for the next 12 months.

Results and scoring: https://xplorer.rugby/american-ambassador-7s/fixtures-results?team=All&comp=Lq2idvBPou8XcD6an&season=All&tab=Results

In fine but often blustery conditions both their wins in their respective finals were contrasting affairs.

In the men’s decider, Paremata-Plimmerton beat the Upper Hutt Rams 12-5.

Their two tries to one victory came after the Rams had put early pressure on them and forced a turnover from a defensive scrum and scored a try out wide to captain Todd Svenson.

Svenson’s try made it 5-0 to the Rams, before the Hammerheads struck with Louis Northcott following a 70-metre breakout before scoring again through Northcott off an assist by Esi Komaisavai after a scrum. Esi’s conversion from out wide put them up 12-5, the final score.

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Then followed a potential banana skin for Paremata-Plimmerton, following a Komaisavai run through  and certain try but instead he passed inside to Jeremiah Avei-Collins in support who knocked it on in the wind. The Rams then looked to capitalise on their reprieve, unsuccessfully pouring everything they had on to attack over the final 90 seconds or so searching for a converted try to take the final to golden point extra time.

Paremata-Plimmerton’s winning squad: Ethan Webster-Nonu Esi Komaisavai Bruce Kauika-Petersen Louis Northcott Marzy Karim Christian Fa’avae Zane Edwards Johnny Teleaga Jeremiah Avei-Collins (guest player) Otis Baker Lima Leota Kody McGovern

The women’s decider was a one-sided affair, with Petone storming through the tournament on a tear and storming through the final against Marist St Pat’s in similar fashion, winning 40-0.

Petone ran in three first half tries to lead 17-0 at halftime. Then this year’s 15 best and fairest women’s winner Keira Su’a Smith cut through for a decisive score early in the second spell and that was that. MSP tried to get back into the contest, but Petone finished with another long-range try.

There were no plate or bowl finals this year – in fact this year’s format for the tournament which was effectively one tournament played over two Saturday’s with full round-robins, crossover pool games and then straight Cup semis and finals was well received by many.

Three of the four men’s semi-finalists were locked in early, these being the two finalists, Paremata-Plimmerton and the Upper Hutt Rams, and Oriental-Rongotai. Marist St Pat’s sealed the fourth spot in the last round, ahead of the second Paremata-Plimmerton side and Old Boys University who were both still alive.

The men’s semi-finals proved decisive for the winners. The Rams – Ories semi-final kicked off first and the Rams won 28-12.

The Rams flew to a two-try lead early, with Ieti Campbell setting up the first try for Dan Schrijvers and Campbell scoring the second himself – inuring his hamstring in the process and missing the final. Ories would come back with two tries themselves by halftime, but the Rams pulled away again in the second spell. Their work at the breakdown in this match won them several turnovers and the match.

Paremata-Plimmerton beat MSP 41-5 in their semi-final, with the chirpy Bruce Kauika-Petersen and Louis Northcott scoring their first two tries. MSP replied with their only try to cut it to 12-5, but then Esi Komaisavai scored a pair of typical exciting tries just before and halftime, and then scored a third, to put the result beyond doubt.

Petone defeated Ories 31-12 in the first semi-final. The second women’s semi-final saw MSP race to a three-try lead over Paremata-Plimmerton, which proved enough for them to win 24-5.

The second leg of the tournament was played in dry conditions all day, with morning cloud eventually giving in to sunny conditions. The wind picked up from lunchtime and there were several large gusts. At 12.58pm Paremata-Plimmerton’s marquee left its moorings and almost flew away, saved by an adjacent tree and a van behind it.

There were both new players and teams involved this week from that which contested last week’s tournament.

The Johnsonville Hawks were a welcome addition to this week’s tournament, with their electrifying brand of rugby highlighted by the two Jacobs, Walmsley and Kennedy, and others such as Irish duo Nial Delahunt and Mark Sutton. They had two narrow defeats to finalists Paremata-Plimmerton Black and the Rams, and two wins against the combined Manawatu side and Poneke.

Some other players involved this week included Ambrose Curtis for Ories (recently back from six years in France), Southland wing Viliami Fine for the Wellington Axemen (joining others such as Fuko Paongo and Sanele Senio in that side) and Black Ferns wing Aysha Leti-L’iga for Ories (and scoring loads of tries).

Today’s tournament concludes rugby in Wellington for 2024.

Next up is the Central Region sevens in Palmerston North in a fortnight’s time, with Wellington entering men’s and women’s teams in this, and then there is the second annual Manawatu Fijian 7s in Palmerston North a fortnight after that in early December.