Tasman pull off Bowl win in National 7's, ranking rises to #9

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/6230660/Tasman-pull-off-bowl-win
The Tasman rugby sevens team has recorded the biggest result in its history, winning the bowl competition and placing ninth at the national championships, held in Queenstown at the weekend.

After emerging from arguably the toughest pool on Saturday, they brushed past Northland and Southland in the quarters and semis, before coming up against the always competitive Hawke's Bay in the final.

They ran in five tries in the decider, emerging 31-22 victors and improving on their 13th placing in 2011.

Manager Mike Kerrisk said the goal was to dominate Hawke's Bay physically and use their height and power to good effect, a game plan they managed to put into effect.

"We're incredibly proud of the boys.

"At the end of day, especially after the very first game against Bay of Plenty, the guys actually knew what they were capable of doing.

"We've come away really happy with our team, very proud of the boys, and we can only capitalise on this, we can only grow, as where sevens is headed, I think it is a really exciting time for Tasman rugby."

Tasman opened the tournament strongly, but were unable to hold on to a 14-0 lead in their first pool match against Bay of Plenty, drawing 14-all.

They then went down narrowly to North Harbour, always one of the strongest teams in the field, 24-21.

They led 21-17 right on fulltime, but captain Shane Christie, one of the tournament standouts, was contentiously penalised in a tackle, allowing Harbour to move the ball quickly and get the winning try.

Canterbury were their final pool match, with both teams starting sluggishly before the red and blacks pulled away to win 31-5.

Kerrisk said the players were somewhat dejected about not getting the results their efforts deserved on day one. "We as management were in very good heart, we just saw a lot of good things.

"We had some good people around the grounds saying `You guys are probably the unluckiest team not to be going into day two in the championship', which made us feel very good.

"So we took that back to the guys who were feeling a little down on themselves, they probably felt that they were justified to be a little further in the competition than we were.

"We said it was history, and if you feel that you deserve to be further in the competition than what we are, go into today [Sunday] to prove that."

The talk worked, with Northland being beaten 31-17, with the Turf-Hotel sponsored Tasman side capitalising on opposition mistakes and turning over plenty of ball.

Their best performance was against a strong Southland side, Tasman making no mistakes and dominating the defensive line, winning 34-14.

Kerrisk said Christie, Liam Squire and Kieron Fonotia were outstanding throughout the tournament, while James Lowe came into his own in the final matches.

"With his size and power, and his ability to read the game, he got better and better all weekend."

Mitchell Scott offered plenty in the pace department as well.