Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Sevens: Bay of Plenty Women's team want to impress home town fans at Nationals

Peter Williams
By Peter Williams
Bay of Plenty Times·
30 Nov, 2018 01:51 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The Bay of Plenty women's sevens players are doing their part to support their community. Photo / Andrew Warner

The Bay of Plenty women's sevens players are doing their part to support their community. Photo / Andrew Warner

The Bay of Plenty Women's Sevens team want to impress home town fans when the National Sevens are played for the first time at Tauranga Domain in two weeks.

But their first task is to qualify well for the national event through the Northern Region sevens at Cambridge tomorrow.

Qualifying in itself shouldn't be the real issue.

There are six provincial teams in Cambridge and five go to the National Sevens, but tomorrow is about getting a high placing and a good seeding for the Tauranga tournament.

"We have a really youthful team with raw talent for this weekend, and I think the prospects are really exciting" according to the Bay's experienced captain Rebecca Kersten.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Our whole team is fast, but there's some natural aggression there too. We have a few pitbulls in there."

She's not afraid of identifying those pitbulls too.

"They're Tynealle Fitzgerald and Sequoia-Autumn Te Aonui, but with Mahina Paul and Autumn-Raine Stevens there's raw pace too."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Bay of Plenty play the first of their five matches tomorrow at 10am against Auckland. Their other games in the round-robin tournament are against Waikato, North Harbour, Counties Manukau and Northland.

The two Black Ferns Sevens stars who represent Bay of Plenty, Michaela Blyde and Kelly Brazier, will not be there tomorrow because they're with the national team at the second World Series tournament of the season in Dubai.

It's yet to be decided if those two will play in at Tauranga Domain in two weeks, but two players from the Black Ferns tour of the US and France, Les Elder and Renee Wickliffe, are back in town and reportedly keen to play for their province in the national tournament.

The Bay of Plenty team, coached by this year's Steamers assistant Rodney Gibbs, has been taking part in community and charity events as part of their build-up to tomorrow's tournament.

Discover more

Black Ferns 7 getting ready for Dubai

18 Nov 09:41 PM

Bay pair selected as rising stars of sevens

25 Nov 07:40 AM
Rugby Sevens

Michaela Blyde wins Women's Sevens Player of the Year

25 Nov 10:20 PM

Blyde nears another milestone

28 Nov 06:00 PM

Yesterday they helped unload surplus food from supermarkets and cafes which is then distributed to charities through the Good Neighbour Food Rescue programme.

"It's a real nice thing to be involved in" says player Amanda Aldridge. The 30-year-old mother of two, who was a heptathlete at the 2005 Youth Olympics in Morocco, started playing rugby only 18 months ago.

"We were asked about coming to visit the charities this week and everyone wanted to be involved. Being here it's mind blowing, the things they're doing in the community and how much they're giving back."

She'd wanted to visit Riding for the Disabled, another of the National Sevens designated charities, earlier in the week but was committed to her work as a theatre nurse at Tauranga Hospital.

"I really wanted to go there because I have a disabled daughter but I was called up to work instead" she said.

While Aldridge is a Youth Olympian from years past, in a time when Sevens wasn't even on the schedule, three of the New Zealand gold medal winning team from this year's Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires will line up in Bay colours tomorrow.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tynealle Fitzgerald, Mahina Paul and Kiki Tahere are all part of the next generation of Bay sevens players who will complement the likes of Aldridge and Kersten.

Kersten, who was part of the Black Ferns development squad last year, has recently returned from six months playing sevens in Japan.

"There's a professional women's league there with about 12 teams. They're allowed four foreign players each and at least of 20 of those are Kiwis" she says.

"It's a great league for those of us who haven't quite cracked the Black Ferns, and you can bank some money too."

Bay of Plenty Schedule at Northern Regional Qualifying tournament
Memorial Park, Cambridge, December 1
10am v Auckland
11.20am v North Harbour
12.20pm v Counties Manukau
1.40pm v Waikato
3.20pm v Northland

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Emergency services respond to serious crash on SH2, road closed

22 Jun 12:24 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

SH2 bridge to close for repairs for six days during school holidays

22 Jun 12:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

SH2 reopens following serious crash near Pukehina

21 Jun 10:57 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Emergency services respond to serious crash on SH2, road closed

Emergency services respond to serious crash on SH2, road closed

22 Jun 12:24 AM

Motorists should avoid SH2 East between Stanley Rd and Fraser Rd.

SH2 bridge to close for repairs for six days during school holidays

SH2 bridge to close for repairs for six days during school holidays

22 Jun 12:00 AM
SH2 reopens following serious crash near Pukehina

SH2 reopens following serious crash near Pukehina

21 Jun 10:57 PM
'He was trying to kill me': Bus driver punched, choked as passengers lash out

'He was trying to kill me': Bus driver punched, choked as passengers lash out

21 Jun 05:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP