Media Release
3 November 2018

The CMK Taranaki men’s and Port Taranaki women’s sevens teams have made it through the qualification process and will compete at the national tournament in Tauranga.

The CMK men finished fourth overall in the central regional qualifying tournament and the Port Taranaki women qualified automatically but were playing for seeding positions in the Levin tournament over the weekend.

CMK Taranaki topped their pool after beating Wairarapa Bush 31-7, Horowhenua/Kapiti 24-14 and Manawatu 14-7. However, several injuries were a defining factor in their 33-19 loss to Hawkes Bay. A hard end to the day resulted in a subsequent lose against Manawatu 24-19 in the 3v4 play-off match.

Inglewood’s Rhodes Featherston was a standout player for CMK Taranaki, with former New Zealand and England sevens representative Warwick Lahmert and co-captains Jayson Potroz and Liam Blyde were other noted performers.

Promising midfielder Daniel Rona showed glimpses of a bright future in his first outing for Taranaki.

The Port Taranaki women lost their four matches during the day to Hawkes Bay twice 15-5 and 22-7, Wellington 41-0 and Manawatu, who went onto win the women’s section, 48-0.

Jessie Aitken-Fowell and Iritana Hohaia were exceptional for the women’s side, standing out at key moments.

The side will welcome back a raft of players who were unavailable due to competing at the Condor sevens tournament in Auckland over the weekend.

There is potential for Black Ferns sevens representative Gayle Broughton to represent Taranaki at the nationals, but her availability won’t be confirmed until closer to the time.

At the national tournament, the CMK men have been grouped in Pool D with Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty and Canterbury, while the Port Taranaki women will make up Pool 1 with Auckland, Canterbury and Otago.

The Tauranga Domain will host the national tournament on December 15-16, a month earlier than last year, with matches on field one televised on SKY Sport.

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact;

David Ormrod
CMK Taranaki Sevens Manager
020 4024 3754
David.ormrod@trfu.co.nz

Braydon Peterson
Port Taranaki Women’s Coach
027 323 8391
braydon@trfu.co.nz

Article added: Monday 03 December 2018