One New Zealand Warriors teams both won consolation finals while Monica Simata made the girls’ tournament team at rugby union’s under-18 World School Sevens at the Pakuranga Rugby Club at the weekend.
Stepping out of their familiar rugby league background, the girls and boys adapted well winning at least 50 per cent of their two games over the two days.
In a special highlight Monica Simata was named in the girls’ tournament team.
Competing in the World School Sevens for the first time, the One New Zealand Warriors girls started with losses to British Columbia Canada (5-17) and New Zealand (7-31) but rebounded by beating the Samoan Barbarians 36-0 first up on Sunday.
That put them into the shield competition where they accounted for the Nambour Toads 22-17 and then toppled Samoa 19-7 in the final.
The One New Zealand Warriors opened with a narrow 12-14 loss to the Asian Dragons, beat the Australian Cavaliers 33-7 and finished day one with another close loss to Samoa (14-22).
Day two began with a 12-24 defeat by A J Ba Fiji in the bowl quarter-finals but they then headed off the Samoan Barbarians 27-19 in the bowl consolation semi-finals and ran away to a convincing 31-12 victory over Rangataua in the bowl final.
