Te Puna's Hunter Mokomoko makes a break during the Greerton Marist Sevens tournament last year. Photo / File
With Baywide senior club rugby set to kick off on April 11, coaches will be looking for any opportunity to get their players on the field. Luckily for them, those opportunities are just around the corner.
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With temperatures soaring and paddocks rock hard, it seems too early to be thinking about rugby - but the Baywide senior season is only two months away and teams all over the region are in full preparation mode.
Coaches can only learn so much from pre-season training but on February 29 and March 14 they will have the opportunity to see their players in game situations at the Te Puna and Arataki 10s tournaments respectively.
It will be the 22nd edition of the Te Puna 10s which organiser Aidan Kuka said was "always a good preseason hit-out". It certainly worked for the home side last year as they won the 10s before going on to be crowned Baywide Premier champions in the 15-a-side competition.
"It's a nice way to lead into the 15s season, the grounds are still relatively dry so having a bit more space to run around in is pretty ideal. With it being the 22nd year it's just something now that's part of our yearly calendar.
"Everyone who turns up, it's pretty much the first hit-out so the lungs certainly get tested. It's still a month away so we've still got some spots available but we're hoping for 16 men's and eight women's teams. Last year was the first time we had a women's tournament, it was a brand new format and it was very successful."
One team which has entered both tournaments for the first time is Ngongotahā's brand new women's team. The team is made up of players from around Rotorua, many of whom played in the 2017 Baywide Premier-winning Waikite side.
One of those women is Eliza Stephens who was going to hang up her boots at the end of 2019, during which she played for Waimana, but presented the opportunity to play alongside her daughter Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly at Ngongotahā she could not resist.
"It's pretty awesome, I didn't expect it to pan out like this but it's worked out well. We tried to make a team at Ngongotahā last year but it fell through and that's when we all split to different clubs.
"The majority of us have played for Ngongotahā in our time and there are a few who live there."
She said the biggest benefit of the pre-season tournaments was the opportunity to bond as a team.
"It's about getting together, getting the girls together - especially the ones who haven't played before. It gives them a taste of contact and it's really just a team bonding kind of get-together.
"We actually put a Ngongotahā team in for the Bay of Plenty Sevens in November and we had about 21 girls turn up. We've got a good mix of Ngongotahā netball girls, those girls who have supported their partners playing for the club throughout the years and girls who haven't played for some time coming back as well."
Bay of Plenty Pre-season Tournaments
Te Puna 10s: Saturday, February 29. Men's and women's grades.
Arataki 10s: Saturday, March 14. Men's and women's grades.