UPDATED: National Club Sevens all day Saturday at Ngati Toa Domain

Updated: For the third time in the past decade, the National Club Sevens comes to Wellington, with Paremata-Plimmerton hosting the 2026 tournament at Ngati Toa Domain on Saturday.

Paremata-Plimmerton will be seeking to become the first Wellington club of the modern era to successfully defend it on home soil, following Wainuiomata’s and Northern United’s unsuccessful defences in 2016 and 2020.

The winning team will raise the Middlesex County Wavell Wakefield Cup high, named after the former Harlequins player, England international and air force pilot. Wakefield became a flight instructor and was an early pioneer of successfully landing a plane on a ship at sea. With a quality field of 12 club teams from around the country on Saturday it could take something innovative and audacious to win the title.

The tournament is set to light up Ngati Toa Domain all day on Saturday. The tournament kicks off at 9.00am and the Cup final is set down for 4.40pm. The tournament is being played on two fields, but the last five games of the day – the Cup semi-finals and the Bowl, Plate and Cup finals – are all on Ngati Toa 1.

Entry is free, while there will be food stalls and entertainment ringing the ground throughout the day.

Paremata-Plimmerton playmaker Esi Komaisavai said his team is hoping to put the ingredients in place on the day to defend the title.

“We have a similar team to last year which gives us a lot of confidence,” he said “We had to dig deep to win in Auckland. We lost to Karaka in Pool Play and came back and blitzed them in the final. It was one of those games where everything clicked for us.”

“We expect tough competition from every club. Hutt Old Boys Marist were strong during the Ambassador Sevens, northern teams always being plenty of power and flair. There are a couple of Wellington boys in the Harbour Hawks from Otago. She’s going to be a beauty.”

Last year, Paremata-Plimmerton beat tournament hosts Karaka 28-14 to win the final.

The teams competing are:

• Paremata-Plimmerton (Wellington)
• Hutt Old Boys Marist (Wellington)
• Clifton (Taranaki)
• Te Puna (Bay of Plenty)
• Ngati Porou East Coast RFU
• St Michael’s Rotorua (Bay of Plenty)
• Manukau Rovers (Auckland)
• Marist Nelson (Tasman)
• Havelock North (Hawke’s Bay
• Burnside (Canterbury)
• Greytown (Wairarapa-Bush)
• Harbour Hawks (Otago)

The draw is (all subject to change):

Clubs representing eight of New Zealand’s 14 NPC provincials will be at the start line, with absentees being clubs from Counties-Manukau, Northland, North Harbour, Waikato, Manawatu and Southland.

Perhaps surprising that a couple of those unions aren’t represented, with Counties-Manukau and Waikato having won three National Club 7s titles between them in the past decade and North Harbour, Northland and Manawatu all traditionally strong at sevens.

On the positive side is that Ngati Toa Domain will host three South Island teams. One of Burnside from Christchurch, Nelson Marist and the Harbour Hawks from Otago will look to take the trophy back to the South Island for the first time since 2011.

There is no such thing as a weak Canterbury rugby team, and Burnside arrive as Canterbury Sevens champions and with local knowledge in the form of former Marist St Pat’s and Wellington hooker Ged Robinson as the club’s Director of Rugby. Expect the boys in the red and white hoops to set about their business early.

The southernmost team in action are the Harbour Hawks, looking to bring the cup back ‘home’ to Otago where it has previously resided for many years. The two-time Otago club sevens champions the Hawks are coached by Waisake Naholo and will field a handful of familiar players known to locals such as Rique Miln and Preston Moananu (both Marist St Pat’s).

Marist Nelson make the short trip across the water as the 2025 Tasman club sevens champions. They promise to bring a fast-paced game and will take some stopping.

Hosts Wellington and Bay of Plenty will be fielding two clubs each, with Hutt Old Boys Marist beating Paremata-Plimmerton in November’s Wellington club sevens series.

HOBM are also Wellington’s 15s champions so are riding high, and with players such as Kapu Broughton-Winterburn, Fritz Rayasi, Caleb Robson and others like speedster Dominic Ernst and young-gun Brandon Lo in their squad they will be no pushover.

Te Puna are a crack sevens side out of the NZ 7s hotbed of Tauranga and were beaten finalists in 2020 at nearby Porirua Park when Northern United hosted this tournament.

Marist St Michael’s have previously been regulars to Wellington at the now dormant NZ Marist club tournament.

Greytown come over the hill representing Wairarapa-Bush. They are in starting their 150^th season so will want to set that off on a positive note. They will also be playing for recently passed Grant Batty who scored 114 tries in three seasons in the late 1960s playing for nearby Kuranui College.

Ngati Porou East Coast union join Greytown as the second Heartland region representative and will bring colour and passion and friendly vibes as they always do at these tournaments.

Clifton and Havelock North arrive as the respective Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay club sevens champions. Havelock North are making their second trip in a month to Wellington having competed at the Bula 7s in January at William Jones Park. They too could have a Wellington connection, with players such as Drew Berg-McLean on their books.

Last but far from least, Auckland will be represented by Manukau Rovers, who promise to be particularly dangerous, having finished runners-up to Eden at the Auckland club sevens tournament in November.

About the tournament

The tournament is in its 75^th year

The Middlesex Cup sevens tournament was hosted by the Middlesex RFC at Twickenham each year from 1925. In 1949 the Middlesex Union offered cups in its name to the “Dominions of Colonies” and Middlesex Wavell Wakefield Cups were accepted by New Zealand, Australia and Rhodesia.

Brought to New Zealand by the manager of the British Lions, L.B. (Ginger) Osborne, in 1950, the tournament was started in Dunedin in 1951 and first won by local club Zingari-Richmond. It fell away in the 1990s and wasn’t contested for a decade up to its revival in 2006.

It has been held by 30 individual winners – 13 from the North Island and 17 from the South Island. It had been held by South Island clubs continuously for more than three decades before Auckland’s Pakuranga won in 2013 to become the first North Island team to prevail since Hamilton Old Boys in 1976.

The rules of the tournament at that in your squad of 14 you are allowed to field a maximum of four guest players not registered to your club in the previous season. The rest have to be registered to the club in that previous club calendar year.

This is a tournament that the NZRU could get behind and support going o

List of recent winners (not played for in 2012, 2022 or 2023)

• 2008: Alhambra-Union (Dunedin)
• 2009: Alhambra-Union (Dunedin)
• 2010: Otago University (Dunedin)
• 2011: Burnham (Canterbury)
• 2013: Pakuranga (Auckland)
• 2014: Rangataua (Bay of Plenty)
• 2015: Wainuiomata (Wellington)
• 2016: Melville (Waikato)
• 2017: Eden (Auckland)
• 2018: Eden (Auckland)
• 2019: Northern United (Wellington)
• 2020: Ardmore Marist (Counties Manukau)
• 2021: Ardmore Marist (Counties Manukau)
• 2024: Karaka (Counties Manukau)
• 2025: Paremata-Plimmerton (Wellington)