Good sevens! Matakesi unbeaten side
Title retained after beating Manawatu¯ ’s College Old Boys 31-5 in decider
Composite sevens rugby team Matakesi retained their Shannon Sevens crown at a sun-drenched and rock-hard Shannon Domain. Matakesi went through the tournament on Saturday unbeaten with four straight wins before the final in which they beat Manawatu¯’s College Old Boys 31-5 in the Cup decider.
Matakesi won the final five tries to one, after leading 19-5 at halftime.
Their semifinal win over the Fijian Flyers, trading as Johnsonville Pink, was by far their toughest match of the afternoon. They won this 19-17 with a sweeping length of the field try on fulltime, finished off by Hutt Old Boys Marist player Brandyn Laursen.
Moments earlier they were pinned under their own posts with the Fijian Flyers putting the ball into their own scrum, only to win the tighthead and turnover and commence their raid up field to score the match-winner.
The Flyers had extended a 12-7 halftime lead to 17-7 with a typically bombastic try to Esi Komaisavai and would count themselves unfortunate not to win and progress to the final.
The other Wellington team in the semifinals, Northern United, would have wanted Komaisavai in their ranks like he normally is as they fell 14-19 to Palmerston North College Old Boys in an untypically flat performance by their high standards.
Both sides traded early tries, before a decisive PNCOB try on halftime put them up 14-7. Norths equalised to make it 14-14 but COB scored their match winner after 90 seconds of possession.
The last of the four Cup quarterfinals had seen Matakesi beat Wainuiomata 21-17 in another tight win.
This match was delayed for a period in the first half while an ambulance was called to take Wainuiomata’s Tyler Tane to hospital after he cut in going for a try and went down with a serious leg injury.
The first three quarter-finals saw Norths beat Foxton 40-17, COB beat the second Johnsonville Fijian side 24-17 and the Fijian Flyers Johnsonville side beat Waikanae 17-7.
The Plate final was an-all eastern affair, with YMP from Gisborne beating Martinborough from WairarapaBush 24-10, after leading 19-0 at halftime.
The 34th annual Shannon tournament was well run as always by local
club officials and the Horowhenua Kapiti referees.
Shannon Rugby Club’s Hilton Williams said while the tournament was originally staged for local clubs
to give them a pre-season hit-out, having outside interest added to prestige.
It was only in recent years they had started taking entries from teams
from outside the Horowhenua Kapiti Rugby Football Union. Although they used to have as many as 20 teams entered, they now limited it to 12 entries.
“We don’t make a lot of money out of it but we would be arguably the longest-running tournament of its kind in New Zealand and we want to continue,” he said.