orthland rugby sevens players Savannah Bodman (left), Georgia Brierly, Rocky Olsen and Mia Anderson at Red Bull Ignite7 camp in Auckland last week. Photo / Supplied
orthland rugby sevens players Savannah Bodman (left), Georgia Brierly, Rocky Olsen and Mia Anderson at Red Bull Ignite7 camp in Auckland last week. Photo / Supplied
Northland's top sevens talents have proven their worth on the national stage at the annual Red Bull Ignite7 camp at The Trusts Arena in Auckland.
The camp, held from Wednesday to Saturday last week, featured 48 male and 48 female athletes of a variety of codes taking part in askills and education-based camp with a select few being chosen to for New Zealand sevens development camps in 2020.
Four Northlanders, Savannah Bodman, Georgia Brierly, Mia Anderson and Rocky Olsen were selected for the camp. While none were chosen to advance to the New Zealand sevens camps, all four scored highly in their individual skills.
Northland's Savannah Bodman (left) and Georgia Brierly smile with the spoils of their win as part of the Inferno women's team. Photo / Supplied
Brierly, in her second year at the camp, produced a 4.59 minute Bronco time to finish as the fastest female in the gruelling fitness test, one place better than last year and only 0.01 seconds from second place.
Brierly also finished second in the vertical jump testing with a score of 3.92 metres per second, 0.05m/s shy of first place.
Bodman, in her first time at the camp after a stand-out performance in this year's Farah Palmer Cup, was fifth in the vertical jump with 3.81m/s.
Olsen, a member of Whangārei Boys' High School's first XV this year, finished third in the men's skills testing, which evaluated a player's core skills on the park.
The future of Northland women's rugby Savannah Bodman (left), Mia Anderson and Georgia Brierly. Photo / Supplied
To round out the Northlanders' achievements, Brierly and Bodman were key members of the Inferno women's team which won the competition held during the camp, while Olsen won the men's division with the Inferno men's team.
"I was pretty stoked with how it went overall," Brierly said.
"I was quite nervous before the Bronco just because I had people saying to me, 'Oh you got this', but once I crossed the line and heard it was sub-five [minutes], I was stoked."
Brierly said much of this year's camp was similar to what she had experienced last year except for the education sessions, which examined a number of topics with an overall theme of 'courage'.
With plans to focus on her own pursuits next year after finishing high school at Rodney College this year, Brierly was excited to develop her rugby as she moved into the Farah Palmer Cup age bracket.
"I've definitely learnt a lot, I feel like I've grown as a player too and I've had awesome feedback from people, which is good."
