Sevens: Classy Ponsonby sail past Harbour

Ponsonby's Pryor Collier juggles the ball before he is tackled by a North Harbour Marist player in the Championship final at Blake Park on Saturday. Photo / Andrew Warner

Ponsonby took home the first silverware of the summer of sevens after a commanding performance at Blake Park on Saturday.

The classy Aucklanders made no contest of the Championship final of the Page Macrae Engineering Mount Club Sevens in easily defeating Marist North Harbour 40-0.

Former All Blacks Sevens player Rocky Khan and the tournament's brightest star in Auckland Grammar's Reicko Ioane, cut merry capers in front of Sir Gordon Tietjens, on the field named in his honour.

Bay of Plenty clubs surprisingly showed little interest in such a key tournament played on their doorstep, which attracted top teams from Auckland, North Harbour, Waikato and Hawke's Bay.

New Zealand club champions Rangataua Sports were after a strong showing before they leave on Wednesday for the Central Coast Sevens in Australia, to be followed by a trip to Fiji in November for the Coral Coast Sevens.

Rangataua beat Hamilton Marist 26-7 to win the Plate final, after their Championship aspirations were scuppered in an unlucky 14-12 defeat to Marist North Harbour.

Coach and former All Blacks Sevens star, Matua Parkinson, said his team would benefit greatly from Saturday's competitive matches.

"This is a good build-up for next week as it is a tough competition," he said. "We would dearly love to have been playing in the final of the Championship round but we got what we needed out of it, which was the game time and there were some selection issues coming into it that have been clarified a little bit for me after this tournament."

Parkinson says he rejected thoughts of recruiting outside players to boost his team's chances at what will be massive steps up in quality and intensity in Gosford and Sigatoka.

"To be honest, I thought about it. I've got faith with the boys we've got within our club that have played sevens with us. It would be (disloyal) for me to go outside our club. It is our way, and committee members and club people have given back to the boys for getting us there."

Home club Mount Maunganui Sports fielded two teams, with the top side under the astute mentoring of player/coach Zar Lawrence beating Hastings Rugby 28-5 to win the Bowl final.

Rangiuru made it to the quarter-finals, before Marist North Harbour knocked them out 28-17. Te Puna lost to Mount Maunganui 1 by 12-5 in the quarter-final of the Bowl, while Te Puke Sports lost 24-0 to Hamilton Marist in the Plate semifinal.

Page Macrae Engineering Mount Club Sevens
• Championship Final: Ponsonby 40 Marist North Harbour 0
• Plate Final: Rangataua 26 Hamilton Marist 7
• Bowl Final: Mount Maunganui 28 Hastings Rugby 5
• Special Plate: East Coast Bays 26 Havelock North 19