A.U.T Sevens - 12-1008

The sevens season kicked off for Bays with a bang with both the A & B team making the cup final of this inaugural tournament at Hato Petera college. With excellent numbers turning out for training so far an second team had to be fielded and they will again for the Harbour tournament next up. It was a great opportunity for players to have a hit out and show what they've got to coaches Reeco and John Scott.

The tournament was a low key event but teams from Northland and Te Kauwhata showed as well as Northcote and the rest were University teams from Auckland. Their were players who had played premier rugby in Harbour and also Harbour 7's representatives in different teams so the standard was pretty good.

The A squad captained this tournament by Brad Glass had a good start by beating the AUT Titans 5 tries to 2 with speedster James Dolphin stretching the legs out on the paddock for the first time in a while to dot down another to score was an former Bays loosie who has returned after representing Auckland and Northland as well as Tonga for sevens Vaea Tangitau. next up they comfortably beat Te Kauwhata to win their pool round and advance to the Cup semi.
 
The B squad had a tougher day as expected with a bunch of guys that hadn't played much 7's and certainly not together. They had a first up win V N.S.G with an impressive 6 tries to zip win, Sam Hutchinson grabbing a couple of tries. Next up was a very tough match against a young Northcote side where the B's were pushed to the limit but a late try in the match to Zac Judge which was converting got them through 19-17. Which allowed the B's to advance to the cup semi.
 
The semi finals saw the A team play the Titans again and the B side v N.S.G again. The A team got off to a slow start and found themselves behind but not for long as it was a good wake up call for the boys who comfortably came back to win easily with Harbour Development player Will Murray scoring a double in the match. The B game went down to the wire with a draw at full time and with extra time Bays finished off a NSG mistake for the impressive Danny Morrison taking the team through to the cup final for an East Coast Bays A V East Coast Bays B final!
 
The final was almost like an extra trial for guys to impress to push for the top side for the coming tournaments and in a good fast match the A's came through as they should of! 22-7
 
Players to impress for the A's were speedster James Dolphin, forwards Renata Hakiwai and Vaea Tangitau also captain Brad Glass, but young Long Bay college halfback Ray Daniels was very impressive taking his chances with his speed and step and rugged defence. For the B's Captain of the day Mike Tonner was a workhorse, Zac Judge attacked and supported well. Tim Cain impressed and Danny Morrison was a stand out.
 
MVP Points for each side as follows
 
ECB A: 3- Ray Daniels, 2- Mike Hall, 1- Ryan Sutherland
ECB B: 3- Danny Morrison, 2- Zac Judge, 1- Mike Tonner/Tim Cain
 
Next up for The colours is the Harbour tournament held at Massey RFC on the 1st of November where again 2 squads will compete.