Sevens: Wells' boys foot it with stars

STEADY HAND: While coming in at short notice, veteran Ace Malo shone for Whanganui at the Bay of Plenty regional sevens tournament at the weekend.PHOTO FILE

THE Whanganui sevens team competed strongly against the big boys in coming eighth place with a plate semifinal appearance at the Bay of Plenty sevens tournament in Mount Manganui on Saturday.

A new-look team with three changes from the side who qualified for the nationals at the Levin regional tournament in December, Whanganui hung in there with Mitre 10 Cup union sides Waikato and Bay of Plenty, while hammering the only other Heartland team, Poverty Bay, in pool play. That put them into the second-tier finals against a full strength Auckland team, fresh off winning the Northern regional qualifier, and Whanganui could sniff an upset until the final minute, when they lost a player to the sin bin and gave away two tries.

Coach Tom Wells will wait until tomorrow night's training to pick his final squad of 12 from the 14 players to go on to the Bayleys National Sevens in Rotorua this weekend.

He is leaving the selection late to confirm the status of captain Dane Whale, who was the goalkicker and one of the team's leading tryscorers in Mount Manganui, but needs x-rays after suffering a chipped collarbone.

"He's confident [he'll play]," Wells said. "He wants it more than anyone, so we'll give him as much time as we can."

On Saturday, Whanganui matched up in pool play with current national champions Waikato, hosts Bay of Plenty, and Poverty Bay, who were substituting after the withdrawal of Hawke's Bay. They lost the first game to Waikato 21-7.

"Waikato, it was a level up from the regionals," Wells said. "The contact and the in-your-face, it was a step up."

The side then lost to Bay of Plenty 24-10, Wells saying this was their worst performance against a squad of professionals who could have been tipped up.

"If all the stars had aligned, we would have maybe come up on top."

The side then played error-free sevens to dispose of Poverty Bay 38-5, who three hours beforehand had nearly upset Bay of Plenty before losing 24-21.

"We put them to the sword, that gave the boys some confidence."

In the plate semifinals against Auckland, Whanganui were still in there at 12-10 entering the dying minutes, having greater momentum.

"We were on top and, as sevens is, they got a try against the run of play for 19-10," said Wells.

The team was then reduced to six by a sinbinning and Auckland scored right on fulltime for 26-10.

In finishing eighth, Whanganui technically had a better tournament than the likes of Counties Manukau and North Harbour, who are in their pool in Rotorua.

Wells said the team got to carefully watch those sides play: "There's no fear of these teams, we know we can beat them. On the day, anyone can beat anyone."

Besides Whale, the other playmaker in Tyler Rogers-Holden had a big tournament, both them breaking the line of tiring defences.

Veteran Ace Malo, who joined the team last week, was the consummate professional and Sefo Bourke surprised with a solid hitout in his first outings for Whanganui.