General Warriors World Schools 7's

[AusWarriorsFan]

Warriors switch codes to play World Schools Sevens​

]Richard Becht & photosport.nz
Thu 20 Jan 2022, 12:02 PM

​

Rugby league will mix with rugby union when the Vodafone Warriors field a squad of players from their Sky Sport Future Warriors development programme in this weekend’s under-18 World Schools Sevens tournament at Bell Park in Pakuranga.

Coming into the event as late replacements they’ve had sparse preparation but have benefited from a crash course in the nuances of rugby union’s abbreviated game courtesy of All Blacks Sevens legend D J Forbes, who’s on the team’s coaching staff this weekend.

The opportunity to be involved in the tournament came about through the intervention of rugby league great Kevin Iro.

The former Vodafone Warriors centre heard a team had withdrawn from the tournament so he called his brother and Sky Sport Future Warriors coach Tony to suggest the club might like to fill the vacancy.

With so few chances available to play football at the moment, the Warriors leapt at the chance despite the challenges of swapping codes for the weekend.

Playing as the New Zealand Warriors, they won’t be bereft of rugby union nous.

As well as having Forbes’ expertise on the coaching staff they also have some players fresh from playing First XV rugby union for their schools. Among that group is King’s College flanker Sebastian Su’a, son of former New Zealand Test cricketer Murphy Su’a.

The New Zealand Warriors are in Pool A. They play three pool games on Saturday against the Asian Dragons (10.10am), New Zealand Condors (11.30am) and Samoan Barbarians (2.50pm) followed by Cook Islands on Sunday (11.10am). The teams in Pool B are the New Zealand Barbarians, Tongan Barbarians, New Zealand Niue, New Zealand Fijians and New Zealand Cavaliers.

NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS​

1 Timothy Tiatia (James Cook High School First XIII) 17
2 Raphael Sio (Kelston Boys’ High School First XIII, Point Chevalier Pirates) 16
3 Jarome Falemoe (Southern Cross Campus First XIII) 17
4 Allan Talataina (Mangere College First XV rugby union, Point Chevalier Pirates) 16
5 Sio Kali (St Paul’s College First XIII) 16

6 Short listed: Boston Josephs (Orewa High School, Hibiscus Coast Raiders) 18, Hirini Holmes (Pukekohe High School, Manurewa Marlins) 16
7 William Piliu (St Paul’s College First XIII) 17
8 Sebastian Su’a (Kings College First XV rugby union) 18
9 Jacob-David Auloa (St Paul’s College First XIII) 16
10 Elijah Leaumoana (Southern Cross Campus First XIII) 17
11 Leka Halasima (Southern Cross Campus First XIII, Point Chevalier Pirates) 16
12 Presley Seumanu (St Peter’s College 1st XV rugby union) 17
13 Lyrakai-Layke Posimani (Takapuna Grammar School, Ellerslie Eagles) 16
14 Te Waaka Popata-Henare (Mount Albert Grammar School 1st XV rugby union) 16

Coaches | DJ Forbes, Grant Pocklington, Tony Iro
Manager | Athens Henare
Trainer | Sam Ragg
Physio | Quentin Hokianga

Warriors switch codes to play World Schools Sevens

Vodafone Warriors' promising young talent to play at World Schools Sevens rugby union tournament.

www.warriors.kiwi

Was not sure where to put this as its union but Warriors are repping.

Just got their first win over the Cook Islands, in the last seconds, apologies if I got the spelling wrong but the #1 Tia Tia has a mean step and gets over in the dying seconds.

Warriors put themselves under stress with silly yellow cards resulting in a try against (wouldnt be raw Warriors talent without some ill discipline haha)

Enjoyed all the lads defense. The other team was resetting in text book rugby 7s fashion but Warriors line just kept its ground, at one point pushing them back to their own try line.

Good game from both sides.

 

[Noitall]

World School Seven's Rugby – NZ's Only U18 International Sevens Rugby Tournament

www.worldschoolsevens.rugby

Was not sure where to put this as its union but Warriors are repping.

Just got their first win over the Cook Islands, in the last seconds, apologies if I got the spelling wrong but the #1 Tia Tia has a mean step and gets over in the dying seconds.

Warriors put themselves under stress with silly yellow cards resulting in a try against (wouldnt be raw Warriors talent without some ill discipline haha)

Enjoyed all the lads defense. The other team was resetting in text book rugby 7s fashion but Warriors line just kept its ground, at one point pushing them back to their own try line.

Good game from both sides.

Didn’t see It but really like the look of Timothy Tiatia. Saw your post and switched it on, couple of great female games.

