St Paul’s grabs Tietjens sevens title

Feilding High School retained their spot as Manawatu’s top schools sevens side, but it was St Paul’s Collegiate School who won the Sir Gordon Tietjens Sevens at the Sport and Rugby Institute on Saturday.

Hamilton’s St Paul’s reversed their fortunes from last year, this time beating Tauranga Boy’s College in the final 24-14.

Both St Paul’s and Tauranga topped their pools on day one with three wins from three.

The third pool, which featured Manawatu powerhouses Palmerston North Boys’ High School and Feilding, lived up to its billing as the tightest match-up. After winning both of their first two games, Boys’ High and Feilding met in the final pool game and drew 19-19.

That was enough for them both to progress to the quarterfinals where Boys’ High beat Scots College 12-10 and Feilding had a 19-15 win over Napier Boys’ High School.

In the other quarterfinals, Tauranga beat Hato Paora College 45-0 and St Paul’s won 28-0 against Tu Toa.

St Paul’s then went on to beat Feilding 19-12 and Tauranga were too good for Boys’ High 33-0.

That set up a re-match for the two Manawatu schools in the third-place playoff where Feilding kicked away for a 26-10 win.

In the girls’ competition, St Mary’s College (Wellington) beat Motueka High School in the final 28-12. Motueka upset Hamilton Girls’ High School in the semifinals 20-15, while St Mary’s knocked over Manukura 20-0 in their match.

Feilding had a surprisingly rough run in the tournament.

They lost all of their pool matches, but bounced back with wins against Freyberg High School (46-0) and Manukura Black (19-0) on day two to finish ninth.

Meanwhile, Boys’ High A won the boys’ under-15 title with a 19-17 win over Feilding in the final.