Black Ferns Sevens celebrate after being presented with the trophy following their win at the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Photo / Getty Images
Black Ferns Sevens celebrate after being presented with the trophy following their win at the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Photo / Getty Images
There is no doubt New Zealand's sevens teams are worth celebrating.
Just this year, and only months apart, both the Black Ferns and All Blacks Sevens squads have scored major triumphs - coming home from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April as gold medallists and then makinghistory as back-to-back Sevens World Cup champions in San Francisco in July.
The women also returned home as stars of the sevens world once again last week after taking out the first round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Glendale, Colorado.
And this week those successes are being celebrated with the Bay of Plenty community, which the players, who are all based in the Bay of Plenty fulltime, are now a part of.
The All Blacks Men's and Black Ferns Women's Sevens teams will be at Gordon Spratt Reserve in Pāpāmoa between 2-4.30pm, when there will be player signings, prizes, a barbecue and the trophies available for photos.
New Zealand All Black Sevens co-captains, from left, Tim Mikkelson and Scott Curry and pose with the Melrose Cup after arriving back from the Sevens World Cup. Photo / Getty Images
It will coincide with the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Sevens tournament being played at the reserve that day
High performance sevens manager Tony Philp says this has been their first opportunity to be able to get out in the local community and he is looking forward to seeing as many people from around the Bay of Plenty there as possible.
"We saw it as an opportunity to be able to connect with the community," Philp says.
He says having a presence at the school-aged regional tournament will allow the young people to meet players achieving success, which may be a positive experience knowing there is a bright future sport they are playing.
"They could be running on the field in a couple of years time."
Those in the sevens programme know they are role models and Philp says that is something all involved understand and take seriously.
"We want to feel like we are contributing to the community that we now live in."