 

[AusWarriorsFan]

Didn’t see It but really like the look of Timothy Tiatia. Saw your post and switched it on, couple of great female games.

Yeah he looks the goods at this early stage was thinking looks like a potential FB with the defense and the footwork. The #8 I forget his name, but he had some solid defense and some good competitiveness. Considering its 7s they all did really well, definitely had some league flavour to the play haha.

Pakuranga looking like my back yard, needs a drink haha. Only difference my backyard has 4" cracks. Mrs did a bit of her sciencey work and wow the last 3 years have been the driest in 1000years.

I think its good for the young Warriors school boys as it teaches fast support play and having to commit players to a ruck etc. They won 2 lineouts, one sneaky waste high pass, new skills are good skills.

Yeah the girls look just as serious as the top boys teams. Good to see soo many nations and groups represented. Sort of event one would like to attend had they made better plans. Maybe next year.

 

[Noitall]

Fucken awesome bro. Sebastian Su’a

 

[Noitall]

Yeah he looks the goods at this early stage was thinking looks like a potential FB with the defense and the footwork. The #8 I forget his name, but he had some solid defense and some good competitiveness. Considering its 7s they all did really well, definitely had some league flavour to the play haha.

Pakuranga looking like my back yard, needs a drink haha. Only difference my backyard has 4" cracks. Mrs did a bit of her sciencey work and wow the last 3 years have been the driest in 1000years.

I think its good for the young Warriors school boys as it teaches fast support play and having to commit players to a ruck etc. They won 2 lineouts, one sneaky waste high pass, new skills are good skills.

Yeah the girls look just as serious as the top boys teams. Good to see soo many nations and groups represented. Sort of event one would like to attend had they made better plans. Maybe next year.

Some talent alright, understandable not grasping the tackle rules with another code though plenty probably play 1st XV also. Good to know we’re represented there to know we’re keeping an eye on all the talent there hearing the commentators saying there are plenty of nrl talent scouts there.

 

[AusWarriorsFan]

Good to know we’re represented there to know we’re keeping an eye on all the talent there hearing the commentators saying there are plenty of nrl talent scouts there.

And one would be assuming they were looking at all.

I remember Jamie Soward saying (rubbed me wrong way at first) how NZ need no xscuses given the amount of talent available in NZ, including union etc. He is right. Half the problem seems to have been holding onto talent, or more so developing talent. Look at our young forward moving to Parra last year and an insta X factor player. So is there possibly or was possibly a gap in how we manage X factor and develop it through to full maturity. I dont think its easy to retain all x factors though, look at what happened to Broncos last year, we picked up an X factor player in Reece that they seemed to consider the back end of their 30 if at all, but suddenly once we wanted him they were deeply hurt by being poached.

I personally dont think Warriors have ever been a lack of talent, I think its simply the X factor as a collective unit that Aus teams are use to in all grades, the pressure to be an X factor team like the Panthers last year. They played the whole year as a team with self belief that they could win no matter who was injured (although if they had lost Nat Cleary I doubt that).

Anyway, it cant hurt to have high quality talent flooding the team even if we cant keep them all so this is where it starts and these are the kinds of tournaments X factor talent stands out in at u18/19 level.

 

[Ryaan]

Leka Halasima impressed me alot yesterday haven’t seen todays games though

 

[Cces]

Raphael Sio has some express pace!

 

[wizards rage]

hearing the commentators saying there are plenty of nrl talent scouts there.

Are they really there? Is it Aussie?

Surely this has been a few years where the Warriors have had the advantage of access to home talent with the Aussies scouts stuck overseas?

Even Gould couldn’t do anything with the juniors being Aussie based.

 

[Tony Martin]

Are they really there? Is it Aussie?

Surely this has been a few years where the Warriors have had the advantage of access to home talent with the Aussies scouts stuck overseas?

Even Gould couldn’t do anything with the juniors being Aussie based.

Most clubs have kiwi based scouts. Roosters have been pretty active over here of late. They had training camps here last year led by none other than Brent Webb and Daniel Anderson

 

[Tony Martin]

Leka Halasima impressed me alot yesterday haven’t seen todays games though

Yeh he was very impressive. Sebastian Sua(Murphy Suas son) was also impressive. At a guess warriors would of had one of the youngest squads. The Condor team had some guns

 

[Cces]

Sio Kali got picked in the 7 person tournament team along with Francis Manuleleua

 

[Viking]

Sio Kali got picked in the 7 person tournament team along with Francis Manuleleu

Only watched yesterdays games but Francis was underwhelming IMO. He just looked bigger than all the opposition. Great long pass but looks to be too heavy for a half in either code. 2nd 5 maybe? Didn't look particularly fast either. Can't read too much into it I guess, the kids will have been coming off their holidays and probably got a couple of weeks training in judging by how late the teams were named. I'd say the Warriors boys were a year younger than the Condors team on average if not two years. Most of those Condors boys have finished school.

