The tenth iteration of Queanbeyan’s Rugby Sevens tournament took place last weekend, and despite fewer teams than usual, the crowd turned out strongly.
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Event organiser and Queanbeyan Whites club administrator Phil Hawke said that he was pleased with the tournament, and appreciated the strong local support.
“It went well, and we had a really good crowd this year,” he said.
“We sold out of food! So that was good … there was a good atmosphere.”
There were a number of Fijian teams present at the event this year, which Hawke said added another level of depth to the tournament and offered a different perspective on the culture of rugby.
“The Fijians bring something special,” he said.
“The Sydney Nadi won the men’s final … but the beauty of it all is that at the end of the day, all the Fijians get together and sing songs and have a prayer.
“It’s quite moving really, in the way they celebrate the day … it is quite enjoyable. All the other teams watch and stay and join in.”
For a number of reasons, the contingent of female teams was not as strong as it normally was this year, however Hawke said that what they lacked in quantity, they more than made up for in quality.
“They dropped down to five in the end. We started with ten and we ended up with five,” he said.
“The Viqueens won quite easily, but they win everything just about.
“They’re very good.”
Despite a number of last-minute scares, the tournament went “very well” in Hawke’s opinion.
“The sun was shining most of the day,” Hawke said.
“Then we had an issue that we were struggling to get referees. We only had two referees at one stage, then we ended up with four badged referees, and then we had four volunteers.
“They did a good job as well. We didn’t have any complaints all day, there were no incidents.”
Throughout its ten years, the competition has not changed very much, however Hawke did note that the growing popularity of Sevens tournaments in the region has seen their numbers drop slightly.
“When we started, there were fewer competitions,” Hawke said.
“We used to get a lot of teams out of Sydney and a lot of teams from all over the place, but what’s happened is that everyone’s running Sevens.
“There’s Byron Bay Sevens, there’s a Sevens at Bowral, there’s just so many competitions and for the Sydney teams it’s just easier to get to the local things.”
The winners from the day were the Viqueens in the women’s, the Uni Norths Owls in the Bowl, the Queanbeyan Whites in the Plate, and Sydney Nadi in the Cup.
