Summer of Sevens around the corner

Rupeni Raviyawa flashes in for a try at the WRFU Club Sevens last November for his new club Hutt Old Boys Marist. The Eagles won the series and in February won the National Club 7s and Raviyawa was one of the leading players of the tournament. Photo: Andy McArthur. 

The 2026/27 sevens season for lower North Island clubs, schools and teams is almost upon us.

It is not what it once was, but there are are enough green shoots in the sevens space to set pulses racing and ignite a fresh breeze of anticipation.

As this article is first published on Wednesday, it starts this afternoon at Bill Brown Park, Palmerston North at 4.00pm, where Manukura and Feilding High School meet in a straight shootout to determine this year’s National Condor 7s Girls qualifier from the Manawatu region.

On Friday, three boys schools, Feilding High School, Palmerston North Boys’ High School and Whanganui Collegiate, meet in a tri-series at the same venue between 1.00pm-4.00pm in their qualifiers.

The annual Wellington Condor 7s qualifying tournament run by College Sport Wellington is scheduled to be held at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday. Open Boys and Girls and U15s tournaments will be contested at the Lower Hutt school.

Last year’s Condors tournament was delayed until early November owing to frightful weather conditions on Labour Day, so watch the skies

St Pat’s Silverstream are the Open Boys defending champions for the Christian Cullen Cup and their regular 15s prop, now with Petone, Heath Tuifao, was the Player of the Tournament. St Bernard’s College won the U15s Boys Roderick Solo Cup, Aotea College won the U15 Girls Tanoa Cup and the Open Girls tournament was in abeyance.

Look out for our preview and the draw in this space closer to the time – to go up on Saturday or Sunday.

Following this, the annual Hurricanes Schools 7s tournament is scheduled for Feilding High School on Saturday 7 November.

The National Condor 7s tournament returns to Blake Park, Mount Maunganui in early December. The U15s tournament is scheduled for 3 and 4 December and the NZSS Nationals Boys and Girls Open tournament follows on 5 and 6 December.  There is also the return of the Global Youth 7s at Dilworth School in Auckland on 12 and 13 December, featuring many of the leading young players.

This year’s Wellington club sevens series is being split up over four weekends, and all the action is at Rugby League Park.

The first two weekends on 31 October and 7 November see the women’s tournaments being played and then the second two on 21 and 28 November are for the men’s.

Like the previous two years, each of the two respective weekends of men’s and women’s American Ambassador’s tournaments are actually one tournament but played over two Saturdays. The men will be playing for the trophy that bears the tournament’s name, while the women contest the Eleanor Roosevelt Cup.

Last year, the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles played through the two-week American Ambassador’s tournament unbeaten to win the men’s title, while Northern United who defeated the two-time defending champions the Petone Ponies in the women’s final.

Also on 21 November is the return of the Kimbolton 7s tournament with Open Men, Open Women and U19 Boys and Girls teams.

Moving into the New Year, and in recent years the start of the rugby season has been marked by the annual Bula 7s Invitational tournament, which has been played at William Jones Park later in January. Unless we hear otherwise, this is marked down on our  calander.

This all culminates in the National Club 7s in early February.

Last year’s tournament was hosted by 2024 winners Paremata-Plimmerton, and the good news for neutral lower North Island rugby fans is that this year is it being hosted by Hutt Old Boys Marist. The Eagles won last year’s final at Ngati Toa Domain to earn hosting rights. Details of when and where are yet to be revealed.

What have we missed?

If you know of a sevns tournament over the next few months, please let us know and we can add in to our directory and if accessible cover it.

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As stated at the top of this article, the sevens calendar is not what it once was. In the past, Club Rugby has covered other tournaments at Wainuiomata, Evans Bay Park, Greytown, Marton, Shannon, Kimbolton (returning this year), Waipukurau and Feilding.

It is too late for this year, but the premise of this article here we published in early 2019 still stands:

A case for a Hurricanes region sevens tournament circuit