Shane Hurndell Hawke's Bay's Donovan Nepia is on the verge of a long-awaited comeback to the New Zealand sevens rugby side. Nepia, 25, and Rangi Vallance were the only two Bay players named in a 26-strong New Zealand training squad after the national tournament ended in Queenstown last night. The squad willbe reduced to 16 after a training camp at Mount Maunganui this coming weekend. A 2004 Magpie, Nepia hasn't played for New Zealand since the 2000-2001 summer and hasn't had a trial for two years. Vallance has been a regular New Zealand trialist and late last year was named in a 16-strong national training squad. Hawke's Bay coach Tom Blake believed Vallance's Hawke's Bay co-captain Chad Shepherd had done enough to make the squad of 26 and also considered Ricky Blunsdon and Jason Kupa to be unlucky. The Bay's disappointing finish, beaten 36-22 in the plate final by Wellington, didn't help their chances. Blake made no secret of the fact a berth in the championship final was his tournament goal. "I wasn't happy with our finish ... we certainly didn't play to our potential," he said. Speedster Karl Mudzamba was unable to play on Saturday because of a stomach virus, which also limited his game time yesterday. Key playmaker Nui Bartlett was also nagged by a virus. Former Bay players and regular New Zealand stars Tafai Ioasa and Amasio Valence were predictably named in the 26-strong squad. Ioasa played for Wellington and Valence captained Auckland to their first championship victory since 1991 with a convincing 42-12 win over a Northland side which featured another former Bay player in Luke Ottley-Karena. For Valence, a five-time world champion and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, it was his first national title. He also collected the Joe Tauiwi Memorial Trophy for the player-of-the-tournament. Manawatu, with former Bay sevens whiz Ben Trew prominent, beat North Otago 45-24 to take the shield final, while Otago, with former Bay players Callum Bruce, Joe Snee and Matt Berquist on board, won the bowl section with a 29-19 win over Canterbury.
