Wellington Teams Named For Bayleys National Sevens

Wellington Sevens coaches Scott Waldrom and Charles Aliva have today named their teams they hope will win them the Bayleys National Sevens tournament this weekend in Rotorua.

Both squads are reasonably experienced, with international players such as Lote Raikabula, Max Pearson, and Kat Whata-Simpkins all being named.

Men’s Sevens coach Scott Waldrom noted the competiveness of the event; “Leading into the tournament Taranaki and Auckland are the two teams to beat, however this year’s tournament will be one of the most competitive for a number of years”.

Waldrom believed “Wellington had the toughest pool in the tournament. And that all four teams have the potential to make the top eight. There would certainly be some enthralling closely fought matches early on”.

After winning the Plate competition in 2015 Women’s Sevens coach Charles Aliva will be looking to do one better and take out the Cup competition. Aliva’s squad is high on confidence having reached the final at last weekend’s Mount Sevens tournament, where they narrowly lost the final 12-19 to Manawatu.

As well as featuring Whata-Simpkins, Aliva has strike weapons in Amanda Rasch and Georgia Daals who have been impressing recently.

Wellington Rugby High Performance Manager Earl Va’a “wished the teams well for the weekend”, and noted “that this tournament was the culmination of all the hard work put in by the players and management over the past five months”.

The teams for this weekend are:

Wellington Schedule:

* denotes live matches on Sky Sport 3