Sevens to kick off first of three big sporting events

AROUND THE CORNER: The 2015 Bayleys National Sevens tournament is less than a month away from getting started in Rotorua.PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

THE Bayleys National Sevens will kick off in Rotorua in less than a month - marking the first of three big sporting events in the city.

The national sevens will be staged on January 17-18 followed by the Tarawera Ultra Marathon on February 7 and the Warriors versus Panthers pre-season rugby league match on February 14.

That's plenty to look forward to in the new year.

While personally I can't wait to see Ben Matulino and the Warriors running around at Rotorua International Stadium, the national sevens event will be just as big for Rotorua.

The sevens tournament is being held in the city for the second year running, after the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union won a bid to host the event at the Rotorua International Stadium for at least two years.

All going well, the New Zealand Rugby Union will keep the tournament in Rotorua following the 2015 event.

Earlier this month, provinces from across the country took part in qualifying tournaments to get into the nationals in January.

All 16 provincial men's teams and 10 provincial women's teams have now been found.

The Bay of Plenty men's team and women's team will both be competing, giving the home crowd plenty of incentive to get along to the stadium.

The Bay men's and women's teams' next build-up tournament will be the Bay Engineers Provincial Sevens event at Mount Maunganui on January 10.

The Bay Engineers event is the unofficial warm-up tournament for provinces competing at the nationals.

While preparations have been going well for the Bay teams, the Bay men's team have suffered a knock-back losing one of their star players to injury - Bay of Plenty Steamer Joe Tupe.

Good weather will go a long way towards bringing crowds out to the stadium for the weekend of the nationals, which will hopefully see plenty watching the tournament.

Whatever event you are looking forward to in the new year, make sure you get down and support it. Bring on 2015.