DRAMATIC FINAL
Golden-point win in club sevens
Feilding denied Linton Army back-to-back Manawatu¯ club sevens titles with a golden-point win in the final at Massey University on Saturday.
Midfielder Ken Funaki was the hero for Yellows as he dotted down two minutes into extra time to claim the 12-7 win over Linton Red.
The sides had been locked at 7-all at fulltime in the re-match of their pool match, which Feilding won 28-5.
Yellows coach Kelvin Tantrum said it was a positive way to head into the summer off-season.
‘‘We pulled a team together and Brad Carr really coached it and ran it for us,’’ he said. ‘‘We are really happy with it.’’
Ben Wyness turned on a starring role throughout the tournament, but Yellows’ win was down to a team effort with Carr, Sammy Pesamino, Matt Dalley, Carr, Ben Wyness, Andy Williams and Nuku Nakokoti all putting in strong performances.
Linton Red had the likes of Tejay Oliver, Jared Deal, Hamiora Thomas and Angus White on deck.
Feilding were unbeaten, taking down Feilding Old Boys-o¯ roua 14-5, Linton Red 28-5 and winning by default over Kia Toa.
They then took down Te Kawau, led by Turbos lock Liam Mitchell, 33-12 in the semifinals.
Varsity, who had Sam Malcolm, Ueta Tufuga and Rhodes Featherston as top performers, came out top of pool B with wins over Old Boys-marist 21-10, Te Kawau 29-7 and Linton Black 59-7.
But Varsity were tipped up by Linton Red 27-14 in the semifinals.
Kia Toa entered a team, but defaulted their first game. They managed to muster enough players for the second match when they were beaten 24-5 by FOBO¯ roua before forfeiting their final pool match.
Manawatu¯ sevens coach Bertus Mulder was happy with the quality of play, but was concerned only seven teams ended up competing.
‘‘We understand that it has been a long season for a lot of players when you look back at the club footy that started way back in February, plus rep rugby commitments.
‘‘But we are a little bit disappointed with the lack of teams that committed to the club competition.’’
But he was confident there was enough talent on show to pull together a strong training squad for the Central Regional Sevens, on December 9 and 10 in Levin.
Meanwhile, Feilding High School cruised to a comfortable win in the colts division 36-7 against Varsity in the final.
With just four teams competing, all sides were in a round robin with the secondary school side beating OBM 42-5, Varsity 20-14 and Yellows 39-12 as they progressed to the final.
Feilding High School were preparing for the Condor Sevens which starts on November 30.