Raph Sio is super fast, he came third in 100 at Akld schools last year and was only beaten by proper athletics sprinters. I reckon he can go under 11 seconds this year with good track coaching. He's had 3 years of Condors for Kelston but the Warriors didn't seem to know how to use him. He's got another two years of school to go I think.

 

[Cces]

Only watched yesterdays games but Francis was underwhelming IMO. He just looked bigger than all the opposition. Great long pass but looks to be too heavy for a half in either code. 2nd 5 maybe? Didn't look particularly fast either. Can't read too much into it I guess

After seeing him play for the first time on Saturday (might have been against the Asian side) I almost posted on here about how impressive he looked & we'd be lucky to keep him at the Warriors, let alone League. Apart from that superb long pass you referred to, I didn't see anything that excited me too much on day 2 & was surprised he made the tournament team. He might've been the standout early on day 1 for all I know though

 

[Viking]

World School 7s - Boys Tournament team
Cody Vai - NZ Condors
Che Clark - NZ Condors
Cooper Flanders - NZ Condors
Sio Kali - NZ Warriors
Taha Kemara - NZ Condors
Francis Manuleleua - NZ Condors
Joshua Penney -NZ Cavaliers

RSM New Zealand Tournament MVP - Boys
Cooper Flanders - NZ Condors

Probably about right. You could make a case for the Tongan boy who was scoring on everyone too. Francis might be there on reputation going by his day 2 efforts. I didn't think Che Clark was amazing either, he let in a couple of easy trys in the final but I think they said he was carrying an injury? I thought Penney was exceptional in a weak team, the Condors boys looked good but they were surrounded by better players than Penney was and were bigger and older than the other teams. Flanders deserved MVP followed by Kemara IMO.

 

[Viking]

After seeing him play for the first time on Saturday (might have been against the Asian side) I almost posted on here about how impressive he looked & we'd be lucky to keep him at the Warriors, let alone League. Apart from that superb long pass you referred to, I didn't see anything that excited me too much on day 2 & was surprised he made the tournament team. He might've been the standout early on day 1 for all I know though

You can't read too much into anyone's form given the time it's been held and who was available to play but I'd like to see him play against men before throwing serious money at him. TBH every player should be able to throw those good long passes at that level and in both directions too, especially in 7s. In his defense, he's got another year of school rugby ahead of him. I think Kings play him in the midfield so he might make a good league center, he's definitely got talent.

 

[Naumaifooty]

Cody vai looks the goods.

 

[Tony Martin]

Sio Kali got picked in the 7 person tournament team along with Francis Manuleleua

Edit: under 19 tournament.
Sio Kali is only 16. Not bad for the young fella

 

[john nick]

World School Seven's Rugby – NZ's Only U18 International Sevens Rugby Tournament

www.worldschoolsevens.rugby

Was not sure where to put this as its union but Warriors are repping.

Just got their first win over the Cook Islands, in the last seconds, apologies if I got the spelling wrong but the #1 Tia Tia has a mean step and gets over in the dying seconds.

Warriors put themselves under stress with silly yellow cards resulting in a try against (wouldnt be raw Warriors talent without some ill discipline haha)

Enjoyed all the lads defense. The other team was resetting in text book rugby 7s fashion but Warriors line just kept its ground, at one point pushing them back to their own try line.

Good game from both sides.

Read somewhere that D.J.Forbes helped out with the coaching

 

[playdaball]

World School 7s - Boys Tournament team
Cody Vai - NZ Condors
Che Clark - NZ Condors
Cooper Flanders - NZ Condors
Sio Kali - NZ Warriors
Taha Kemara - NZ Condors
Francis Manuleleua - NZ Condors
Joshua Penney -NZ Cavaliers

RSM New Zealand Tournament MVP - Boys
Cooper Flanders - NZ Condors

Probably about right. You could make a case for the Tongan boy who was scoring on everyone too. Francis might be there on reputation going by his day 2 efforts. I didn't think Che Clark was amazing either, he let in a couple of easy trys in the final but I think they said he was carrying an injury? I thought Penney was exceptional in a weak team, the Condors boys looked good but they were surrounded by better players than Penney was and were bigger and older than the other teams. Flanders deserved MVP followed by Kemara IMO.

Che Clark named in the NZ 7s team . It’ll be interesting to see how his career Develops as up before the courts soon … rumoured.