Sevens: Northland scrape through to nationals

Northland's Kurt Davies makes a break. Photo / Getty Images

The Northland men's sevens team were made to work hard for their gains at the Northern Region Qualifiers Tournament.

Playing at Cambridge's Memorial Park yesterday, Northland faced-off against a well-versed Counties Manakau side in their first pool match.

Losing 29-14 in this fixture, Northland were undone by Counties' pace and nimble attack.

However, a win in their second pool match lifted the mood after their first-up loss.

Taking on Bay of Plenty, Northland ran in an impressive performance for their first win of the tournament to finish with a 21-12 lead at fulltime.

Entering their last pool match with renewed enthusiasm, Northland were braced for battle against a fit-looking North Harbour side.

Despite this, missed opportunities saw Northland limp to a 19-10 loss.

Settling for a 5th/6th playoff against Bay of Plenty, Northland put on a good show to keep the wooden spoon at bay.

Opening with a superb try from Kerikeri's Levi Clark, who ran all of 90 metres to dot down for Northland's first via some fancy footwork and blitzing pace, Northland gained the early lead.

Bay of Plenty replied with a try from Masiu Vainikolo, then another by Zar Lawrence who caught the Northland side napping after some confusion at the breakdown.

Northland's Sean Rawiri then closed the gap to 12-10 shortly before halftime.

Northland regained the lead as play resumed and Clark displayed his pace again to cross for five in the corner.

After some solid defence, Northland were then rewarded with some pill, and Adam Simpson slipped through a hole to extend Northland's lead to 22-10 two minutes out from fulltime to secure the win and scrape through to appear at the Bayleys National 7s in Rotorua, January, 2016.