The graysonline.com Australian Sevens Development Tournament was held at Conolly Park, Wagga Wagga, on the weekend. Queensland won the trophies in the Girls and Boys Youth U17 division, while NSW won the Womens’ Open contest.
It was all about the development of aspiring players and it was pleasing that the ARU was looking to the future at the same time that the best Australian men and women players were performing in Dubai.
The teams
The Girls Youth Under 17 competition had seven teams – from the ACT, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia plus two from NSW.
The Girls played a round-robin competition of six games and Queensland clinched the title by beating the NSW Blue team 24-19 in the last game of the series.
The Womens’ Open tournament had nine teams competing – the ACT, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Southern Inland and two each from Qld and NSW. The stand-out team of the competition, the NSW Development team, beat the NSW Barbarians in the final.
There were eight teams in the Boys Youth Under 17 division: four squads from NSW (Country Gold, Country White, Sydney Juniors and Sydney Barbarians) and one each from Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT.
Green & Gold Rugby rugby tragic “Slim” was at the Conolly ground at Wagga with his notebook watching the action. “Slim” is almost Superman, but because the matches were on different fields it was not possible for him to watch all the games. He reported on many of the Boys U17 matches.
Picture by Perry Duffin
The “Slim” report
What a great weekend of rugby. I arrived to be greeted by the Annual Wagga bikie rally; the scene for some tough rugby action was set as 500 Harleys revved up as the competition kicked off.
I heard one lad say: “F*** it is hot” and he was right: Wagga is a hot spot in summer and at 37 C on Sunday it made for some sweaty players. The ice bath was a popular location post-game.
Queensland v Sydney Barbarians
The Babas come out strongly, with good ball control and hard running to get to a 17-0 lead, but Sam Willis scores for Qld from a nice move. 17-7 Babas. Tries are swapped but Ollie Smealie, who was on the field for 12 seconds, seals the match for the Babas 34-14.
WA v NSW Country Gold
Soloman Stone very quick for WA and starts the action 7-0. Good WA structure and some poor Country defence sees Curtis Dansey-Smaller run the length and WA win 29-5.
Sydney Juniors v ACT
ACT well-drilled and get out to a quick 10-0 lead. Poor Sydney defence and some good ACT hands mark them as a team to watch. ACT 36-10.
Victoria v NSW Country White
Having met just the day before Country lacks cohesion whereas Victoria are disciplined, too strong and too fast. Country comes back late but the Vics are also firming as potential victors.
Sydney Barbarians v WA
Early attack from Babas but ball spilled and WA score. Human battering ram Tyrone Taukamo, scores off a fine run from Will Terry for the Sydney team. Two quick tries to WA and the score is 15-7 to them at oranges. Two missed tackles after the break and WA spring to 22-7. The Babas come back but WA win 29-24.
Sydney Barbarians v NSW Country Gold
Good ball control and some quick hands seal a solid win by Babas 50-7. The highlight is a kick through that James Tautaiolefua chases down but a high bounce sees him overrun the ball and spin in the air ending with a backward-facing moon-walk try that has the crowd jumping up and down.
WA v Queensland
With three teams having one loss each, this decides the pecking order for the playoffs. The Babas beat Qld and WA beat the Babas; so WA start favourites. But after lacking ball early the Qld train steams home to win 33-10.
Sydney Barbarians v NSW Country Gold
After being down 0-10 the Sydney boys stage a big win 29-10.
The finals
Sydney Juniors v WA Plate final
The quick WA wingers prove too much for the Sydney club players and WA win 26-14.
Sydney Barbarians v ACT – Semi-final
In probably the best performance of the weekend in the boys’ comp a talented ACT outfit has no answers for a dancing James Armstrong and some amazing ball control from the entire Babas team.
Chance passes find their mark, half-chances result in tries. Their structure and quality ball work let the Babas run away 43-5.
Queensland v Victoria – Semi-final
The northerners are too strong across the park and win 29-12
ACT v Victoria 3rd/4th
ACT butcher a try over the line through show-boating, and momentum turns. The Vic boys stick to the game plan and win 24-7 helped by some soft ACT tackling.
Queensland v Sydney Barbarians – Final
The last game of the weekend for the Boys is a repeat of the first game of the weekend. Queensland, who lost by 20 points in that match, are out to make amends, and look a different team.
Babas win their own kickoff and a pass for sure try is intercepted; so Quinton Mahina runs 90 metes and scores in the corner at the other end: 5-0. More sloppy play from the Sydney boys has Queensland ahead 12-0.
Set move from Qld scrum and suddenly 19-0. A quickly pulled up ruck penalty results in another try and it would seem the match is over 26-0. A late try to Babas and at the break 26-7.
The Babas get stern words from their coaching staff and after some sloppy Qld hands and a couple of great tries the score is 26-19. Some determined play by the Babas’ prop Jack Mazaraki results in a try and the fightback is complete 26-26.
The Qld boys strike back though. Their half back steps his way up field and sets up a match winner. A late volley from Babas ends just short of the line and the resulting Toyota ad jump of the boys in Red, victorious, completes an entertaining and hard-fought final.
Final score Qld 31 – Sydney Barbarians 26. It was a nail-biter and had all the action we expect from contests between the two big rugby states: plenty of passion and some fantastic talent on display.
The wrap-up
I love Rugby sevens. I always thought of it as a mix of 15-man and touch—after watching 60 odd games it is touch footy with tackling.
It is a fast, high-scoring game where a missed tackle will result in 5/7 points as quickly as snapping you fingers.
I spoke to several people who had never seen Sevens but enjoyed the format and vowed to watch it again. With it costing $1,000 to take a family to the Bledisloe, the Sydney Sevens look very good value.
Players need to practice drop kick: conversions matter.
Rohan Hoffman – mentored the referees
The refereeing:
Obviously the ARU take it very seriously. Every match had at least one, if not three, referees mentoring. Indeed, a current Super 15 ref, Rohan Hoffman, was coordinating the refs and I saw a lot post-game review going on.
At times some of the young refs looked out of their depth in bigger games but I understand the need to blood young officials. I have no doubt that the opportunities they had on the weekend and the review process they had to undergo, will improve them as much as the players did in their efforts.
Well done to the organisers for their work in trying conditions.
The great photos were by Kieren L Tilly (except where noted). Thank you Kieren.
