Condor Sevens at Naenae College on Monday

Twenty-seven teams will vie for local supremacy at the annual College Sport Wellington Sevens tournament at Naenae College on Monday.

The tournament returns to its traditional Labour Day date this year, after last year’s event was postponed a fortnight due to weather.

There is also a change in the qualification for the National event in early December; with NZ Rugby taking a greater role as part of its national pathways programme the Open Boys remains at two, while the Open Girls drops to one with one spot now reserved for the best non-qualifier at the Hurricanes Schools event (which is scheduled for Feilding on 7 November).

Eleven teams will contest the Open Boys for the Christian Cullen Cup and it looks wide-open.

St Pat’s Silverstream have two teams entered, with their “A” squad the defending champions. They’ll face stiff competition at the back end of the day though, with Wellington College, 2024 winners Hutt International Boys’ School, Scots College, and even Rongotai College and Mana College in the mix. Hutt Valley High School can’t be completely ruled out either, with Wainuiomata High School, Newlands College, and host school Naenae College completing the field. Both Rathkeale College and St Pat’s Town initially entered, but Rathkeale withdrew after a tough day at the Napier BHS event last weekend and Town for internal reasons.

St Mary’s College practically own the Open Girls Kat Whata-Simpkins Cup having won it every year since its introduction and having lost just a handful of games in that time. But they’ll face a new foe this for this edition, with the CIS-based Performance Academy entered. Aotea and St Mary’s B-squad complete the small field of four with Naenae, Taita, and Mana all having pulled out during the week.

The Under 15 Boys will be fought out between nine sides looking to claim the Roderick Solo Cup. Scots were last year’s winners but the competition is expected to be fierce between themselves, Silverstream, Wellington College, and Mana. Rongotai loom as the dark horse and you can’t rule Aotea completely out either, nor Silverstream’s second side. Naenae and Bishop Viard complete thecontenders, after HVHS dropped out on Friday

And finally, three teams will also fight it out in the Under 15 Girls division. St Mary’s are the favourites here, but Sacred Heart and Scots will have plenty to say about that.

Matches get underway at 9am, with playoff action getting underway at 1.00pm with the Open Boys quarter-finals. The final match of the U15 Girls double round-robin is at 3.40pm, followed by the Cupfinals in the other grades.

For the third consecutive year, Club Rugby will select its Open Boys Player of the Tournament. Last year this was St Pat’s Silverstream’s Heath Tuifao and in 2024 it was HIBS’ Sean Carter. There was no Open Girls Tournament last year (owing to complications for teams after the reschedule), so we will select the inaugural Club Rugby Open Girls Player of the Tournament.

After several blue-sky days last week, the weather forecast is difficult and could prove a factor, but the scorching rugby should by and large cancel any rain and wind out.

Meanwhile, the three-team Manawatu Condor 7s tournament was held on Friday, with Palmerston North Boys’ High School winning, Feilding High School runners-up and both qualifying for nationals and Whanganui Collegiate third and missing out.