A team from the North Island looms as the favourite at the national Sevens in Queenstown this weekend, but national coach Gordon Tietjens is lamenting the number of players who will not be on show.
The Queenstown tournament in its seventh year, and has only ever been won by North Harbour and Auckland.
North Harbour won the first event in 2004, and then it was won by Auckland four years in a row before North Harbour won the event last year.
Teams from the North Island have the advantage of playing qualifying tournaments and warm-up tournaments over the last month and so arrive in Queenstown with more Sevens experience than their South Island counterparts.
Bay of Plenty has won two tournaments in the North Island in the past month, beating Counties-Manukau in the Mount Maunganui tournament last weekend.
Tietjens, who will be attending the tournament, said Bay of Plenty was a very fit team, while Waikato would also be a threat, possessing a big, physical side.
North Harbour decided against attending the Mount Maunganui event, and would go into the competition as something of an unknown.
Counties-Manukau has been the beaten finalist in Queenstown in the past two years and has speedster Sherwin Stowers in its side, but will have to do without New Zealand captain D. J. Forbes, who is recovering from a battering he received in the first two IRB tournaments in Dubai and South Africa.
Tietjens said Forbes was battling a foot injury but should be right for the Wellington Sevens next month.
The national coach said the standard at the national tournament was slowly improving but, for various reasons many players would not be at the tournament.
"Many unions, for whatever reason, do not encourage their players to play sevens and just restrict them or tell them it would not be in their best interests to play Sevens," Tietjens said.
"We need to have more players playing Sevens and that will strengthen the tournament. There are guys out there who can really use the Sevens as a launching pad for their careers."
Tietjens pointed to 45 under-20 players throughout New Zealand who are in training for next year's junior world championships who are not available for Sevens.
"That came down from 90. Those who were cut were probably too late to get involved in their provinces's campaign."
Tietjens was disappointed Canterbury had pulled out, saying it just limited the chances of players from that region to attain higher honours.
Canterbury had cited financial pressure for the withdrawal.
Tietjens said players got to use their natural skills and played what was in front of them a lot more in Sevens than in 15s, which was becoming more structured.
He said sides with the best fitness right across the board, usually came out on top.
"You see sides who have four or five guys who are fit and carry the team for a while but the longer it goes, they become more tired and eventually, the team gets caught out."
The withdrawal of Canterbury has benefited Manawatu, with former national representative Craig de Goldi being picked up by the North Island union.
De Goldi had returned to Christchurch after a spell in Japan but with Canterbury not sending a team, he looked elsewhere.
Otago has a tough draw, with both Auckland and North Harbour in its pool, but has a couple of potential game-breakers in Karne Hesketh and Jeremy Cave.
Otago Country is not fielding a team, as 16 unions entered the competition.
The final tomorrow will start at the earlier time of 5.15pm because of television commitments.
The first game tomorrow will also start earlier, at 10.05am.
National sevens
Pools
Pool A: Auckland, Otago, North Harbour, Buller
Pool B: Bay of Plenty, Horowhenua-Kapiti, Counties-Manukau, South Canterbury
Pool C: Waikato, Taranaki, Southland, Tasman
Pool D: Northland, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Wellington
Otago's schedule
v Auckland at 1.10pm
v Buller at 3.50pm
v North Harbour at 6.50pm
First game kicks off at 11.10am today after an official opening at 10.30am. Games are seven minutes each way. The final is at 5.15pm tomorrow.
