Sevens: Selectors pick youthful side

Awanui's Jone Macilai (left) was named player of the tournament at the final round of the Northland Club Sevens Series.

The Northland sevens selectors have homed in on a group of players fit to contest the Bayleys National Sevens Tournament in Rotorua in January.

Northland sevens coach Peter Nock said he had picked 20 names from this year's three Northland Club Sevens Series events to form the Northland team.

Noting a downfall in Northland Club Sevens Series entries this year, Nock added this had little impact on the quality he had to choose from.

"We still got a good squad together. [But it's] going to be a young team."

The Northland side will travel to the Auckland 7s this weekend, an event which several other leading provincial teams use as a lead-in to the regional qualifying tournaments.

The regional qualifying tournament will be in Cambridge on December 12-13.

The team is set to be formally named this week.

Meanwhile, Hikurangi secured the overall Northland Club Sevens Series title, despite finishing third in the final round at Kerikeri on Saturday.

Hikurangi emerged the overall series winner after accumulating the most points during this year's tournament.

Kerikeri secured the same number of points but had to settle for second place overall via a countback system based on points for and against.

Awanui finished third overall, a respectable result considering the side had been unable to make the first leg of the series in Dargaville.

Winning the final round, Awanui toppled hosts Kerikeri 29-12 to finish third overall.

Other results saw United Kawakawa claim the second placegetters' cup over the Kerikeri over-30s and Eastern, while Mid Northern claimed the plate over WBHS and Kamo.

Nine teams attended the third and final leg of the Northland Cub Rugby Sevens tournament at Kerikeri on Saturday, where they were split into three pools with each side playing two games.

Nock noted the turnout was significantly down on last year's competition, which saw 15 to 16 teams take part.

"Possibly [performance] of our ITM Cup team, I don't know..."