Manawatu rule the roost Sterling sevens play tinged with regret
Our women’s sevens team have won the national crown for a second year in a row.
Manawatu is now well and truly the powerhouse of women’s sevens in New Zealand after their second national title in a row.
Manawatu beat Auckland 19- 12 in the national championship final at Rotorua yesterday to win back- toback national crowns after their victory in Queenstown last year.
They also became the first team, men’s or women’s, to win the Bay of Plenty provincial competition and the national title in the same year.
Manawatu coach Stu Ross was a happy man after the close final.
‘‘ We’ve won everything we can this year, 2013- 2014,’’ he said.
‘‘ It wasn’t easy. It harder and harder.
‘‘ The quality of teams improves, the quality of coaching and the girls are improving.’’
He praised the performance of stars Sarah Goss, Selica Winiata and Kristine Sue, but also their hard- working team- mates Raylene Kirk and Nicole Dickins.
Goss put in a massive workload during the weekend, while Winiata was always a constant threat for opposition with her speed.
It was their second win over the always- strong Auckland team in a week after beating them at the Bay of Plenty tournament.
‘‘ It’s a testament to the girls and how hard they want to work,’’ Ross said.
‘‘ Management and staff can have all the flash drills in the world but it
gets pool games were and down wire.’’
Manawatu scored first in the final through youngster Hayley Hutana, before Crystal Mayes set up Winiata.
Auckland hit back through Kayla McAlister just after halftime, but then Winiata sealed it by putting a grubber kick through, kicking it again and diving on the ball.
Manawatu was unlucky not to have Winiata or Goss named player of the tournament, which instead went to Hazel Tubic.
There should be a good contingent of Manawatu players named today when the 17 contracted New Zealand players are announced for the legs of the world series in Atlanta, in the United States and Sao Paulo, in Brazil.
Ross will be the assistant coach of the New Zealand team for those two stops. doesn’t matter if the girls don’t want to put the effort in.’’
In pool play Manawatu beat Taranaki 17- 12, Bay of Plenty 43- 0 and Canterbury 17- 15, and drew with Counties Manukau 12- all, finishing second in the pool behind Counties Manukau.
They snuck past Otago 10- 7 in the quarterfinal and beat Counties Manukau 24- 5 in the semifinal.
They had to grind all weekend, Ross said.
‘‘ To be honest, the final was probably when we were the calmest,’’ he said.
‘‘ All the intense to the The Manawatu men’s sevens team felt they had let themselves down slightly, despite putting in potentially their best- ever shift at the national championships.
Manawatu won the plate final, beating Bay of Plenty 40- 17 in Rotorua yesterday, but felt they could have done better, as they only lost one game all tournament and that was to eventual cup finalists Auckland in the quarterfinals.
Auckland went on to lose the final to Wellington 26- 17 and Manawatu felt if they had not lost to Auckland, they could have been in the final instead.
The quarterfinal was tied up at 14- all, but conceded a try in goldenpoint extra time and Manawatu assistant coach Reuben Parkinson said a couple of things did not go their way in that game.
‘‘ It was a tough one for us,’’ he said. ‘‘ We’re really, really happy we got the result in the [ plate] final but a bit disappointed because we really believed we’re good enough to play in the cup final.’’
He said they should not have let it get to golden point and should have won the game in regular time.
In pool play, Manawatu drew with Hawke’s Bay 19- all, beat Otago 19- 10 and Waikato 24- 5 and topped the pool. They missed out in the quarterfinal to Auckland, before beating Canterbury 26- 19 in the plate semifinal.
Speed merchant George Tilsley, the former New Zealand sevens player, was named player of the tournament and he played well all weekend along with Karl Bryson, Adrian Curry and Timoci Seruwalu.
‘‘ Our senior boys, the older members were exceptional for us,’’ Parkinson said. ‘‘ They really helped us stick to our game plan and really helped the young ones, the exciting boys.’’
Captain Adrian Curry echoed Parkinson about how they should not have lost to Auckland, saying if they had reached the final, they would have given it a good crack.