Ardmore Marist Rugby & Sports Club took out the Middlesex Cup Rugby Sevens Tournament held at Norths Rugby Club in Porirua this weekend.  The Middlesex Cup is the New Zealand National Club Sevens Championship and is held over two days.

Ardmore Marists win was the first by a Counties Manukau team since Ardmore Rugby Club won the title in 1954.

The country’s leading club sevens teams descended on Porirua Park over the weekend to contest the annual National Club 7s tournament. 

Qualification for the tournament is achieved by winning Provincial Union 7's championships from across the country.   

Some of the country’s well-known sevens players took the field and there were impressive displays of talent, speed and skill throughout the competition.

Beaten by Te Puna in the pool round on day one, Ardmore Marist regrouped and came out fighting in the quarter finals on the second day, beating Alhambra Union from Dunedin 29 - 0.

In a tense semi final, defending national champions and hosts Northern United, were beaten 19-7 by a rampant Ardmore Marist team.

Ardmore Marist have been regular contenders at this tournament, but never progressed to a final.

The final against Bay of Plenty champions Te Puna promised to be a tough match, but the Ardy team coached by Doug Sanft were ferocious on defense and made the most of their opportunities to take a great win 26-7.

The team was coached by Doug Sanft and assisted this season by Carwyn Chase and Suliasi Taufalele.  Team manager Kelvin Bangs and physiotherapist Sarah Fanuatanu aptly supported our team and we are also grateful to our team sponsors for their ongoing support.

Club Life Member, co-Patron and long time club sponsor Matthew Newman travelled to Wellington for the tournament and said watching our team on the field and being part the inclusive team culture, was one of his all time favorite rugby memories.

Our men will defend the title at home in February 2021.

ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT

The Middlesex Cup sevens tournament was hosted by the Middlesex RFC at Twickenham each year from 1925. In 1949 the Middlesex Union offered cups in its name to the “Dominions of Colonies” and Middlesex Wavell Wakefield Cups were accepted by New Zealand, Australia and Rhodesia.

Brought to New Zealand by the manager of the British Lions, L.B. (Ginger) Osborne, in 1950, the tournament was started in Dunedin in 1951 and first won by local club Zingari-Richmond. It fell away in the 1990s and wasn’t contested for a decade up to its revival in 2006.

In 69 years of competition, it has been held by 29 individual winners – 12 from the North Island and 17 from the South Island. It had been held by South Island clubs continuously for more than three decades before Auckland’s Pakuranga won in 2013 to become the first North Island team to prevail since Hamilton Old Boys in 1976.

THE PREVIOUS 10 WINNERS HAVE BEEN (NOT PLAYED FOR IN 2012)

2010 Otago University (Dunedin)

2011 Burnham (Canterbury)

2013 Pakuranga (Auckland)

2014 Rangataua (Bay of Plenty)

2015: Wainuiomata (Wellington)

2016: Melville (Waikato)

2017: Eden (Auckland)

2018: Eden (Auckland)

2019: Northern United (Wellington)

2020: Ardmore Marist (Counties Manukau)

Article added: Saturday 8 February 2020