"They were holding back their reserves because it was a rolling interchange and in the second half they came back with some real intensity and we were lucky to hold them out," Parkinson said.
"When you have rolling interchange you have to use your bench so you can save yourselves for the end of the tournament and that's exactly what they did."
Parkinson says a strong Sevens culture at Rangataua is paying dividends.
"For the last eight or nine years Nathaniel and myself have been running the Sevens programme at the club. We are lucky we have had players who may be playing Fifteens for other clubs, but they come back and play Sevens for us. They know how we play and the style and they work really well together."
Across town at Mount Maunganui's Blake Park, the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Sevens tournament took place in ideal playing conditions. The boys under-19 final was a shootout between Rotorua Boys' and Gisborne Boys' with the game tied up at 19-19 at fulltime before Gisborne scored the winning try in extra time.
Opotiki College took out the girls' under-19 title with a 19-5 win over Rotorua Girls' while Tauranga Girls' won the under-15 title after beating Opotiki 21-10 in the final.
Bethlehem's Te Wharekura o Mauao school continued their progress as a top notch sporting school. Their girls won the new under-19 development grade after beating Otumoetai College 15-7 in the final, and they beat Tauranga Boys' in the under-14 and under-16 grades. The under-14 boys won a thrilling final against Tauranga Boys' 17-14.
Tauranga Boys' looked to have the final in the bag after two tries to pacy winger Ethan Holman and plenty of tricky stepping from Penny Lasaqa had them in front 14-5 with minutes remaining.
Jayden Dinsdale finished off a smart move to close the gap to 14-10 then Tauranga Boys' made a succession of errors to gift possession away.
Just before the final hooter Quinton Kingi crashed over to win it for Te Wharekura o Mauao.
Otumoetai College were more than content with their day's work in the boys' under-19 section as they made it through to the semifinals before running into the impressive Gisborne Boys' outfit.
Rotorua Boys' beat Tauranga Boys' in the under-19 semifinal in one of the most anticipated games of the day. The 28-12 win was as comprehensive as the score suggests and Tauranga Boys' had no answer to the sheer speed of the Rotorua outside backs who scored three tries from near their own goalline.
Special mention to Bay Rugby's administrators Chad Tuoro and Kyle McLean, plus referees organiser Malcolm Langdon and his team, who all did an outstanding job and put in a 12-hour shift to ensure the day went smoothly for the 37 teams involved.
Tuoro says the under-15 Girls and under-19 Girls Development divisions provide a great opportunity for players to participate in rugby for the first time and play an important part of talent identification for the BOPRU Women's Sevens programme.
"With these divisions we can now identify female players at an earlier age and get them involved in our development programmes which ultimately is about producing provincial and national players for the future," Tuoro said.
"Women's rugby in the Bay is riding a wave of excitement and success at the moment and we are definitely going to take advantage of this to build a successful women's programme."
Turoa named 21 boys and 24 girls to attend a Sevens Development Camp on November 23. This will include education around nutrition, strength and conditioning training, and expert coaching from provincial sevens coaches and past national players. "Sevens is different to 15s and it was great to identify some talent which suited the shorter version of the game that had not been identified during the 15s season.
"It was also interesting and exciting to see a potential new powerhouse in WBOP rugby with Te Wharekura O Mauao beating traditional favourites Tauranga Boys' in both the Under-14 and Under-16 divisions."
